After all the euphoria emanating from their 4-2 victory over Ħamrun last week, a sense of reality was knocked back into the Żebbuġ players on Sunday at the Centenary Stadium.
Taking on the resurgent Mosta, Brian Spiteri’s troops failed to maintain the upward trend as they finished on the wrong end of a 2-0 scoreline.
Mosta, themselves on a high after a 2-1 victory over Balzan, punished Żebbuġ for their inability to put away the chances that came their way.
The match began at a frenetic pace and that led to a scrappy opening phase, with Żebbuġ particularly guilting of squandering possession.
On 21 minutes, Roderick Briffa and Geoffrey Acheampong combined to put Christ Ememe clear of the Rangers’ defence. The talented midfielder ran down the right channel and used his speed to avoid his marker before hitting a shoot underneath the body of Jamie Azzopardi but the ball finished on the side-netting.
Żebbuġ’s closest scoring effort came through Stefan Jankovic who used his footwork to avoid several Mosta players but he was brilliantly foiled by Steve Kingue who blocked the ball into a corner.