Since their return with the big boys, Marco Orlovic’s Sirens have punched above their weight.
While Neptunes were intent on maintaining their three-point at the top of the standings, Sirens’ objective was to wipe out their painful memories of last week’s narrow defeat against San Giljan.
The conclusion was another close shave this time for Neptunes as Sirens won the plaudits but left the National Pool empty-handed again.
The volte-face came in the third session when Sirens temporarily lost their early shape and surrendered the initiative to Neptunes who picked up the pieces with three goals. Their blows came mainly in the third session when principal shooters Steven Camilleri and Jake Muscat woke up for their responsibilities.
Sirens made the perfect start to take a 2-0 lead with goals coming from Matthew Sciberras and Matthias Azzopardi, but Sam Gialanze and Jake Muscat wiped out their advantage.
Play was evenly balanced in the first two sessions with Azzopardi scoring two more times, to put his side ahead on 3-2 and 5-4 before Alec Fenech and Muscat equalised again for the Reds.
One minute into the third session, Thomas Micallef showed great reflexes with a fine one-handed save to keep out Gabriel Pace’s shot. Jacob Sciberras made it 6-5 for Sirens.
However, Jovan Popovic’s side managed to pull the strings in the third session to score three times without reply, finally overturning the scoreline 8-6.
In the final session, Sirens were still full of fight. In fact, after Stevie Camilleri completed his hat-trick, they netted twice through Isiah Riolo to cut the leeway to just one goal. Muscat scored his fifth goal for a 10-8 score, but Jerome Zerafa Gregory netted to set up a nervy finale.
The culmination of excitement was reached when Ken Erdogan came face to face with Alan Borg Cole but lost possession amid strong penalty shouts from Sirens.