Football is a game played on the pitch, but when it comes to competition like that of the BOV Challenge League, it becomes a numbers game – particularly the number of points needed to secure early survival.

For league leaders Zabbar St Patrick, survival was much less than their goal as the team led by Emilio Cornago has shown its ambition to win the title and of course promotion to the Premier League. However, they were assured of an opportunity to keep at this goal last weekend when they beat Msida St Joseph 1-0 at the Centenary Stadium and secured a top-six spot. This feat presented the added bonus of naming them the first side to achieve security this season.

Speaking to the Times of Malta, veteran defender Rodolfo Soares said despite achieving safety, it was no means a time to relax.

“Our focus is not just to be in the top six, we have a goal and we decided to live day by day,” he said, “of course it is great but it does not mean that we can relax – all the teams are getting new players and are investing for the second part so we need to keep working hard to hit our target.”

Read the full story on the Times of Malta sports website...