Birzebbuga beat Victoria Hotspurs after intense clash to end season on a high

2024/25 BOV AMATEUR SUPER CUP FINAL
Birzebbuga St Peter’s 1-0 Victoria Hotspurs aet
On Sunday afternoon, Edgar Degabriele’s Birzebbuga St Peter’s claimed the 4^th edition of the BOV Amateur Super Cup, beating BOV Amateur Cup winners Victoria Hotspurs 1-0 after extra time. It was a hard-earned win for the Izibet Amateur League I winners, who rounded off a successful season with a memorable double.

Although the match itself lacked highlights, the game was played with high intensity as Degabriele, who already won the Amateur Super Cup with Senglea Athletic two years ago, created a meticulous game-plan, which worked out well against a well-organized Victoria Hotspurs outfit, who suffered their first, and therefore only defeat of the season.

The last time Victoria Hotspurs lost an official game was during the GFA 2^nd Division 2023/24, to be precise on 19 December 2023 when Munxar Falcons defeated the Hotspurs 4-1. It needs to be said however that, on the field of play, St George’s managed to beat the Hotspurs during this league campaign last December, but that result had been overturned in favour of the Gozitans due to the ineligibility of a St George’s player.

The Blues, for the occasion in black, paraded the same eleven as in their Championship Decider with Vittoriosa a month ago. When compared to the Amateur Cup Final last week, Hotspurs coach Oliver Spiteri made one change in his starting line-up as right back Daniel Farrugia returned in lieu of Valentim Wellington, who started on the bench but entered the fray in the latter part of the encounter.

The game was a slow-starter with very limited goalmouth action during the first half hour, which also gave both mentors time to adjust their players tactically here and there. The Saints gave the Gozitans more then a match, producing a few off-target attempts while Rondinely and Kurt Borg, who played in his third consecutive Amateur Super Cup Final, kept the Birzebbuga rear-guard busy on the opposite side.

On 33 minutes, Borg was sent into the clear which looked promising but Randall Vella, one of Birzebbuga’s top performers on Sunday, did well to neutralise the danger before the former Mtarfa striker could connect.

The second half continued with ferocity, but remained rather cagy with both sides finding it hard to find their way through the respective defences. Just after the hour, Rondinely came close with an off-target header at the second post from a swirling Dejan Bogdanovic cross, one of the very few goalscoring opportunities of the second period.

But it was all Victoria Hotspurs until the very last minute of regular time, pushing the seasiders back into their own half but without creating any goalscoring opportunities, also much to the credit of the Saints defence.

Birzebbuga started the extra time period with more attacking intent, which gave the Blues faithful some hope for a positive development in a match which still could go either way.

But right after the start of the second half of extra time, Birzebbuga scored the winner thanks to substitute Yusuf Sulaiman, who was send through by Chris Baker, rounding off with an accurate grounder to beat Adrian Parnis in the Hotspurs goal.

Not much later, Victoria substitute Christian Grima was given a straight red card for an unnecessary tough foul on Sulaiman in midfield, giving the Reds an uphill task for the remaining ten minutes.

On 114 minutes, Kurt Borg beat the off-side trap with Randall Vella performing a match-winning tackle to deny the Hotspurs striker, an action which could have easily meant the equaliser. Tempers flared in stoppage time with Apap receiving his second yellow card for protesting towards the assistant referee for not giving a corner, leaving his side to nine players.

Deep into stoppage time, a direct free-kick of nearly 44-year-old former Malta international Roderick Briffa from long-range found the net but the referee in charge whistled for a foul on Birzebbuga goalkeeper Julian Azzopardi, a decision which stirred hot protests by the Hotspurs clan. It took a while before the referee restored calm, whistling for full-time not long after to bring an end to another eventful season of Amateur League football.

After the game there was the usual handing out of the medals, while the BOV Amateur Super Cup was handed over to captain and Saints club icon Christopher Cutajar by MFA Vice-President Matthew Paris and BOV CEO Ernest Agius, celebrating this Cup triumph with the Birzebbuga contingent on the stands.

Previous Amateur Super Cup winners
2022   Zabbar St Patrick
2023   Senglea Athletic
2024   Mtarfa