Mqabba and St George's relegated to fourth tier

IZIBET NATIONAL AMATEUR LEAGUE PLAY OUT
(RELEGATION PLAY-OFFS)

Mqabba 1-2 Vittoriosa Stars
On Tuesday night at the Victor Tedesco Stadium, Vittoriosa Stars managed to retain their Amateur League 1 status with a dramatic last-minute victory against Mqabba with Nigerian striker Joseph Ogunnupe scoring both of their goals. After a goalless first half, Ogunnupe first converted a penalty early in the second half and, after the Mqabba equaliser, notched a stoppage time goal for the Cottonera side, whose dismal season had eventually a silver lining.
Vittoriosa almost drew first blood on the ten minutes mark when a fine pass by Leighton Grech, who played his last career match, found Andrei Spiteri whose powerful shot was paraded by James Abela. It was the only highlight of an otherwise drab first half, with both defences mostly cancelling each other out.
The second half lit up after 50 minutes when Shaban Chick Ali had a great goalscoring opportunity but his shot from point blank range was brilliantly saved by Abela. However, from the ensuing corner, Kurt Vella was adjudged to have handled in the box with the referee pointing to the spot. Ogunnupe made no mistake, cooly sidefooting Abela with the ball nestling into the back of the net, to the delight of the numerous Birgu support. Vittoriosa almost killed off the game a couple of minutes later when Ogunnupe escaped down the right flank, but his shot hit the side netting. But after a quiet period, it was Mqabba who equalized on 69 minutes when substitute Andres Viveros managed to profit from an error by Matthew Gauci and shoot the ball into the net.
The match looked to be going into extra time but Vittoriosa snatched a dramatic priceless winner deep into stoppage time. A run down the left by Aaron Sammut found Ogunnupe who smashed home from close range to the delirium of the Birgu support. While the Stars saved their status, Mqabba make an unwelcome free-fall from second to fourth tier football in the space of two years.

St George’s 0-0 Pembroke Athleta aet
(Pembroke Athleta winners after penalty kicks: 4-5)
Also on Tuesday night but then at the Centenary Stadium, Pembroke preserved their third-tier status by beating St George’s in the penalty shoot-out after a goalless 90 and extra 30 minutes. While Pembroke were amongst the clubs mentioned in the list of teams for relegation before the start of the campaign, the team of coach Jeffrey Mifsud rose to the occasion more than once during the season and grabbed their chance to extent their stay at this level with both hands yesterday night. It was a balanced match and therefore this Play-Out could have gone either way, with St George’s most definitely the unlucky one. Looking back at the season, the Blues had highlights including reaching the Semi-Finals of the Amateur Cup, but lost valuable and unnecessary points against Dingli, Ghaxaq and twice against Marsaskala and therefore should have avoided playing in this Decider in the first place.
St George’s had a slight upper-hand during the opening half hour with Dylan Grima having a shot on target followed by an Adrian Caruana header from a corner-kick which resulted into two routine saves by Pembroke custodian Brylan Tabone. Pembroke shared the exchanges but initially without threatening in the St George’s box, mainly looking for every opportunity to set up dangerman Weverton up front. On 31 minutes, Ryan Sciberras blasted high from an ideal angle, Pembroke’s best opportunity in the first 45 minutes. Not much later, Rudy Cassar-Jeffries just missed target with an angled shot from the edge of the box. With four minutes left until half-time, Irvin Abela brought down Weverton, who otherwise had a free passage in the clear towards goal, with the referee just cautioning the St George’s captain, which brought some heavy protests from the Pembroke bench.  
Play kept on flowing up and down after the change of ends with Pembroke initially seeing more of the ball compared to the first half. It were however the Pioneers who came close on a couple of occasions by creating several clear-cut chances. On 64 minutes, Grima came inches close to round off a precise Cassar-Jeffries cross at the second post, while two minutes later, the unmarked Ivan Bojovic failed to connect from a free-kick action in the six-yard box. On 75 minutes, Tabone made a couple of great saves to deny Cassar-Jeffries and a Grima rebound.
Pembroke insisted in the first half of extra time, winning a number of corners who nearly all were cleared by the St George’s rearguard. On 107 minutes, Blues custodian Damian Borg performed a great save on a Sciberras Balbi header from another corner action, with Mouied Algazali blasting the rebound wide, Pembroke’s best opportunity in extra time. Despite Jeffrey Mifsud’s attacking minded substitutions, the score did not change and therefore the penalty lottery needed to decide the game. It was eventually Pembroke who took the penalties better, scoring all five, with Dylan Grima missing the last and decisive penalty for St George’s. It was party time for the Pembroke faithful but heartache for the Cottonera side, who return to the fourth tier of the Maltese football league for the first time since 21 years.   

Images copyright Walter Sargent