Valletta United 6 Exiles 9

Partial scores: (1-1) (1-1) (2-4) (2-3)

Another win for Exiles when tonight the had the better of a gallant Valletta United side which put up a good resistance before being shaken off.

A turning point was a goal awarded to Exiles when Nikic was red-carded four minutes to the final horn with the score standing 8-6 in favour of Exiles. A Valletta player passed back the ball towards the goalkeeper to resume play but when it landed in Timmy Sullivan’s possession, he did not hesitate to slam the ball past the opposing goalkeeper. Despite the protests of the Citizens’ Coach the local referee stood by his decision to convalidate the goal for Exiles to build a three-goal lead.

Marco Cuk opted for a zone defence during the first two sessions which produced four goals, two-a-piece.  His team was slow in taking position in the attack with barely 10 seconds available to ‘feed’ a well-shadowed Nikic in the hole. Exiles changed to press in the third session and though this cost them a few expulsions, it brought the desired result thanks a well drilled defence in numerical disadvantage as Valletta fumbled their man-ups (1 on 7) and sharper finishing.  Nikic roamed around just outside the seven-metre area and managed two crucial scorchers to give his side a three-goal lead which was maintained until the end even if Exiles played the last four minutes without the Serbian. It was however a team effort with six players scoring the nine goals, that won the day. Exiles converted three of their seven man-ups.

Exiles. Coach made use of the following players: Matthew Castillo, Mark Fenech (1 goal), Andrea Bianchi, Michele Stellini (1 goal), Timmy Sullivan (1 goal), Sean Xerri de Caro (1 goal), Slobodan Nikic (2 goals), Kurt Grisct (2 goals), Nicky Paris, Aurelien Cousin (1 goal) and Benji Lanzon.

Next match for Exiles is against Neptunes on Saturday 23rd June 2018 at 18.00 hours.

KaFa

photo by Adrian Farrugia shows Coach Marco Cuk directing the team during a time-out in the first part of tonight’s match against Valletta United

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