Sirens 11 Exiles 15

(3-3) (2-5) (3-3) (3-4)

Exiles finally broke the duck to win their first points in a match played last Friday the 30th August,  against a decimated Sirens. Our lads did deserve to win the three points as they were consistent in their play and when early in the third session they were deprived of their top scorer Sasha Radovic – fouled out – with the partial score at 9-6 in our favour, the hopes of the very few fans on the stands did flicker and doubts loomed as to how the match would end up. This setback initially had a negative impact on the team as Sirens closed the gap to two goals before it widened once again to three by the end of the third quarter. In the last ninety seconds of this session  Exiles  missed two man-ups which could have wrapped up the match but sloppy passing  kept the Northeners in the game. Exiles just could not shake off theirs opponents and it was the team’s composure and sparks of grittiness in the second part of the match that earned the bagging of  the points at the end.

The match was characterized by a high number of expulsions with Sirens suffering 14 exclusions and one penalty against while Exiles played man-down on 10 occasions and had three penalties awarded against. Our rear-guard managed to defend successfully seven attempts. In man-up situations the team found the back of the Sirens’  net eight times, missing the other six chances.

For the final match of the season, Coach Aurelien Cousin (Photo) made use of these players Ian Bugeja, Julian Rizzo Naudi (1 goal), Simon Vassallo (1 goal), David Pace Lupi, Nicky Portelli, Sasha Radovic (3 goals), James Spiteri Staines (2 goals) Voja Cupic (5 goals), Peter Borg (3 goals), Diego Borg, Kayne Lanzon and Luca Borg who made his debut in the final minutes of the encounter.

For the waterpolo fans, the Premier Championship will be awarded on Tuesday the 3rd September  when San Giljan and Neptunes cross swords at 18.30 hours at the National Pool in a decider after the end of this season’s campaign saw both teams totaling the same number of points.

A speedy recovery to Kurt Griscti after forfeiting the team’s last two outings against San Giljan and Sirens due to a knee injury.

KaFa

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