Victoria Hotspurs -0- Nadur Youngsters -1-

15.11.07 Gozo Stadium

Nadur Win Top-of-the-Table Clash

Champions Nadur Youngsters won the Top-of-the-Table clash with Victoria Hotspurs. Both teams went into this challenge unbeaten and at the end, the experience of the Whites, who dominated the whole match, had the upper hand. Nadur created, and missed, a lot of chances which at the end could have cost them dearly. One could notice the lack of ball boys around the pitch, something that brought unnecessary loss of playing time, and even on a couple of times, players had to leave the pitch to recover the ball from the stands. Both teams are now leading the table with 9 points, Hotspurs from 4 matches and Nadur from 3.

Nadur opened the match on the attack and kept a certain amount of pressure on the Hotspurs defense. M. Grima in the Hotspurs goal was in great form as was the essential part for his team not to loose with a wider margin, although the Nadur forward’s misses also helped in this regard. Early in the match J. Buttigieg saw Grima saving his effort after taking a lose ball outside the area. Nadur were dangerous again with a couple of direct free kicks taken by C. Camilleri. A nice one-two between C. E. Nwankwo and J. M. Portelli ended with J. Buttigieg hitting the side netting. Victoria made a rare attack on the Youngsters goal when J. Portelli managed to somehow pass the ball into the patch of R. Saverino, but the latter concluded well over the bar from a very good position. C. E. Nwankwo should have made better of his chance when brought clear by A. Portelli’s inch perfect cross but his lob was easily saved by Grima. Nwankwo could have opened the score on 2 separates occasions near the end of the first half. First when his try was blocked by J. P. Grima, and soon after he saw his soft header well saved by Grima. Nil-nil at half time and the Champions had only themselves to blame for this.

Nadur could not have started the second half better, when they took the lead on the 48^th minute. The Champions won a free kick half way into the Hotspurs half. M. R. Secco’s try was blocked by the Reds defense. The rebound was superbly concluded by Chris Camilleri. Hotspurs tried to react, and Xuereb did well to punch away a free kick by J. Portelli. Nadur went close to increase the score when J. m. Portelli’s shot went just wide following a through pass by C. Camilleri. A. Zammit cleared in time a cross by C. E. Nwankwo destined to J. M. Portelli, who was completely unmarked. Grima was soon called to make another difficult save on a header by A. Portelli following a corner by C. Camilleri. Nadur continued to dictate and a C. Hili’s try from long distance just missed the target. Another nice action between C. E. Nwankwo and J. M. Portelli ended with the latter’s shot hitting the crossbar, and was cleared away. J. M. Portelli saw his nice lob again saved by Grima. Seeing that Nadur didn’t close the match, Hotspurs increased their effort in the last 15 minutes, to try to save the match. D. Farrugia misses a cross by J. Portelli and R. Saverino was denied by the Youngsters defense. With 5 minutes to go, it was J. Xuereb who saved the day for the Champions when he superbly turned away a well taken header by Saverino. Nadur managed to keep a clean sheet for the 3^rd time in League commitments. This was the 3^rd defeat of Hotspurs at the hands of Nadur this season, 2 in Cup Competitions and this 1 in the League.

Referee: Clayton Pisani