Champions and League Leaders, Nadur Youngsters registers a double over bottom of the table, Kerċem Ajax. With this victory Nadur, not only avenge their surprise defeat against the same Greens in the second round, but opened a 7 points lead over second placed Victoria Hotspurs, even though the Whites have played a game more. This match was the first of the third and last round of the Championship. It was a hard earned victory, in a match where time wasting was on the agenda of Kerċem, especially during the first half. Again controversy dominated the match, with both sides complaining to most of the decisions taken by the match officials.

Nadur came out looking for the early goal to settle the style of play and they managed to get one in the 4^th minute through Chidi Eric Nwankwo, but it was disallowed for a very unconvinced offside decision. The same Nwankwo brought out the best of C. Mercieca soon after, when the Greens keeper had to make a great save. A. Simoncic found Nwankwo who was again denied by Mercieca. Kerċem missed a sitter when a misunderstanding between M. R. Secco and P. Buttigieg brought F. Adelson alone in front of Xuereb, but the latter managed to clear the danger. From a cross by C. Camilleri, A. Portelli found J. Buttigieg whose nice try from the edge of the 18 yard line was superbly saved by Mercieca. Too much time was being wasted, and one has to question the ball boys situation. A cross shot by D. Odavic was again tipped for a corner by Mercieca. Nadur were lucky ones more, this time when F. Adelson, in what looked like a very clear offside position, saw Xuereb saving his try into a corner. From the same corner, Nadur had the ball cleared off the fatal line. A. Simoncic tried one of his free kicks, but just missed the post. J. Buttigieg saw Mercieca tipping his cross shot for a corner. C. Camilleri should have done better after receiving from Simoncic, but his weak shot was very easy to bother Xuereb. C. E. Nwankwo’s header from a Simoncic cross was parried by Mercieca. With the Youngsters players argues with the referee over time wasting by the Greens players, came the final whistle for the first half, with only 73 seconds of time added on.

Referee: Reno Refalo