Confident Neptunes secure four-point buffer

Another three-goal victory margin against neighbours San Ġiljan after we had ousted the Saints from the knock-out competition three days earlier put the team on velvet as they opened a four-point buffer from the team led by Sergio Afric.

One could say that the destination of spoils was a foregone conclusion after the first two sessions as we took a 5-2 lead after the first eight minutes were evenly shared on two goals apiece. By then, however, we lost the services of our chief striker Steve Camilleri who had to quit midway through the second quarter due to a shoulder injury.

Yet, we were unperturbed as we had enough guns in our armoury to win almost hands down. A hat-trick from Peter Biros, and two goals each from Michele Stellini, Tamas Molnar and Clint Mercieca, besides one each from Niki Lanzon and Jordan Camilleri, took the sting out of the Saints who could only convert one of seven numerical advantages they had. This was in contrast to our healthier statistics of three on five.

Our solid man-down sets in front of a very steady Alan Borg Cole in goal also added to our opponents’ misery when they were within range of our five-metre area.

A 4-3 scoreline in our favour in the third session made it 9-5 at the end of the penultimate quarter, after which it was easy going as we opted to slow down our game by maximising on our possession period.

The task had been accomplished before despite the absence of Camilleri.