Birkirkara battle Tarxien for second place again
by Ayrton Galea - 18th February 2011
This Saturday afternoon, Birkirkara will be involved in their first match of the Championship Pool commitments as 'The Stripes' will face Tarxien Rainbows for the 2nd time in seven days.
Last week's clash saw Birkirkara and Tarxien Rainbows ending the match in a goal less draw. This meant that Tarxien remained in second place, and Birkirkara failed to leap-frog them. Tomorrow Birkirkara will have another chance to go second place.
Birkirkara have now gone two matches without a win. Besides last week's draw, 'The Stripes' suffered a 4-1 defeat against Qormi with several players performing below their true potential.
Tarxien have also gone two matches without a win. In their last two outings they registered a draw against Birkirkara, as mentioned already, and a 3-1 defeat against their rival neighbours Hibernians.
The streak of injuries for Birkirkara continues. After no less than eighteen matches where they had one or more players missing, tomorrow's match is no exception. Angus Buhagiar is ruled out injured for this match after suffering from an ankle injury in the last game against the same Tarxien Rainbows. Angus is expected to make his return next week for the game against Hamrun Spartans. Trevor Cilia is also ruled out for this game as he failed to recover on time.
Birkirkara are fourth just one point behind Tarxien Rainbows, who are currently in the second place, seven points behind the leaders Valletta. A win is extremely important for both sides, not only to return to winning ways but also to remain in the race for the title.
This will be the ninth match between Birkirkara and Tarxien Rainbows in their history. Three matches ended in a draw. One was last week, and the other two being another goal-less draw in the first round of this season, and a 3-3 draw in the third round of the previous season. The other five matches were won by Birkirkara. In a total of eight matches, 'The Stripes' managed to score fifteen goals and conceded five. When it comes to the BOV Player of the match, the Birkirkara players managed to win this award five times out of a possible eight.
This week, our Club's captain Michael Galea made an appeal for the supporters: "I know it is not easy to continue to follow the team when results do not come our way. But just as last year everybody was overjoyed when we managed to win the league, this year we should all try to stick together in these difficult times as it is only this way, that we will be able to overcome adversity."
Come on the Stripes!
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