First Round review
by Ayrton Galea - 12th November 2012
Yesterday afternoon Birkirkara completed their first round involvements on a sweet note when they defeated Mosta with a solitary goal, and we are going to present you a detailed roundup of what happened in the first three months of the league.
Ending the first round in the second place, just two points behind Valletta can be described as a fine round where we assisted to some brilliant performances in some matches while on the other hand, we shed some surprise points in other matches when not expected.
Matches
Birkirkara kicked off their Premier League involvements in style on the 20 August thanks to a 4-0 fine win over Melita. Then, Birkirkara extended their positive start to four matches by beating Balzan Youths with a 2-1 score, Rabat Ajax with a 2-0 score and Floriana with a 3-0 score.
‘The Stripes' suffered the first defeat in the fifth match of the league when they were defeated by Sliema Wanderers with a 3-1 score on the 22 September but they bounced back well with a comfortable 4-1 win over Tarxien Rainbows eight days later.
In the much awaited match against Valletta which was played on the 6 October, Birkirkara produced a brilliant performance which saw them to be the best side in the pitch for long stretches. However, Birkirkara could only earn a point despite the good performance and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Birkirkara suffered what many considered the sourest shock of the round when they were defeated with a 3-1 score by Hamrun Spartans on the 19 October. However, they managed to bounce back well again by beating Hibernians thanks a late strike by Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza.
A goal by Abubaker Bello Osagie four minutes in added time denied Birkirkara to move just two points behind Valletta as Qormi and Birkirkara shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw in the 10th match of the league.
What Birkirkara failed to do against Qormi, they did it in the last match of the first round against Mosta. Thanks to a brilliant performance ‘The Stripes' defeated Mosta with a solitary goal and made the best from ‘The Citizens' drawing against Sliema Wanderers to end the first round just two points behind the leaders.
Team Statistics
In this first round which consisted of eleven matches, Birkirkara won seven, drew twice and lost twice. Birkirkara scored 21 goals and conceded ten. Birkirkara finsihed the first round with the third best attack after Mosta and Valletta and as the second best defence after Valletta who conceded just two less goals than Birkirkara.
Out of the 21 goals scored, Birkirkara scored 12 in the first half and nine in the second half while out of the ten goals conceded, Birkirkara conceded five goals in each half.
Birkirkara scored the earliest goal on the 30 September in the 4-1 victory over Tarxien Rainbows when Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza managed to find the net after just three minutes. The latest goal was also scored in the same match as Ryan Camenzuli made a wonderful action and he beat the goalkeeper on the 93rd minute.
The biggest win was registered in the first match of the league when Birkirkara defeated Melita with a comfortable 4-0 score on the 20 August. On the other hand, the two defeats suffered so far had an identical 3-1 score.
Birkirkara were awarded four penalties, one against Melita on the 20 August, two against Hamrun Spartans on the 19 October and one in the last match against Mosta, with Birkirkara converting three out of the of four. It was the second penalty against Hamrun Spartans that was missed. The only penalty taken against was in the match against Hamrun which was converted by Massimo Grima.
Players Statistics
Mr. Paul Zammit made use of nineteen players throughout the first round. Reuben Gauci and Alejandro Mendoza are the only players that started every match so far but Alejandro is the only player that played all the ninety minutes in all matches time as Reuben Gauci had to be substituted in the match against Hibernians due to injury. The most substitute used was Ryan Camenzuli who was included three times.
Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza is the top scorer for our Club so far with five goals followed by Jhonnattann Benites with four.
Jhonnattann Benites and Ryan Camenzuli are the players most voted as man of the match as they were nominated twice each.
Zach Muscat and Gareth Sciberras picked up the most yellow cards as they collected four each. Ryan Scicluna, Paul Fenech and Edward Herrera were all sent off once but the latter was the only player sent off with a direct red card.
In these eleven matches, two nursery products namely David Spiteri and Antoine Borg made their debut in the Premier League. David Spiteri was included as a substitute in the first match against Melita on the 20 August while Antoine Borg was included as a substitute on the 4 November in the 1-1 draw against Qormi.
comments powered by Disqus
