Birkirkara dominate but fail to win

by Matthaeus Grasso - 4th January 2009

The Birkirkara FC squad was able to dominate the match against relegation battlers Qormi from start to finish, but despite this domination, our opponents managed to hold on to a 1-1 draw.

Our team was without the services of Jonathan Holland, who was sent off during the last match against Msida St. Joseph. New signing Ivailo Sokolov started the match from the very beginning and partnered Ronni Hartvig at the heart of our defense. The other foreigner, Krasen Vulkov came off the bench just a few minutes from the full-time, and almost scored in the dying seconds. Birkirkara missed a number of good opportunities, particularly through Michael Galea who unluckily missed three good chances to put our side ahead.

Qormi decided to field a very defensive formation not to let our players score throughout the match, and in fact they managed to hold on for no less than 54 minutes. A Shaun Bajada freekick from the left, was headed by Sokolov with Farrugia making a partial save, but from the rebound, Ronni Hartvig made no mistake to put 'The Stripes' ahead.

Sixteen minutes later, Qormi drew level through a Massimo Grima direct freekick from just outside the penalty box.

The referee's full-time whistle found Birkirkara loosing yet another two vital points in our quest to challenge for the Premier League title, but this should by no means dishearten the squad, as there is still a long way to go before this entertaining season comes to an end in May.

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