Rabat vs St George's 1-2

Match Date: Sunday, November 23, 2008, 14:45-16:45
Venue: Hibs Stadium, Rahal Gdid
Who Played: Jonathan Azzopardi, Neil Caruana, Edward Azzopardi, Jonathan Bezzina, Paolo Ciantar, Lydon Micallef, Emmanuel Muscat (Christopher Schembri), Joseph Caruana, Glen Magri, Kayne Said (Darren Galea), Adam Smeir
Rabat Scorers: Joseph Caruana

The Magpies showed their best in the first half, with different scoring opportunites which were almost all wasted. Rabat scored their first goal in the last part of the first half from a nice team action which was concluded by a very good shot from Joseph Caruana.

In the second half, St George's were the better team and they deserved the victory. St George's started to be too dangerous and sooner or later the goal was clear that it would come for them. The Magpies were almost inexisting with no ball movement, to slow, inaccurate in long shots and showing to many individualism. The first goal for St George's was scored in the middle of the second half, while the second goal was scored in the last minute of the match.

St George's had also two wasted opportunities created from two counter attacks by their fast striker in the second half that were saved by the Rabat defence on the goal line. While the result was on a draw of one each, Rabat had a good scoring opportunity (the one and only in the second half) from a corner kick which was unfortunately headed on the post. This goal could have made the story completely different in terms of the result, but not on the performance of the Magpies.

St George's Statistics

The next official match of the season for the Magpies in the first division league is against St George's on Sunday 23th November 2008 at 2.45pm in the Hibs Stadium in Rahal Gdid. This is the second match for both teams in the first division league, where Rabat started with a defeat while St George's took out the maximum points from their first match. Below are some history results and statistics.

Statistics from season 1997/1998 to date
First Division (97/98), Rabat vs St George's : 3-0 Paul Farrugia (x2), Adrian Mifsud
First Division (97/98), St George's vs Rabat: 2-3 Herbert Vassallo, Adrian Mifsud, Michael Farrugia

	Rabat	St George's
Wins	2	0
Draws	0	0
Losts	0	2

Official matches played by Rabat this season (DLDLLL)
Rabat vs Vittoriosa 1-1
Mqabba vs Rabat 3-1
Pieta vs Rabat 0-0
Rabat vs Dingli 0-2
Rabat vs Hamrun 1-3
St Patrick vs Rabat 1-0

Official matches played by St George's this season (WLDDLW)
St George's vs Senglea 2-3 (St Georges won match 2-0 after protest)
St Patrick vs St George's 4-0
St George's vs San Gwann 1-1
Mosta vs St George's 1-1
Hibernians vs St George's 2-0
St George's vs Senglea 2-0

In recent years these two teams, have encountered each other in only two circumstances which occurred in the same year about 10/11 years ago. Both matches are in favor of the Magpies, and in both matches the veteran Rabat Ajax striker Adrian Mifsud left his sign. These should be encouraging to increase confidence among the players, for the first official victory of the season and to continue on a positive note the encounters between the two teams.

Though history results are in favor of the Magpies, recent results tell another story. St George's look to be a bit inconsistent in their results where they managed to obtain two victories (one of them after a protest), two draws and two defeats (one of them was quite abysmal and against the Magpies last match opponents). Rabat on the other side are still waiting for their first victory of the season, and which everyone have been waiting for from the end of the last season, that is the promotion decider against Balzan Youths.

What can be said about the Magpies is that during every match they played so far, they always had their best moments, but not the best is being taken out of them where too many occasions are being wasted. In this division errors cannot be made, since for every error that is being made, the team is being punished by a class of more experienced players and teams. All opportunities created during the match must be exploited to their maximum in order to increase the morale of every playing individual and to grow as one solid team, as happened in the previous successful years.

Another point that I want to criticise on is the fact that one third of the goals conceded this year (a total of nine) started from a dead-ball situation. Two of them also occurred in the last two matches, Hamrun and St Patrick respectively. Does this mean that the team is being to static when coming to these types of situations? As happened last year the Rabat defence should be our point of reference and which was the best of the best. Having last years solid defence should start to produce the minimum results of a stalemate draw with no goals.

Current year results have already been produced by the Magpies two years ago (2006/7), when they were promoted from third division to second division. In fact in that year the league was started with four consecutive defeats, but which then continued with much better results till the end of the season, where a third respective league position was obtained. Hopefully, this year something similar will happen but wishing that the winning way starts earlier!

If you remember any memorable matches or any other useful information or comments regarding any match between these two teams that you wish to share, post comments below.

St Patrick vs Rabat 1-0

Match Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008, 13:00-15:00
Venue: Victor Tedesco Stadium, Hamrun
Who Played: Jonathan Azzopardi, Neil Caruana, Edward Azzopardi, Josef Tonna, Michael Micallef (Paolo Ciantar), Lydon Micallef (Dalton Wingfield), Emmanuel Muscat (Kayne Said), Joseph Caruana, Christopher Schembri, Glen Magri, Adam Smeir
Rabat Scorers: n/a

The goal scored from a corner kick in the 44th minute of the first half. In the last minutes of the match, Josef Tonna was sent off with a direct red card for a foul as a last man. Immediately afterwards a St Patrick player was sent off for his second yellow card.

St Patrick Statistics

The next official match of the season for the Magpies is against St Patrick on the 15th November 2008 at 1.00pm in the Victor Tedesco Stadium in Hamrun. This is the first match for both teams in the first division league. For the Magpies this is the last competition that will be competing in this year. The objectives and expectations are high and the way to achieve promotion to the Premier league is long and hard. This long route can only be accomplished if the whole club, including players, committee and supporters remain all united in all ups and downs that are to be encountered through all the way until the last match. Below are some history results and statistics.

Statistics from season 1997/1998 to date
First Division (03/04), St Patrick vs Rabat: 5-3 Alan Zahra, Engoya Ulrich (x2)
First Division (03/04), Rabat vs St Patrick: 1-3 Christian Muscat
First Division (02/03), St Patrick vs Rabat: 1-0
First Division (02/03), Rabat vs St Patrick: 1-0 William Borg
First Division (01/02), Rabat vs St Patrick: 2-4 Christian Muscat, Engoya Ulrich
First Division (01/02), St Patrick vs Rabat: 3-2 Engoya Ulrich, William Borg
Premier Division (98/99), St Patrick vs Rabat: 2-1 Roderick Asciak
Premier Division (98/99), Rabat vs St Patrick: 1-1 Roderick Asciak
Premier Division (98/99), St Patrick vs Rabat: 1-1 Adrian Mifsud
First Division (97/98), Rabat vs St Patrick: 2-1 Roderick Asciak, Michael Micallef
First Division (97/98), St Patrick vs Rabat: 1-2 John Cassar, Adrian Mifsud

	Rabat	St Patrick
Wins	3	6
Draws	2	2
Losts	6	3

Recent official matches played by Rabat (DLL)
Pieta vs Rabat 0-0
Rabat vs Dingli 0-2
Rabat vs Hamrun 1-3

Recent official matches played by St Patrick (WWL)
Senglea vs St Patrick 0-4
St Patrick vs Senglea 3-2
St Patrick vs Floriana 0-1

Viewing recent results, the Magpies have a tough match for the kick-off of the first division league. St Patrick are coming from a convincing first part of the season, where they only lost in the second round of the FA Trophy against a tough opponent with a margin of one goal and against Mosta in the group stage of the First-Division Knock-Out competition with an identical score of the previous defeat, that is 1-0. On the hand, the Magpies are still waiting for their first victory in an official match in this new season. Also, viewing history results, St Patrick have always given a hard time to the Magpies in each official match previously played throughout the years.

If you remember any memorable matches or any other useful information regarding any match between these two teams that you wish to share, post comments below.

Rabat vs Hamrun 1-3

Match Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Venue: Centenary Stadium, Ta' Qali
Who Played: Jonathan Azzopardi, Jonathan Bezzina, Edward Azzopardi, Josef Tonna, Michael Micallef, Lydon Micallef, Emmanuel Muscat, Joseph Caruana (Christopher Schembri), Glen Magri, Adam Smeir, Adrian Mifsud (Kayne Said)
Rabat Scorers: Adam Smeir

Description:
Unfortunately Rabat came out from another match without a victory. Though, this time the defeat came against a club playing in the Premier Division. While the match was won with a margin of two goals, one must say that the match was equally balanced between the two teams.

Problems for the Magpies started immediately, were the key and experienced striker Adrian Mifsud had to give forfeit in the beginning minutes of the match due to an injury and was substituted with Kayne Said. After Rabat were then penalised with a dubious penalty, but this was saved by the Rabat goalkeeper after a re-take, leaving the result still on stalemate.

In the late minutes of the first half Rabat suffered the first goal on the keepers second pole from a dead-ball situation. The second goal came early in the second-half, which could have been avoided by the Rabat defence.

After suffering the second goal Rabat made a reaction to reduce the scoreline. Infact they were rewarded a clear penalty which was scored by the Magpies striker Adam Smeir.

In the late minutes Rabat had their captain sent off for his second yellow card. In the injury time of the match the Magpies suffered the third goal, which was totally undeserved after viewing the performance of both teams during the whole match.

One final comment is that the Rabat team showed a lot of improvement from their previous matches. This should be encouraging for the Magpies before our first official kick-off of the first division league starting next week.