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.