Daniel Zerafa says that Pietà Hotspurs will keep fighting till the end as the Premier League strugglers kept alive their hopes of avoiding the drop with a battling victory over Marsaxlokk at the Centenary Stadium, on Sunday.
The Pietà Hotspurs skipper was his team’s hero on the day as his second-half goal earned his team a priceless victory that blew the battle against the drop wide open.
In fact, the Hotspurs have now moved level on points with second-from-bottom Santa Lucia and bridge the gap on Żebbuġ Rangers, who currently occupy the play-out spot, to just three points with only three matches to go.
“This was a massive win for us,” Zerafa told the Times of Malta.
“For several weeks everyone was saying that Pieta Hotspurs were already doomed and relegated but despite our limitations, we kept fighting and slowly we managed to put ourselves back in contention to avoid the drop.
“To be honest, this season I felt the team was quite unlucky during several matches. There were several instances where we deserved to take some points but for some reason, we ended up empty-handed. No doubt, had we managed to pick up those points, our situation would be completely different.”
Pietà looked a rejuvenated side in the last fortnight as Rodney Bugeja’s clan showed great character in their back-to-back victories over Gudja United and Marsaxlokk. Zerafa said one reason behind the Hotspurs’ turnaround could be that the young members of the squad are playing with more confidence.
“Our squad is formed by several young players and inevitably they needed time to adapt to Premier League football,” Zerafa said.
“Now it seems that our youngsters have garnered the necessary experience and seem very confident to play top-flight football which is mirrored by our improved displays.”
Being a defender, scoring goals may not be in his DNA but on Sunday, Zerafa grabbed the winner with a spectacular strike from outside the area and the former Tarxien defender said that he hopes this goal will further boost his team’s morale.
“During training, I score a lot of goals like the one I did on Sunday,” Zerafa said.
“Unfortunately, I rarely managed to do that in matches but it finally happened on Sunday. It was a very important goal because it gave us three very important points. Hopefully, this goal will inject more confidence in all the players to keep fighting till the end.”
Despite Sunday’s win, Pietà still have a lot of work to do to move out of the bottom two places as this weekend they face Hibernians before taking on Birkirkara the following week. Their final match of the season is against Sirens.
“It’s not an easy run-in but we have to believe,” Zerafa said.
“The most important thing now is that we go in training fully concentrated and always give our 100 per cent. Matches are not won according to the name but the performance on the day and we need to give all we have and see what happens.
“The end goal has to be to arrive for our final match against Sirens still with a chance. If we do that anything can happen. But one thing I can assure you is that we will keep fighting till the end.”
