Sliema Wanderers ease past Melita to get Top 6 hopes back on track

MELITA 2

Martinez 63; Andre 90 pen.

SLIEMA WANDERERS 4

Awad 3, 45; Alcino 46; Nwoko 64

MELITA

A. Lubik, A. Simanca (61 S. Martinez), M. Cachia, J.P. Attard, K. Mohnani (75 A. Attard), A. Penha da Costa, M. Debattista (64 J. Yepez), D. Xuereb, N. Cutajar (46 M. Borg Olivier), C. Sanchez Gonzales, H. Motta (46 Van de Font Bovenkamp).

SLIEMA WANDERERS

K. Emeka, J. Borg, A. Magri Overend (75 N. Frendo), G. Alcino, V. Plut (82 N. Strickland), M. Beerman, Wescley (75 T.Kikabize), K. Nwoko (75 E. Agius), H. Freire, S. Pisani, M. Awad.

Referee: Fyodor Zammit

Yellow cards: Motta, Borg.

Sliema put their Top 6 aspirations back on track after brushing aside Melita 4-2.

This victory temporarily propelled Sliema to the summit of the table alongside Birkirkara, Hibernians and Marsaxlokk but the latter have a game in hand.

Mohamed Awad was the main protagonist for Sliema as his first-half brace provided the right tonic for Sliema to return to winning ways.

Sliema started brightly and took the lead inside the opening three minutes. Awad escaped down the right and hit a rising shot behind Andrzej Lubik.

Sliema’s in-form striker Awad kept tormenting the Melita defence and on 19 minutes he again raced clear but was denied by Lubik.

Gradually, Melita started to grow into the match with Andre coming close but his effort was blocked by Sliema goalkeeper Kelvin Agu.

But just before half-time, Lubik was beaten again with a thumping strike by Awad, which slipped under his body.

The half-time interval failed to derail Sliema’s momentum and Gustavo Alcino resolved a goalmouth scramble in front of Lubik with a header to send the Blues three goals up.

Clive Mizzi, the Melita coach, refused to throw in the towel and brought in Santiago Martinez instead of defender Aldair Simanca.

And the striker rewarded him with a goal, two minutes after his introduction that gave Melita a lifeline.

Martinez was played in by Andre and the Spanish forward beat Emeka from close range.

It was the cue for Mizzi to introduce another striker Jesus Yepez but any hope the Amateurs had of mounting a revival appeared to be snuffed out when Sliema added a fourth a minute later.

Sliema broke quickly and Kyrian Nwoko raced on to clever throughball before easily avoiding a poor challenge from his marker to beat Lubik.

Melita did pull a goal back late as Freire floored Martinez inside the area and from the resulting penalty Andre sent Emeka the wrong way.