Naxxar Lions come from the death to stun Mosta and hand coach Winston Muscat a winning debut

Winston Muscat could not hope for a better start to his reign as coach of Naxxar Lions after they secured a dramatic 3-2 win over neighbouring rivals Mosta.

Muscat, who replaced George Vella as Naxxar coach earlier this week, knew that his team needed nothing less than the three points to keep alive their hopes of avoiding the bottom two places in the Bottom Six.

Things didn’t look well for Naxxar as they found themselves behind to a goal scored by Mosta’s Giancarlo Goncalves after 32 minutes.

But the Lions took just six minutes to pull level through Gabriel Costa.

Charles Chibuike restored Mosta’s lead on 56 minutes.

However, Naxxar kept fighting and managed to pull off an impressive fightback in the closing minutes of the match as Costa made it 2-2 on 89 and in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Joao Victor handed the Lions a dramatic 3-2 win.

The victory lifted Naxxar on the nine-point mark and bridged the gap on third-from-bottom Mosta to four points.

In the opening match of the day, Gżira United came from a goal down to see off Tarxien Rainbows 2-1.

The win was a major blow for Tarxien who look destined to finish at the bottom of the Bottom Six, having only six points to show.

Tarxien had started brightly and Nhayson fired them ahead on the stroke of half-time.

It looked as though the Rainbows were heading to victory, but Gżira had other plans as Andre Pena Da Costa equalised on 82 minutes before Gabriel Mentz converted a penalty on 87 minutes to secure the win to his team.