(Article 26)

2004 - Another honour

More changes from the previous season as Exiles parted with Silvio Borg one of the Club’s longest serving players who decided to return to San Giljan. Joseph Cremona (ex Valletta United and former skipper of Marsascala’s winning team in 1998), Daniel Sullivan and Karl Rizzo Naudi were roped in.

A tough Preliminary Round

The results obtained in the Preliminary Round against the top four clubs were not encouraging at all with the team suffering double-digit scores and offering feeble resistance to the tougher opponents. There was nothing to comment except to the wide divergence in the final scores: Marsascala (2-10); Sirens (3-16); Sliema (3-12) and Neptunes (3-16).

Our first wins were squeezed between the second and third heavy defeats and were chalked against Otters in a one-way manner ending17-2 and Ta’Xbiex 8-2 in favour of the boys. Once the last drubbing was out of the way, the team went back to winning a close encounter with Marsaxlokk 8-5 followed by a fine win (11-3) against Valletta. This match was played at an unearthly hour (12.25 hours) on the 29th June – a public holiday. The young Citizens’ side ran our team close and it was only in the last session that our lads were in gear to win the session 6-1 and tuck another two precious points.

In the meantime, more players were putting their names on the scorer’s list as the pattern of the goals getters varied from the previous seasons. Our centre and skipper Jason Vella managed through his strength and agility to cause exclusions to quite a number of opponents making major fouls on him in the hot spot.

Then came the clash with San Giljan. The match was shorn of excitement in the sense that San Giljan scored four goals in the first two sessions with Exiles failing make their part until early in the third session when the team reacted to narrow the gap by two goals. The strange aspect of this top-of-the-table clash was that San Giljan players did not have any personal faults resulting in Exiles never having the opportunity of playing in numerical advantage. On their part our team suffered only two exclusions but managed to avoid conceding any goals from the man down situation. San Giljan was however awarded a penalty throw which Matthew Zammit converted. The experienced Saints were a better outfit, had more guns and deserved to win the encounter 5-3.

The Final Round

Our next match against Valletta (15-4) was a pure formality in preparation for the next clash against Ta’Xbiex a week later. This was indeed a nervous affair in which Exiles forced no less than seven expulsions but were precipitous to conclude and ended in erratic finishing which bolstered our opponents’ morale. In the meantime, Ta’ Xbiex built up a nearly unassailable lead of  5-1 before a bold reaction by our boys spurred by coach Marco Manara, saw the score line read 5-4 before the end of the third session. The match grew tense. Inside the last minute, Joe Cremona scores his hat trick to equalize 5-5 but two seconds from the final whistle Ta’ Xbiex pipped Exiles to win the match and the points. The tension moved to the deck side however after some pushing on the catwalk, good sense prevailed with both sets of teams walking back to the dressing rooms. Exiles won their next two matches against Otters (11-2) and Marsaxlokk (5-2) before crossing swords once again with league leaders San Giljan, The match was played on the 15th August. Exiles kept the pace up to the middle of the third session before San Giljan took the lead and shook off the feeble resistance of our boys. The Saints won 9-4 with Matthew Zammit scoring no less than six goals. Our team suffered 12 exclusions with three first team players being fouled out whilst San Giljan had seven major fouls against them. In all fairness Exiles were no match on the day.

The Knock Out

The draw did not favour Exiles as we had to face the newly crowned Second Division champions exactly five days after the heavy defeat suffered at the hands of San Giljan in the league campaign which had just finished.

Exiles were always in the lead; in fact they built a three-goal advantage that our opponents managed to level midway through the third session. Twenty seconds after their equalizer, San Giljan had to forfeit one of their best players of the season Matthew Zammit for elbowing one of our boys.  Karl Rizzo Naudi put Exiles ahead (4-3) to end the third session with a slight advantage in the score but with a higher morale as San Giljan struggled without the help of their top scorer.

In the match Exiles suffered seven expulsions against and were on three occasions in a man extra situation. The final session was pulsating as our opponents drew level four minutes before the final whistle. An exclusion for Exiles was followed by a time-out called by Marco Manara. Exiles missed the opportunity but on the next expulsion in our favour (with 78 seconds remaining), Timmy Sullivan made no mistake to slam for the second time the ball in for what was to be the winner. 17 seconds to go it was Joe Cremona’s turn to be sent out for committing his third personal fault. It was Alan Grech’s turn to show his goalkeeping capabilities to block a series of desperate shots by the opponents. It was indeed a sweet revenge for Marco and his young team. Other scorers were Jason Vella and John John Tabone.

The Final

The final score does not indicate the true value of the teams. Exiles played a well-drilled and disciplined match. Ta Xbiex was very energetic in their approach. Maybe they felt too much the importance of the occasion-they were nervous and the number of exclusions (10) in the end weighed against as Exiles cashed in on the number of times when they enjoyed numerical advantage. 

The match was balanced with Ta Xbiex building a 3-1 lead half-way through the second session before Exiles scored five successive goals without conceding any to give the impression two minutes into the fourth and final session that the match was won and lost. It was not over yet as Ta Xbiex scored twice within a short time. Marco Manara tried frantically to stop their comeback with a time-out after Ta Xbiex closed the gap to 6-5. Our opponents rallied to equalize (6-6) with just three minutes left to play. The encounter was wide open once again. Then came the incredible reaction of our boys in the last 90 seconds when Exiles scored three goals to coast to a hard victory indeed.

Scorers for Exiles were David Pace Lupi with a poker, followed by Joe Cremona (2 goals) and goal apiece by Malcolm Zarb, Timmy Sullivan and John John Tabone.

Exiles went to win their third successive knock-out trophy and their ninth in their history.

The squad was made up of Alan Grech, James Cuschieri, Michael Grima, Malcolm Zarb, David Pace Lupi, Timmy Sullivan, Keith Camilleri, Daniel Sullivan, Joe Cremona, John John Tabone, Karl Rizzo Naudi, Alan Arrigo, Jason Vella and Martin Calleja.

THIS BRINGS TO AN END THE SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THE FIRST TEAM’S PERFORMANCES THROUGHOUT THE 34 YEARS OF PARTICIPATION IN THE ASA LEAGUES