Floriana hit two past Pieta

Floriana beat Pieta Hotspur 2-0 in the first match being played at the Tedesco Stadium despite playing with a man down for the final 30 minutes.

For Pieta this was a bad blow in their fight against relegation and though they managed to control their opponents for the entire first half, the Hotspurs collapsed as soon as they found themselves a goal down.

Floriana defender Steve Bonnici had to leave the pitch after the half hour through a sustained muscle injury and was replaced by Emanuel Briffa. 

Pieta’s solid defending in the first half frustrated the greens with the team operating on counter attacks through the dangerous running of Argentine Claudio Frances.

Floriana however managed to go in front in the early minutes of the second half and from then on were in total control of the match.

The first goal came courtesy of the usual Matteo Piciollo six minutes into the second period when the Pieta defence failed to cope with a Pisani free kick, and the Italian forward headed the ball into the net.

Close to the sixtieth minute, Piciollo missed a great chance to score his second when Plut passed the ball from the right to the Italian but his effort completely missed the target.

Moments before Floriana scored their second, Sacha Borg was show shown a red card after collecting two yellow cards.  Despite playing with a man down, Floriana double the score to put the game beyong any doubt.

In fact on 76 minutes, it was an unlucky Karl Micallef own goal which all but secured Floriana’s three points.  Plut managed to beat Montfort with speed and with his grounder hitting the post, the ball bounced onto Micallef’s foot with the ball ending in the back of the net.

BOV Man of the Match: Steve Pisani