Sunday saw some hot action as the season reached midway point. St Joes thrashed an undermanned West Panthers men’s A-Grade side and picked up a shock victory over the dominant West women’s side.
The subplot in the women’s competition was yet another forfeit from Celtic as they handed Alma a valuable three points in the wake of the shock result in the other women’s fixture.
A-GRADE
St. Joes 15-0 West Panthers
Alma 0-0 Celtic
It was literally men against boys as St Joes took on a vastly understrength West Panthers side who were forced to play some under 14s to fill out a side. The mismatch resulted in a perhaps unsurprising 15-0 loss for George Bugeja’s side.
“We could have forfeited quite easily,” said Bugeja, whose team decided to give it their best.
“We didn’t have to go out there and we knew we were going to get a thumping. We had three guys who hadn’t played a full game of B-Grade and the rest were the young kids,” the West Panthers coach said.
Despite the result, St Joes won’t be getting too far ahead of themselves.
“It is a bit of a boost to the goal difference, which might be handy towards the end of the year, but we won’t be analysing it or patting ourselves on the back too much,” St Joes’ striker and coach Pat Nash said.
The other fixture saw a nil-nil draw between Celtic and Alma. The result was viewed as a win by Celtic, as they held a dominant Alma scoreless.
“We expected Alma were going to control it from the first whistle and we were quite happy for that to happen,” Celtic coach Aaron Cunico said.
“My back four was so solid, especially Greg Ross. It is probably the best I have seen them play all year.”
WOMENS
West 2-4 St Joes
Alma 2-0 Celtic (Celtic forfeit)
The women’s round was marred by yet another forfeit from Celtic, which handed Alma an easy three points.
The other fixture – St Joes vs West Panthers – saw Joeys walk away with a huge result, taking home the three points thanks to a 4-2 victory.
West coach George Bugeja told us, “I could tell right from the start that they weren’t at it.
“I warned the girls prior to the match not to underestimate them just because they have nine players. And that’s exactly what they did. They got what they deserved,” a still seething West coach told the Truth.
“We were missing some key players, but that is no excuse. We had a full team on the pitch and two substitutes. We had the numbers, the girls just didn’t want to play the game,” he said.
With the KO Cup taking place tonight – Wednesday – the next league fixtures, to be played on Sunday, will see St Joes take on Celtic across both the men’s and women’s competition, while West and Celtic renew their rivalry in the other matchday fixture.
