Malta
Premier League
Saturday 2nd March 2024
Kick Off 14.00 On Time!
Hamrun Spartans 1 Valletta 1, attendance 3,000
45’ + 3, 1-0
57’ 1-1
@ Ta’ Qali National Stadium
Triq ta Vnezja
Attard
ATD 4000
€10 Admission
No Programme.
The first match today saw a seven mile bus ride out of Valletta (€2.50 flat rate) to the Ta’ Qali National Stadium, just to the west of the town of Attard. It ended with a fifteen minute walk at the end, rather than a drop off outside the stadium, as roadworks meant the final approach road was closed off and the bus driver knew nothing about it and refused to go round, opting to abort the journey where we were. It certainly didn’t go down too well with a number of locals, one of which rang the bus company to vent his anger at them! As the name suggests, the stadium is home to the national team and has an all seated capacity of 17,797 although only the main stand was in use today, with each team allocated half each and we opted for seats in the Valletta section, purely based on the fact that it was the first ticket booth we arrived at. These are two of the most successful teams as far as Maltese League titles go, with Hamrun having won nine titles and Valletta twenty five (only Sliema Wanderers and Floriana, both with 26 have won more) and Hamrun came into this as league leaders, whilst Valletta are having a poor season by their standards, lying down in twelfth place (out of 14) and are in danger of being relegated.
It was a decent atmosphere, with Hamrun having the larger support, although neither set of fans had that much to shout about. It was a first half of few chances. Hamrun went close early on, but the Valletta ‘keeper kept out a good chance from about eight yards out and it looked as if we’d be heading for the halftime break goalless, but Hamrun managed to break the deadlock three minutes into stoppage time, cutting in from the left and finishing with an angled shot into the far corner, with no time to re-start.
Valletta levelled twelve minutes into the second half, nicking the ball off a defender on his blind side and he tripped the striker just inside the box as he attempted to clear. The penalty was easily saved by the ‘keeper, but the rebound was followed in successfully. The nearest we came to either side getting a winner was when Valletta saw a header from a corner come back off the crossbar with twenty minutes left.
There was plenty of time to make it to the second game of the day, kicking off at 16.30 at Centenary Stadium, handily located no more than 100 yards away, running widthways behind the north end of the National Stadium, although our side of the stand had to exit via the far side of the ground, which basically doubled the distance! What could possibly be easier when doing a double….
