A round full of ups and downs

by Ayrton Galea - 5th March 2012

Last Sunday Birkirkara managed to beat Hamrun Spartans with a 3-1 score and completed the second round commitments of the BOV Premier League. In the following roundup, we are going through the highlights of this round.

It could be described as a round of two halves as in the first halve Birkirkara were in crisis especially when considering that they scored only two goals in the first seven matches. However, in the last four matches the performances improved drastically.

Matches

Birkirkara opened the second round with a 2-0 loss against Qormi though the latter had a player sent off eight minutes in the second half. ‘The Stripes' were then held by Mosta in the second match, in a disappointing goal-less draw. Birkirkara suffered the biggest defeat of the season in the third match when they were humiliated by Hibernians with a 5-0 score.

Birkirkara bounced back with a 1-0 win over Mqabba in the fourth match. Birkirkara were back to square one, as despite playing for more than 45 minutes with one player more, they suffered a 1-0 defeat by Sliema.

Birkirkara registered the second win of the round by beating Marsaxlokk with a 1-0 win in the sixth match but they suffered another 1-0 defeat in the seventh match. Birkirkara registered a comfortable 4-0 victory over Balzan to boost up their moral but they suffered a 4-1 defeat against Valletta.

In the last two matches, ‘The Stripes' won with an identical 3-1 score against Tarxien Rainbows and Hamrun Spartans respectively.

Team Statistics

In the eleven matches played, Birkirkara registered 16 points as they won five, drew once and were beaten five times. They scored thirteen goals and conceded fifteen. One must mention that 11 goals out of the 13 scored were scored in the last four matches. This means that as an estimate Birkirkara scored 1.18 goals while they conceded 1.36 goals per match. Birkirkara registered three clean sheets while they failed to find the net five times.

To compare these statistics with the previous round, in the first round Birkirkara registered 19 points as they won six, drew once and were defeated four times. ‘The Stripes' scored 21 goals and conceded 14. This means that in the second round, Birkirkara collected three points less, they scored eight goals less while conceding one goal more. In the first round, like this round, Birkirkara registered three clean sheets.

The biggest win of the second round was on the 5 February against Balzan Youths, when ‘The Stripes' registered an easy 4-0 win. The biggest defeat was on 13 February against Valletta, when the latter defeated Birkirkara with a 4-1 score.

Jorge Santos Silva scored the earliest goal in this round and in the season for Birkirkara on the 18 February, in the match against Tarxien Rainbows when he opened the score on the 2nd minute. The goal that arrived latest was scored by Michael Camilleri on the 90th minute in the comfortable 4-0 win over Balzan Youths. The match was played on the 5 February.

Three penalties were ordered in favour of Birkirkara, out of which one was scored, while the other two were missed by Trevor Cilia and Shola Shodiya who saw their attempts blocked by the goalkeeper. No penalties were ordered against.

At the end of the second round, like in the first round, Birkirkara are fourth with level points with Sliema Wanderers and three under Floriana.

Players' Statistics

Mr. Paul Zammit utilised no less than 27 players, five of which were signed in the January transfer window. Another five still forming part of the Under 19 squad.

The top scorer for both rounds is Moises Avila Perez with ten goals, but he scored eight of them in the first round. However, the top scorer of the second round is Jorge Santos Silva who scored three goals.

Leighton Grech, Moises Avila Perez, Shaun Bajada, Rodrigo Pereira and Andrew Decesare were all sent off once. Leighton Grech was sent off in the first match against Qormi, Moises Avila Perez and Shaun Bajada were sent off in the second match of this round against Mosta while Rodrigo Pereira and Andrew Decesare were sent off in the third game against Hibernians.

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