April - A month of ups and downs

by Ayrton Galea - 3rd May 2012

Last Saturday, Birkirkara played their last match for April, a month which had its ups and downs.

April could be considered as a a roller-coaster ride for Birkirkara. After opening the month with a most comfortable 5-0 win, then they suffered two consecutive defeats. However, the month could not end on a better note when with just nine-men ‘The Stripes' beat Hibernians with a score of 2-0.

Matches

Birkirkara played the first match of April, which was the last one of the second round on the 9th April against Balzan Youths. ‘The Stripes' won with a very comfortable 5-0 score, thanks to goals by Rodrigo Pereira, Ryan Scicluna, Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza, Shola Shodiya, Moises Avila Perez.

Following seven matches unbeaten, this run came to an end on 15 April when despite another positive performance, ‘The Stripes' were unlucky to concede a 2-1 defeat against Floriana with Moises Avila Perez scoring the goal for Birkirkara.

Birkirkara conceded the second consecutive defeat on the 22 April when with a depleted side, they suffered a 2-0 loss against Valletta.

The month could not end on a more positive note as on the 28 April, ‘The Stripes' defeated Hibernians with a 2-0 score despite they were had two players sent off. Shola Shodiya and Ryan Camenzuli scored the goals for Birkirkara, with the latter scoring his first Premier League goal ever.

Team Statistics

Birkirkara played four matches and they won two and lost the other two. They scored eight goals while conceding four. Birkirkara achieved the 10th clean sheet of the season thanks to keeping clean sheets against Balzan and Hibernians.

The eight goals scored were divided into four in each half, while three out of the four conceded happened in the first half.

The earliest goal by Birkirkara was scored on the 23rd minute against Balzan while the earliest goal conceded was scored on the 14th minute against Valletta. The latest goal scored by Birkirkara was by Moises Avila Perez on the 77th minute against Balzan. The latest goal conceded was against Valletta on the 61st minute.

The best win of the month and of the season too was registered on the 9th April against Balzan with ‘The Stripes' registering a comfortable 5-0 victory. The worst defeat of the month was registered on the 22nd April against Valletta which the latter won with a 2-0 score. In this match it was the first game in ten matches that Birkirkara failed to find the net. In fact, the previous time that they had failed to score in a match goes back to 28 January in the 1-0 loss against Floriana.

One penalty was ordered in favour of Birkirkara in the first match of the month against Balzan. No penalties were ordered against.

Players Statistics

Mr. Paul Zammit made use of seventeen different players throughout this month. It was only in the last match against Hibernians that the Head Coach did not utilise all the three substitutions available, as he used only two.

The top scorers for the month are Shola Shodiya and Moises Avila Perez who scored two goals each.

With the two goals added this month, Moises has now scored fourteen goals in the Premier League.

Seven yellow cards were shown to the Birkirkara players while in the last two matches they had no less than a total of three players sent off. All three sends offs were a result of a direct red card.

In March, Mc Calisther Clinch made his debut for Birkirkara. This month it was the turn of the goalkeeper Karl Magri who was utilised as a substitute in the 5-0 win over Balzan played on the 9th April against Balzan Youths.

comments powered by Disqus