San Giljan Tum Invest beat Neptunes to win President’s Cup

Neptunes Leo Vegas   7

S. Giljan TUM Invest   9

(1-3), (2-3), (3-2), (1-1)

A strong signal by San Giljan Tum Invest as they won the second honour of the year, with a deserved win against Neptunes Leo Vegas. San Giljan had already won the winter league. Marko Orlovic’s team held the initiative for most of the game and they were a step ahead of their opponents. Aleksandar Ivovic had a positive debut for San Giljan, scoring a hat-trick and leading the team in the pitch. On the other hand, Neptunes coach Zoran Maslovar tried to limit the damage of his opponents, but the depth in the squad of San Giljan proved to be too much in this early stage of the season. Stevie Camilleri returned for Neptunes while their foreigner, Romain Blary, had a quiet game as he was well marked by Ivovic. Cousin, Ivovic and Dino Zammit put San Giljan 3-1 ahead in the first session, and despite Neptunes improving in the second session, the saints still managed to finish the second session 6-3 in the lead. The game looked to be heading in San Giljan’s way. But Neptunes had other plans as they scored three times to reduce the gap only to just one goal, with San Giljan scoring only from a penalty by Ivovic. Orlovic seemed to be worried as Neptunes managed to put his team in difficulty at that moment, but captain Matthew Zammit made sure that his team started the last session with a two-goal cushion. Dino Zammit scored an early goal in the last session to secure the win, as Neptunes could only score once through Jordan Camilleri. At the end of the game, ASA General Secretary Rita Azzopardi and Vice President Karl Galea presented the medals and the winning trophy to San Giljan captain Matthew Zammit. Before the game, Stevie Camilleri was presented with the 2016 ASA Player of the Year award by ASA Vice President Karl Galea.