Jurgen Degabriele (right) charges forward against Senglea Athletic. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier
HIBERNIANS 3
Degabriele 43, 72; Grech 48
SENGLEA ATHLETIC 0
HIBERNIANS M. Calleja Cremona-7; F. Apap-7; L. Almeida-7 (80 B. Ihuomah); A. Attard-7; J. Grech-7.5 (85 R. Cassar); J. Degabriele-7.5 (89 K. Bonello); B. Kristensen-7.5; D. Vella-7; S. Shodija-7 (85 M. Farrugia); A. Agius-7; J. Teixeira-7 (80 U. Edafe). SENGLEA ATHLETIC
M. Farrugia-5; S. Uyi (23 D. Fava-5); A. Abela-5; Freud-5 (75 I. Misan); J. Tanti-5 (75 D. Abeela); C. Riascos-5; A. Scicluna-5 (58 Z. Cassar-5); J. Dibola-5; D. Kukic-5; D. Xuereb-5; W. Gomes-5.5 (58 F. Aboulezz-5).
Referee Glen Tonna.
Yellow card Riascos.
BOV Player of the Match Jurgen Degabriele (Hibernians).
Hibernians broke little sweat to defeat Senglea Athletic 3-0 and regain top spot in the BOV Premier League, at least for 24 hours.
The Paolites were not at their best even though their performance improved gradually, in particular in the second-half where they created much more goalscoring chances than in the opening part of the game.
It was a much-needed victory for the Paolites to resume where they had left off prior to the recess period when they defeated Balzan 2-1.
For Senglea Athletic, this was their fifth consecutive defeat as they remain anchored at the bottom with just two points to show for their efforts.
The first 45 minutes was a one-sided affair with Hibernians dominating proceedings even though they had to wait until the closing stages to draw first blood through Jurgen Degabriele’s sixth goal of the season.
The Paolites pegged Senglea back into their own half from the start in search of an early lead. However, Stefano Sanderra’s side were struggling to make their possession count as they rarely found inways into the Senglea’s backline.
Andrei Agius attempted a volley from the edge of the area but his effort went way over the bar.
On 19 minutes, Senglea almost surprised Hibs when Wilkerson Gomes profited from a mistake at the back but the onrushing Matthew Calleja Cremona immediately dismissed the chance away.
Moments later, Shola Shodiya forced Matthew Farrugia into action as the latter blocked the Hibs player’s effort before Degabriele failed to capitalise on the rebound.
At the other end, Wilkerson managed to exploit some of the space left behind by the Paolites to let fly a strike only to be denied by Calleja Cremona.
Just before half-time, Degabriele broke the deadlock for Hibs as he lobbed the ball over Farrugia after the Senglea custodian had blocked his previous effort.
At the restart, Hibernians immediately doubled the score when a triangular move between Degabriele, Shodiya and Jake Grech ended up with the latter firing home an angled effort to net his ninth goal in 14 league games.
Hibernians almost wrapped up the win with a third but Degabriele completely missed his target from inside the eighteen after Grech’s cutback.
Past the hour mark, Degabriele had another effort on goal but his header attempt sailed over the bar.
Degabriele did manage to grab his second of the match when he received a through ball from Kristensen, before beating a marker and slotting into the far post.
