Starting Formation: Attard Thomas, Borg Karl, Borg Gabriel, Portelli Steve, Plaehn Silas, Agius Daniel, Cacopardo Dario, Schembri Stefano.

Substitutes who Played: Galea Maverick, Schembri Sheehan, Grech Dylan, Vella Gabriel.

Umpires: Edward Hughes and Joseph Cuschieri

Scorers: Steve Portelli 4, Stefano Schembri 3, Daniel Agius 2, Dylan Grech

Disciplinary Measures: Nil

Starting Formation: Schembri Sheehan, Borg Karl, Vella Gabriel, Borg Gabriel, Portelli Steve, Galea Maverick, Bonello Luke, Agius Daniel, Fiedler Sebastian, Borg Daniel, Bonnici Miguel.

Substitutes who Played: Falzon Matthew.

Scorer: Portelli Steve

SLIEMA HOTSTICKS 0 BRISTOL GRAMMER SCHOOL 13 (Under-14)

Starting Formation: Bonnici Luke, Borg Karl, Galea Maverick, Falzon Matthew, Demarco Luke, Agius Daniel, Bonello Luke, Agius Christ, Amore Alessandro, Bonnici Miguel, Galea Shania.

Amore Alessandro

NAME Alessandro
SURNAME Amore
NICKNAME Il-Fusellu
CAPACITY Player & Stelmar Hs Team Co-ordinator
SCHOOL Stella Maris College
RESIDES San Gwann
HOBBIES Play Station, Fishing and Swimming
FAVOURITE SPORTS Hockey
FAVOURITE COLOUR Blue 
FAVOURITE MOVIE Chak De India
FAVOURITE ACTRESS Angelina Jolie
FAVOURITE ACTOR Brad Pitt
FAVOURITE TV PROGRAMME Xarabank
FAVOURITE DISH Fish
FAVOURITE DRINK Coca Cola
FAVOURITE BAND Lmfao 
FAVOURITE SINGER Gigi D’Alessio
FAVOURITE CAR Lamborghini & Ferrari
FAVOURITE COUNTRY Italy

How were you introduced to hockey?
A number of coaches held orientation sessions at my school, Stella Maris College.

Why did you choose to play hockey?
I need to keep myself fit and enjoy it much more than football. And then, the coaches are all right!

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Would love to be best player and team captain. I must work hard for that.

What do you enjoy most?
Reaching a league final would be very interesting indeed.

Alessandro Amore

Starting Formation: Farrugia Elton Lee, Imbroll Andrei, Scicluna Keith, George Ryan, Bugeja Michael, Portelli Steve, Plaehn Silas, Gauci Leanne, Dalli Ryan, Plaehn Lukas, Cachia Steven.

Substitutes who Played: Fiedler Sebastian.

With the Team: Borg Karl, Borg Emile.

Scorer: Lukas Plaehn

Umpires: Raymond Micallef & John Williams

Disciplinary Measures: Steven Cachia (Yellow Card)

Hotsticks kicked off strongly and immediately pushed forward to pin White Hart at the back. After a difficult start fot the reds, play started to be shared and scoring opportunities fell at both ends. For Hotsticks, Cachia had the best chances but failed on a number of occasions to net the ball, particularly in the second half.

As often happened this season, Hotsticks lost an easy ball in one of their attacks and following a fast break White Hart won a short corner. This was well executed so much so that they were awarded a penalty stroke for a foot infrindgement on the goal line by Imbroll. Laferla made no mistake from the spot and opened the score. Hotsticks’ reaction was immediate but their three short corners in the first half failed to create any real threats.

Hotsticks started the second half from where they had left. The team believed the result could be turned in their favour and indeed they managed to level the score from their first short corner. A well taken move saw Portelli and Plaehn exchange passes, the latter finding the net. Against all predictions, from this point onwards the Sliema side failed to perform and White Hart took the initiative. Lack of substitutes and off form from a number of key players complicated matters.

In the dying minutes of the game the match officials failed to whistle two backstick infringements but the Hotsticks rearguard astonishingly stopped and a mishit ball was not cleared on its way to goal. At this point, little time was left for a possible equaliser and for the fourth consecutive match Hotsticks did not manage to bag any points.

Schembri Stefano 15 (National League 1 goal, 9-a-side 2 goals, U16 7 goals, Int. Friendlies 5 goals)

Cacopardo Dario 11 (U16 7 goals, Int. Friendlies 4 goals)

Portelli Steve 10 (National League 3 goals, U16 7 goals)

Grech Dylan 7 (U16 2 goals, Int. Friendlies 5 goals)

Plaehn Silas 6 (Challenge Cup 1 goal, U16 2 goals, Int. Friendlies 3 goals)

Agius Daniel 5 (U16 3 goals, Int. Friendlies 2 goals)
Grech Perth 5 (U14 4 goals, Int. Friendlies 1 goal)
Plaehn Lukas 5 (Challenge Cup 3 goals, Friendly 2 goals)

Bonnici Miguel 4 (U14 4 goals)
Farrugia Nicky 4 (U14 4 goals)
Fiedler Sebastian 4 (U16 3 goals, 9-a-side 1 goal)

Amore Alessandro 2 (U14 1 goal, Int. Friendlies 1 goal)
Farrugia Benji 2 (U14 2 goals)
Grima Shaun 2 (Challenge Cup 1 goal, 9-a-side 1 goal)
Vella Vidal Malcolm 2 (U14 1 goal, Int. Friendlies 1 goal)

Agius Christ 1 (U14 1 goal)
Bonello Luke 1 (Int. Friendlies 1 goal)
Cachia Steven 1 (National League 1 goal)
George Ryan 1 (9-a-side 1 goal)

Starting Formation: Schembri Sheehan, Borg Karl, Borg Gabriel, Plaehn Silas, Fiedler Sebastian, Agius Daniel, Grech Dylan.

Substitutes who Played: Galea Maverick, Portelli Steve.

With the Team: Borg Daniel.

Umpires: Andre Ghio

Scorers: Dario Cacopardo 3, Sebastian Fiedler 2, Silas Plaehn

Disciplinary Measures: Nil

Two sides of the coin

The two Hotsticks teams produced an exciting game this afternoon, entertaining all those present at the Qormi Hockey complex. The final score could indicate a one-sided affair, but it was not the case as indicated by the result of 0 – 0 at the end of the first half.

The Sliema side was by far the better team during the first half, showing perfect organization in defence and rapid movement of the ball from defence to attack. The Stelmar players persisted in individual plays which gave rise to no shots at goal especially by the Farrugia twins who, contrary to other games, were not in the least effective. Instead, Sliema seemed always on the verge of scoring the first goal on various through balls given by Amore and Falzon, always finding Axiaq or Bonello unmarked. The best goal mouth opportunity of the first half in fact fell on Sliema’s sticks when one of Amore’s through balls found Bonello unmarked on the right. Bonello swiftly dribbled Stelmar’s last man M. Cutajar and crossed the ball to Axiaq who impacted the ball perfectly with the Stelmar keeper L. Bonnici well beaten. Vella Vidal however saved Stelmar with a reverse stop on the line, thus closing the first half goalless with Sliema by far the better side.

The second half was a totally different story though as Stelmar realized they needed to change their approach to the game. Grech was moved down the right flank and N. Farrugia moved to the left. Bonnici and Vella Vidal immediately showed their intentions in midfield to change the course of the game. In the third minute of the second half, Vella Vidal gave an inspiring through ball down the right which Grech impacted perfectly through his strong run down the flank. Grech passed the ball towards the top of the Dee which M. Bonnici met in a timely manner to deflect past keeper Ghirlando to hit the far post and into the net for the first goal of the game. Stelmar kept on the pressure and within a couple of minutes doubled the score through a Nicky Farrugia solo effort. This double score didn’t stop Sliema from reacting though and soon re-organized themselves to get their first short corner. Amore set the ball for Bonello who surprised the Stelmar defence with a pass back to Amore who shot towards goal beating Bonnici but having his shot stopped by a Stelmar player’s foot on the line. Sliema were thus awarded a penalty stroke which threatened to re-open the game for Stelmar. Amore walked up to take the stroke but failed to convert this great opportunity as keeper L. Bonnici saved a weak central shot. Following this, Sliema’s game lost momentum and Stelmar looked to close the game. Grech kept on attacking down the right and in another of his runs down the flank, M. Bonnici added a third goal, identical to the first. This was soon followed by the fourth by Vella Vidal who intercepted a loose ball at the top of the Dee and fired the ball into the net, to crown a magnificent performance. This was not all though as Agius was inserted in midfield after a few weeks missing from the game. He immediately looked particularly in shape and set M.Bonnici for Sliema’s fifth goal and his personal third. Stelmar scored the sixth and final goal through some fast passing between Agius and N. Farrugia who set his brother B. Farrugia perfectly on the left side of the Dee, with the latter taking full advantage of this pass to fire into the back of the net.

This leaves Stelmar with 6 points in 4 matches, within touching distance of first place and Sliema disappointingly with 1 point despite some excellent performances.

Starting Formation: Attard Thomas, Borg Karl, Cacopardo Dario, Borg Gabriel, Plaehn Silas, Portelli Steve, Fiedler Sebastian, Schembri Stefano.

Substitutes who Played: Galea Maverick, Grech Dylan.

With the Team: Vella Gabriel, Schembri Sheehan.

Umpires: Edward Hughes & Reno Cremona

Scorer: Steve Portelli

Disciplinary Measures: Dario Cacopardo

Starting Formation: Borg Emile, Borg Karl, Fiedler Sebastian, Gauci Leanne, George Ryan, Portelli Steve, Grima Shaun, Cacopardo Dario, Schembri Stefano.

Substitutes who Played: Attard Thomas, Agius Daniel, Borg Gabriel.

Scorer: Stefano Schembri

Umpires: David Agius and Tony Azzopardi

Disciplinary Measures: Nil

Stelmar end first round with Convincing win

Stelmar Hotsticks ended the first round of the U-14 National Hockey league with an emphatic 5 – 0 win over Floriana Young Stars. From the initial stages, Stelmar dominated the game in all parts of the field with the tactical change of moving Perth Grech up the field of play paying dividends after just a couple of minutes when he converted an excellent cross from Nicky Farrugia into the first goal of the game. The early goal left Floriana disoriented and this allowed Grech to double the score a few minutes later also adding a second goal to his name. At this point Floriana ventured out of their defensive play with Stelmar keeper Bonnici and central defender M.Cutajar intervening well on a couple of occasions to deny Floriana from pulling one back. The first half ended on the score of 2 – 0 with Stelmar being by far the better team.

The second half started very much on the same note with Stelmar’s game looking even more organized. Benji Farrugia was looking particularly sharp in his game and quickly added a third goal to the score line after some excellent work from midfielders Vella Vidal, S. Cutajar and Bonnici. The Stelmar clan kept on the pressure particularly through repeated sorties from Nicky Farrugia on the right flank who looked unstoppable on the day, however it was Grech who added a 4^th goal to the score line and his personal hat-trick. Towards the end of the game, Micallef’s work resulted in a well taken short corner which captain Nicky Farrugia transformed into the final and 5^th goal of the game, giving Stelmar momentum for the start of the second round.

SLIEMA HOTSTICK 0 QORMI 4

Bad injuries to Sliema players determines final score

After the promising game against Floriana YS, Sliema were looking to secure further points for themselves to move further up the table. Sliema immediately looked the livelier side with Team Captain Amore looking particularly inspired on the day, recovering several balls in midfield and quickly launching fast counter attacks. This resulted in the first short corner of the game being assigned to Sliema, piling up further pressure on the Qormi side. Amore passed the ball to Bonello who passed it back to the unmarked Amore who missed the impact on the ball and lost the best chance to open the score for the Sliema side. Sliema did not lose heart and kept on the pressure through Bonello and Amore who were very well covered by an excellent defensive trio. After several attempts though it was Qormi who scored the first goal after Falzon failed to clear the ball and Schembri finding himself unprepared thus allowing a very soft goal. Soon after this goal, Sliema did not manage to react as they lost captain and key player Alessandro Amore through an injury to the head  from a high ball. This was immediately followed by a similar injury to De Marco which left the team without their captain and vice captain. This was too much to overcome for Sliema which even though they kept on fighting till the end, even missing a few good goal mouth chances from Axiaq and Bonello, lost the game with a 4 – 0 score line. Sliema will now start the second round against Stelmar with just 1 point yet conscious that on the day they could beat anyone.