Ħamrun’s stride halted by fighting Mosta

ĦAMRUN SPARTANS 0

MOSTA 2

Kotlov 23, 75

Ħamrun Spartans’ aspirations to maintain their positive stride at the top of the league table were summarily jolted when Mosta striker Nikita Kotlov summoned all his opportunistic qualities to ram in two goals and send them reeling to their first defeat of the season.

Mosta, under Mark Miller were in no merciful mood as they battled hard against opponents passing through moments of grace. They fought boldly to put up a noose around Ħamrun's potentially slick-moving front line.

The outcome was almost inevitable. Generally, the spark and the biting edge were missing from the Spartans, yesterday. Wilfried Domoroud tried hard and through his physical presence, he often posed problems to the Mosta defence but by, and large, he rarely got the right service from his colleagues despite the hard running of Soufiane Lagzir.

Domoroud gave an early inkling of his menace when going close inside the first four minutes when Lagzir raced on the left flank and squared the ball towards the French striker who, however, only just managed to connect to the ball and Andreas Vella had no difficulty in diverting the ball.

Triston Caruana went close when he was...