Women's Football
Hibs launch title defence with a bang


Hibs kicked off their title defence in emphatic fashion after thumping Rabat Ajax 13-0 on Tuesday.

Hibs dominated from the start and after Dorianne Theuma saw her effort bounce off the woodwork, the same player soon made amends when she put her team ahead in the 11th minute.

Theuma then turned provider four minutes later when her swinging cross was met by Ylenia Carabott who headed the ball home.

On 21 minutes, Hibs were 3-0 up, Theuma firing a low shot past Rabat goalkeeper Christine Galea following a goalmouth melee.

Galea then did well to keep out Carabott's rasping drive but the Rabat goalkeeper was beaten again on 24 minutes. Sarah Caruana had a shot partially blocked by Galea and from the rebound, Tessie Agius poked the ball into an empty net.

Caruana put her name on the scoresheet on 32 minutes when she evaded her marker before lobbing Galea. Keeping up the pressure after the change of ends, Hibs struck three times between the 47th and 49th minutes through Carabott, Kathleen Saliba and Caruana.

Rabat could not offer any resistance and the Paolites went on to score five more goals through Theuma, Chantalle Grech, debutant Vanessa Attard, Claire Sciberras and Carabott.


Teams' line-ups:
Hibernians: R. Tagliaferro (C. Camilleri), L.A. Galea, M. Debono, S. Debono, T. Agius (N. Grima), M. Azzopardi, D. Theuma, K. Saliba (V. Attard), Y. Carabott, S. Caruana (C. Sciberras), R. Chircop (C. Grech).

Rabat Ajax: C. Galea, M. Mizzi (M. Micallef), H. Rota (C. Caruana), M. Farrugia (M. Agius), D. Agius, J. Galea, E. Xerri Mullan, K. A. Brincat (L. Calleja), K. Camilleri, N. Kelly, J. Zahra.


(Times of Malta)

So, Cookie, unless I have counted wrongly here, you got a hat-trick

Congratulations Cookie

Thanks shlj

Yes twmcat I've got a hat-trick but I didnt even play as a striker in the first half and I got a couple of assists which I'm so happy about

Well done Cookie , sounds like you had a great game

Congrats Cookie Looks like a great performance from both yourself and the team Keep up the good work! With a 13-0 win your starting to sound like the Arsenal Ladies of Malta

I think you'd probably score one or two if they put you in goal

Well done Cookie!

Keep up the good work and I'm sure Kopps will sign you in no time!

Haha yeah, I wish! Thanks a lot tho


Lol twmcat, I might be able to get to take a penatly if I'd be put in goal (tho I'm really not good as a GK) so I'll still to just playing somewhere else but not a GK. I was playing on the left like Lotta with sweden and I was so happy, because it's one of my favourite positions even tho I have to improve a lot on my left.

Thanks a lot justme and smithy, all we did was have fun playing and it really paid off, it does almost always


Next game is on the 18th of October, should be a tougher match. We're playing against Melita, last years Knock Out finalists.

great stuff Cookie, keep it up mate

Hibs maintain charge

Champions Hibernians maintained their perfect start to the 2006/07 championship after beating Melita 2-0 in midweek.

Against Melita, Hibs seized the initiative early on and broke the stalemate on 15 minutes when Dorianne Theuma released Sarah Caruana who slotted the ball home.

Melita came more into the picture after this goal but it was Hibs who went closest to scoring again only for Ylenia Carabott's shot to hit the post. For Melita, a Natasha Pace header finished just wide.

Melita lifted their game significantly after the break. From a Rebecca D'Agostino free-kick, Hibs goalkeeper Rita Tagliaferro was almost deceived but the ball hit the bar before the Hibs defence cleared.

Hibs, however, sealed the points 12 minutes from time. A Rebecca Chircop shot was partially blocked but in came Maria Azzopardi who drilled in the rebound.

Teams line-ups
Melita: S. Zammit, N. Gauci, C. Zammit, M. Debattista, D. Micallef, N. Pace, R. D'Agostino (J. Ellul Soler), R. Steerchetham (J. Abdilla), I. Vassallo, O. Bedingfield, G. Zahra.

Hibernians: R. Tagliaferro, L.A. Galea, M. Debono, S. Debono, M. Azzopardi, D. Theuma, T. Agius, S. Caruana (L. Shead), C. Grech (R. Chircop), K. Saliba, Y. Carabott.

....

We played really bad and was lucky to have won with two goals to zero. Probably my worst game as well

A win is a win! Congrats for winning and everyone has bad days, if you didn't you wouldn't be human I'm sure you'll be back on form in no time, best of luck for upcoming matches Cheers for report too!

Well, you did hit the post

And it was a difficult game - so, well done

Yea Cookie take your wins however they come, you can always work on the things that didnt quite gel in training.
Keep it up mate

Play bad and still win the game, where do I know this from?

Congrats Cookie girl!!

Thanks!
Yeah, that's what our coach told us today, we're lucky than we can manage to win even if we play bad heh.
We have a big break now, a month or so because we have national duties next month we're playing three games in a week for the 2009 UEFA European Women's Championship preliminary round.
Hopefully we'll hit top form there and get good results

This is our group, tough one with Slovakia in it, but I'm sure we'll do our best.
Group 3
Slovakia
Malta
Luxembourg
Lithuania

A month that's good time to rest and get back into top form! Three games in a week , well all the best with that, it's tough going!

No idea what Slovakia are like, hopefully you have a good day and get a win

Best of luck there Cookie - just be glad you're not up against the mighty Wales

Thanks everyone, twmcat, justme, smoogie and Agent Smith I fell asleep last night sorry

We had a talk about the game yesterday and everyone agreed that we had our moments in the game but they didn't gel in together, like smoogie said Our coach said that it was a really bad game, disastrous game but then he took his word back after that cause it wasn't that bad, just bad.
I was playing out of position again, which I really don't mind, as long as we win and keep scoring

Agent Smith I heard a rumour (maybe just ) that Arsenal are coming here sometime next year, it'd be great but I'm not getting my hopes up, since nothing ever happens here.

Thanks , three days after we get back we have a difficult game with Hibs in the league too, so I can say 4 games in 10 days (they're still trying to fix the fixtures)
Slovakia topped one of the second division groups in the qualifying campaign for the FIFA Women's World Cup earlier this year so they must be good and are ranked 39th place, but we're not fearing them. We just have to play how we know

Thanks twmcat, I hoped we'd play against Wales, even if they would be tough to beat, but it'd be great one day playing against good nations maybe another time