Rabat Ajax v San Gwann
Sliema Wanderers v Gzira United
Siggiewi v Luqa St. Andrew's
Birzebbuga v Marsaxlokk
Malta Ladies v United Arab Emirates Ladies
Valletta v Floriana
Ghaxaq v Kirkop United
The joys of rediscovering air travel means a return to a four weekly euro-jaunt. This month it was a long weekend in the sunnier climes of Malta, with a healthy dose of football sprinkled in. The start was this fantastic shot of a Ryan Air plane at Manchester.
An uneventful three hours later, into Malta International Airport, with landing being announced that 86% of its planes arrive on time. As someone who works in train operations, there is a secret code that if you don't know a figure, just say 86% as it isn't high enough that you will be asked about how it was achieved and good practice, but not low enough that you will be asked about what went wrong, or to evidence the figure. I have a healthy dose of suspicion that the airlines are now in on the 86% charade.
Outside, and straight into one of the island's current notorieties; buses. Malta has a long and interesting history with buses. They arrived on the island in the early 1900s, but no single company got its act together enough to form a major network. Instead, individuals bought and operated buses, and it was the start of a long tradition of owner operation. Things were semi organised in the 1930s with the formation of a traffic department for safety considerations, and in the 1950s the operators formed a trade body which put together a semblance of a timetable which the individual buses were rostered to.
The cost of replacing the buses, and the fact that Malta is right hand drive, limiting the second hand options, meant that the buses stayed on in service for many years. They were also subject to individual alterations by the owners, which resulted in absolute classic buses operating in everyday service well in to the current millenium.
However, come the new century and with car ownership much more attainable, bus traffic was decreasing and the islands roads becoming gridlocked. The government therefore brought in some management consultants to come up with a solution. Unfortunately, they had no local knowledge, and limited transport experience, and came up with a range of barking mad schemes for nuclear powered air ships and such like. The one that was chosen was to completely nationalise the bus network, and then privatise it to a single operator.
This happened and It was none other than Arriva who took over the network, with the owner drivers being forced to scrap their buses and become employees of the new operator. However, things did not go well, as the network was completely inoperable due to congestion as the promised bus lanes never materialised. The drivers didn't appreciate their new employment status so were even grumpier, unhelpful and wreckless than previous. This meant that the buses ran horrifically late or not at all, and were in frequent accidents. In the end, Arriva threw in the towel, having incurred a 50 million euro loss to the German state railway. The operation was taken back into state ownership, but has since been re-let to a Spanish operator, but is as chaotic as ever.
I was on an express service to the north end of the island. It started from here with a half hour turn round. There was one bus in the holding area, which waited until ten minutes after departure time, before meandering upto the stop.
Although this is one of the four express routes, these just run non-stop between various popular destinations. However, these are usually some distance from major roads, so take an eternity to get to, so are no faster than the local buses. We crawled through the outskirts of Valletta to the university and hospital.
Before finally escaping onto the main coastal road and a pleasant run to the top of the island, arriving over half an hour late on a journey timed for less than an hour.
First off a quick look at the local ground. Mellieħa were founded in the 1960s and play in the Maltese second division.
Like most clubs on the island, they have a local ground, however, these are not used for first team games. The reason for this is that the Maltese FA organise the fixture list so that games in the top five divisions are played in one of seven nominated grounds on the island.
This is to ensure that the grounds used are of a basic minimum standard, but this would be prohibitively expensive for all clubs to get their grounds to that level, so only a certain number are used. This does mean a lot of travelling for the clubs, as both home and away games are played a distance from their locality.
However it does mean that games are spread across the whole weekend, at staggered kick off times, and the added bonus of a woman's friendly on Sunday morning, I could get in all the grounds. Added to that a few ferry moves and some pony and trap racing, and this was my plan for the weekend.
This did actually take me almost directly to where I wanted to go, which was 12 miles away. However, after an hour and fifty minutes, we'd only covered half the distance. It seemed the whole of Malta was gridlocked by cretinous fools heading to the Black Friday Sales. This is a concept dreamed up by cunts, exploited by bigger cunts, but then attended by complete and utter hideously moronic cunts, who seem to think that it is a great idea to sit in traffic for two hours to get a 10% discount on a toaster. These sorts of people are up there with those that order hot drinks in pubs as the absolute blight on society. Anyway, having covered a hundred yards in twenty minutes I got out and walked the last four miles of solid traffic.
Except as soon as I got off the main road, all the traffic disappeared. Needless to say, no buses ran along here.
Eventually the ground was reached, with the game well underway, so I watched some of it through a crack in the wall.
In time, I headed round to the main entrance, which looked more like George Best's house of the future than it did a football ground.
Rabat Ajax 1 v San Ġwann 5, Bank of Valletta Maltese League - First division
Rabat is in the west of the island and is a suburb of Mdina, which was the islands major city in Roman times with Rabat being the cemetery as it has a network of natural caves which were seen as a hygienic way to bury the dead. The football team is the result of a series of mergers, who's names I will all list as they are great. So, in 1937 Rabat Rovers and Rabat Rangers merge to form Rabat FC. Then in 1980 they joined with Ajax (probably not the Dutch ones, but I haven't checked) to form Rabat Ajax. This led to the high point of their history, with the mid eighties seeing two league titles and two cup wins. Their initial foray into Europe saw them share sixteen goals with Inter Bratislava. I say share in the loosest sense as it was the Czechoslovakian's who scored all of them. Since then, their European record has been Played 8, Won 0 Drawn 0 Lost 8, Goals For 0 Against 40. Although they haven't had the luck of a guaranteed win by being drawn against any Irish or Welsh sides, or Rangers.
San Ġwann were formed in 1949 when the place was still a small village. They joined the third division of the Maltese league but gained a reputation for being unruly troublemakers both on and off the field, which saw them disband in the 1960s. By the next decade, the area had become part of the conurbation of central Malta, and was big enough to host a football team again, and they rejoined the league..
The Victor Tedesco Stadium was opened in 1996 and is the home ground of Premier League Hamrun Spartans. Most sites state it has a 6k capacity with 1,800 seats, but I've only ever known it have a main stand and the other three sides are brick walls, so god knows where those four thousand people fit in. I've been here once before, to see Malta play Norway in qualifying for the Rugby League World Cup. It seems that the main stand has been refurbished, with the rather sporadic seating which was in place then, replaced with proper blocks, and the wasteland at the top of the stand, now has some offices and viewing areas in place.
As ever with Maltese grounds, they have one large stand, divided into three, with the opposing supporters getting either end, and the club officials getting the central section.
The away side were already one up and immediately added a second.
And then a third.
The corner flags were very short.
As was this blokes temper as he got sent off for being angry about something which no one could particularly work out why.
Victor Tedesco himself is a major part of Spartan's history, being a former player, manager, chairman, president, as well as a well known actor, producer and opera singer, whilst in his spare time being a leading industrialist in oil, power, automobiles and food distribution. Oh, and a fighter pilot. Yes, but is he happy?
And another.
Rabbit got a consolation goal at the end, and another sending off. I didn't see why, other than the bloke seemed less angry than his team mate had.
The game ending 1-5 in goals and 9-11 in players.
I headed for a bus that never turned up, so walked forty minutes to the main road. A succession of buses heading to a lot of other places did turn up, but none on the fifteen minute frequency of the route I was looking for. After an hour, I got on one that was going half way along the route, and enquired what was happening to my buses, to which the driver responded 'I don't care, it's not my route', an answer who's major virtue was brevity.
This dropped me off on the interchange of the bypass of a town two down from where I was heading, and about two hours late.
This did at least mean the night bus network was now in place, and these seemed to be running to time. The rather cheery driver informing me that no buses run on time in daylight.
I thanked the driver for his wise mantra, and finally got back to the hotel in the early hours, seeing if it was possible to blot the sun out for the next two days, in the off chance that any of my bus moves might have a faint chance of working.
Day 2, Saturday 25/11/17
In order to get some slack time into the schedule, the next morning I departed an hour earlier than planned.
But heading north to the extremity of the island.
The reason for this was that this is where the ferry port is located, and we dropped down to Cirkewwa.
Where it was onto the MV Malita, which was ready to make the short hop across to the island of Gozo.
The route operates three ferrys on a 45 minute frequency, and we soon departed, passing the balancing working halfway across the Gozo Channel.
Gozo is an island off the north west tip of Malta, and was originally inhabited by Sicilian farmers, living in natural caves.
It has the flag that looks most like a blancmange of any I've ever seen.
There is a good bus network on the island, and it seems to operate free of the chaos of the Maltese counterpart, with my onward move awaiting a prompt departure outside the terminal.
It was heading for the capital, Victoria, but I alighted just outside the centre, in order to get in the one major stadium within the Maltese FA jurisdiction that didn't have a game scheduled for that weekend.
Again, the entrance to the stadium did a great impression of a house.
Though it is probably the best place for a great night out.
Probably.
The historic entrance was on lockdown.
But a side entrance gained me access. Gozo stadium was built in 1936 as the Silver Jubilee stadium named after King George V, and cost a very precise 819 pounds, 12 shillings and 3 pence to build.
This is the original Xewkija Stand.
A number of amenities, namely a boundary wall around the ground, dressing rooms, toilets and a bar, were added two years later.
In 1975, the Xaghra Stand was added. In 1995 the surface of the pitch was converted from sand to grass and in 2007, floodlights were added.
The stadium hosted the 2010 Viva World Cup, which is a brilliant competition for countries that don't exist except in the heads of warlords and fantasists. So obscure islands, tax havens and self-annexed parts of Eastern Europe play against each other, to see which is the best imaginary country at football. Previous winners have been Iraqi Kurdistan, Monaco, Sicily and Narnia.
It was back to the bus stop.
Where we dropped back down to Mgarr, an altogether more quainter port than its austere Maltese counterpart.
And I was back across the Gozo straits.
Heading for the sunshine. The temperature was in the low twenties for the whole weekend, which made a pleasant change to Manchester.
Despite being stuck out in the middle of no where, Cirkewwa had a very sizeable fleet of buses ready for action.
At the appointed hour, every bus turned up except the one I wanted. Ten minutes after departure time, I was just boarding an alternative, when I saw that one of those that had been parked up with a driver in it for the last twenty minutes, was ambling along to the stop, showing my required number.
And so we headed down along the coastal road in a leisurely fashion. The timetable here is definitely an aspiration rather than anything that should be used as a source of reference.
This dropped me off at the harbourside in Sliema, which originated as a fishing village but it soon became a popular settlement for the English and also as a weekend residence for wealthy merchants from Valletta. This has seen it develop into the islands biggest coastal resort, especially for foreign tourists. This made it sound like a nightmare, so I jumped onto the cross harbour ferry...
...with a rather casual approach to mid channel gang plank access, leaving the town behind.
This took us across to Valletta.
You know my views on European capital cities, so here are the dull tourist tick box activities for the purists.
Harbour view.
Quaint historic street.
War memorial.
Statue to some bloke who looks like Stalin. All statues of people in suits look like Stalin.
City gardens.
Army football ground.
Bus station.
Warning sign with completely random amount to be fined.
So, another European capital ticked off in under ten minutes. At least when I'm drinking it takes a good twenty minutes.
Now for my next move which was over the water to the docks.
This involved a huge drop down to the water front, so the opportunity to scratch the city funicular.
Which turned out just to be a big lift.
Still, a tick is a tick.
Clearing for sight, the only remaining train on the island.
But for me, more nautical transport.
Thankfully, not this thing, which if nothing else, proved that rust does float.
No, instead another cross harbour catamaran. Notice in the background the luxury yacht Indian Empress, which is the biggest luxury yacht when it was built for the Qatar royal family but is now owned by Vijay Mallya, who is currently on the run from the Indian authorities for embezzlement. He has found a shadowy nation to hide out in though, called the United Kingdom. Post Brexit Britain, kicking out minimum wage Romanian agricultural workers but openly protecting billionaire colonial fraudsters. The people have spoken.
The low draft of my ferry means it heads right into the shallow harbour of Cospicua.
Where it deposited us quayside.
With remains of the dockyard narrow gauge system.
I was heading for my first actual game of the day, which took me through an impressive city gateway.
Then a breach of the outer walls.
This climbed high above the port, encountering a hockey game in progress. Note the provenance of the wooden boarding used to cover a hole in the fence.
However, next door was here, and eight euro got me a premier league ticket.
Sliema Wanderers 2 v Gzira United 1, Bank of Valletta Maltese League - Premier League.
Sliema Wanderers were formed in 1909 and have gone onto become Malta's most successful side, with 26 league titles and 20 cup wins. However, things have been a bit lean of late, with only a cup win in the last 15 years. They are veterans of 29 European campaigns, the most curious being the early 1980s where in 1982 they lost 0-3 on aggregate to Barcelona but the next year they were out 17-0 to the might of Swansea. Their only European wins have been against Zestafoni of Georgia and Rumelange of Luxembourg, which coincidentally, are both clubs I have visited in the past twelve months.
Gzira's origins are as an island that diseased sailors arriving into the port of Silema were annexed to. Over time it grew up as the working class part of Silema, its main function seemingly being to host the brothels for British sailors. However, it had had a docklands like revival and in the last twenty years has become an affluent business and residential areas. Gzira United were formed in 1947 and have had a fairly anonymous existence save a league and cup win in the 1970s. However, the leading Maltese betting company has established its headquarters in the town, and is providing the club with some income, which means it is currently becoming a more established side.
The Hibernians stadium is owned by Hibernians, who were the football club of the pro-British political party, which was the opposition to the national catholic party, therefore it was a slightly strange choice of name for the club. The ground only came into existence in 1986, when the club were enjoying a period of success, but this has since subsided. Perversely, because premier division matches are played at the National stadium, Hibernian no longer play there games here, it instead being used for first division fixtures. Why this was being played here I do not know.
As ever with Maltese grounds, it was a single stand divided into three, though this did have a full length cover.
The dressing rooms are located on a sunny terrace at one end of the ground, and the teams dutifully emerged.
They shook hands as the cranes swung to and fro.
The most notable part of the ground is the backdrop of cranes, nineteen of them in all.
The major ones are the three large yellow dockside cranes, which were busy at work unloading a Gibraltan registered bulk-carrier cargo vessel being unloaded of 50,000 dwt of fibre-board pellets.
Gzira took an early lead.
And chose their favourite crane to celebrate infront of.
Their supporters had a very jaunty New Orleans jazz band playing throughout the game. It was quite entertaining though I wasn't too disappointed to have the no-mans land of the press box as bit of respite from its immediate presence.
The cranes carried on their good work.
I have to say, watching boats being unloaded is a very enjoyable distraction during the breaks in play when players were feigning injury very badly.
However Sliema equalised, just as two of the cranes adjoined each other.
However, the second half saw Gzira re take the lead.
The game ended 2-1 to Gzira.
Despite only being thirty years old, the ground looks a lot older, and the way out revealed plans to spruce it up a bit.
But there were still two more games to get to. Another bus move took me to another set of city walls.
The bus stop I'd alighted at was on a bridge, with my next stop perpendicular on the road below. Like the Maltese bus version of Tamworth railway station.
The first bus that turned up was heading in the vague direction of where I wanted to go, and knowing the reliability of the operation, I decided this was the best option so was deposited in a housing estate off the main road.
Where a short walk took me to the next venue, with three euro entrance for second division football.
Grey market currency obviously deciding that its key demographic is attendees of third tier Maltese football.
The social club was showing Man Utd v Brighton, with a rather odd choice of abbreviation for the home team.
Siggiewi 3 v Luqa St. Andrew's 1, Bank of Valletta Maltese League - 2nd division.
Siggiewi is located on the south west coast of the island, but its cliff top location meant it grew up as a farming area. These days it hosts the only fireworks manufacturer based on the island. The football club started in 1949 and have played mostly in the third division before gaining promotion up to the second in 2010, where they remain today.
Luqa is a village in south central Malta, which grew up as the clock making centre for the island, but is now dominated by the international airport, which grew up on the former RAF base. Luqa St. Andrew's were formed in 1934, and this is their second spell in the second division, the highest level they have achieved.
The Luxol Stadium was opened in 2006 and is the home ground of St Andrews, a different club to today's visitors.
This was a poster on the wall of the bar, and shows the original site and its current form.
As ever, all facilities were on one side, although there was some break from the autonomy as the separate areas were split between different structures.
As ever, the rest of the ground was bare walls.
With more cranes as backdrops.
The teams took the field.
The central VIP section protruded right out to the touchline which meant a quarter of the pitch was obscured.
Though thankfully Luqa had all the opening play which was at our end.
However, the Siggiewi forward was tripped in their first attack.
Duly dispatched.
The impressive looking building forming the background to the far touchline actually turned out to be an abondoned nightclub called Raffles Discotheque. Stay classy Malta.
Luqa did pull one back.
My itinerary meant I was doing only the first half of this game. Siggiewi went on to win it 3-1.
I boarded the express bus from outside the ground.
Which took me along the coast with the sun setting.
And very handily, the first stop was here...
...right outside my next ground.
This kicked off fifteen minutes after the previous game, so I was arriving at half time, with the tiny ticket windows all locked up.
But the gates were all open, and I was into here.
Birzebbuga 5 v Marsaxlokk 2, Bank of Valletta Maltese League - Second Division
Birżebbuġa is the southern tip of Malta, and where the island was first inhabited from. These days it is the main holiday resort for Maltan's themselves. Birżebbuġa St. Peter's were formed in 1946. They have an excellently named youth section called Birżebbuġa Windmills Youth Nursery.
This was a local derby as Marsaxlokk is on the opposite side of the bay from Birżebbuġa, so good of the MFA to play the game at completely the opposite end of the Island. The town grew up around its fishing port, and it still is the main one for Malta, though it now also handles a lot of bulk products. The football club were formed in 1949 as Marsaxlokk White Stars. For fifty years, they hung around the second and third divisions, but then it all got a bit hectic. In the 2000s, they were promoted to the first and then premier divisions, got Brian Talbot as manager, won the cup, signed Chris Bart-Williams, won the Premier League, signed Nino Gomes, got busted for match fixing, signed someone from Yeovil, sold someone to Wimbledon, got fined but took a three league demotion instead, and then got promoted, which is where they are now.
Sirens stadium is the home ground of the local club of the same name. It was opened in 2011, the club having played until the 1970s at a local ground, and then one of the MFA appointed stadiums. It is passed to stage second and third division games.
Its modernity means it is quite featureless, with a single bank of open seating.
The second half got underway, with Marsaxlok having all the play.
However, Marsaxlok then scored, which apparently made it 3-0.
Make that 4-0.
It seemed to be quite a niggly affair, with lots of minor fracas.
Here a player gets a stiff lecture about having such a shit squad number.
Only one wing of the stand was opening, and there was only one crane on display, albeit it very close to the action.
Behind one goal line there was a tunnel taking spectators to the club house.
So with a penalty being given at that end...
...I got a worms eye view of its conversion.
And another penalty being given about a minute later.
Though missed the kick being taken, though did get to see the inevitable girly scrap to retrieve the ball to restart the game, which is often more entertaining than the kick itself.
The game ended 5-2.
Fortunately, buses were very frequent from the adjacent stop.
And I was back to my hotel about six hours earlier than after yesterday evenings game.
Day 3, Sunday 26/11/17
The next morning and a very early start to proceedings.
To a leafy bypass.
Where a local bus emerged to take me to the centre of the island.
Ta' Qali is a former RAF base but when they left in the 1970s, it became a national park.
With the Maltese FA looking to develop a headquarters and national stadium, a site within the park was chosen.
And just for good measure, built another stadium next door.
Malta Ladies 4 v United Arab Emirates Ladies 0, Friendly
Malta ladies made their official debut in the 2005 European Championship's qualifying, but it took three years to get their first point and the first win didn't come until 2013. They are currently 94th in the FIFA Women's World Ranking.
United Arab Emirates played their first women's international match in 2010, winning the West Asian Football Federation championships. For the first time, they have entered the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification, which acts as Asian qualifier for the 2019 World Cup.
The Centenary stadium was opened in 1998 by the Maltese FA as the stadium for its U21 and ladies teams. It's name derives from the hundred year anniversary of the FA. Until then, the secondary international fixtures had been played at Pace Grasso Stadium, but the MFA wanted all its activities centrally located.
The team's took the field, and guess what we have as a backdrop. It really does seem to be a ground grading requirement. A decent nine cranes on display today.
The Maltese authorities were taking a stand against teenage pregnancy by making any players with children, carry them for the whole game.
Malta took the lead in the second minute.
UAE were shockingly bad. Brexit bills have been passed with more speed and accuracy than they passed the ball. I took this photo as it was the only time they got in Malta's penalty area.
Malta got a second.
And a third.
I have to give Maltese football credit, as it really does give an array of viewing possibilities instead of the game. Today, I got to watch a motorcross race.
And a 1979 Leyland Clydesdale watering the track.
And a view of the adjacent National Stadium, but more of that later.
Into the second half and Malta scored a third.
With the game ending 4-0 to the hosts.
I stumbled across the Maltese National museum of aviation, which was hosting a vintage car day, which included a Fiat Strada, of which I'd already seen a few in everday use on the island.
It was another bus move.
This dropped me off at Birkirkara.
I took the opportunity to explore this place.
Which was a station on the long since closed Maltese railway line. It operated from 1883 to 1931, but succumb to competition from buses, as well as the diminishing importance of the inland locations it served.
A half hour walk took me to my next event. Marsa Race Track was built in 1868, organised by Naval officers and other military ex-Pats. At a mile and three quarters, it was the longest in Europe. Racing was on an ad-hoc basis, somewhat disrupted by the wars as the horses were used for food. is one-kilometre long. Post WW2 saw big changes as organised racing was brought in.
A shortages of skilled jockeys saw a shift from saddled racing on North African horses, to pony and trap racing with European horses, as this required less skilled and size specific jockeys.
However, the huge size of the track meant race viewing wasn't particularly easy for spectators, an aerial shot shows the extent of the original track and its current form. The rest of the area now being a golf course and a retail park.
So in 1982 a major rebuilding took place. This saw the track shortened to a kilometre long oval, and a grandstand and spectator terraces built. The smaller track meant floodlights could be added for evening racing.
I can't say I have any interest in betting, but a check of the race card revealed an interesting competitor in horse 12 in this race, as its namesake train company was on strike today.
A visit to on track bookie Raymond and 3 euro got me 7-1 odds, he has obviously tried to get from Bristol to Birmingham by Voyager.
The races have a rolling start behind a pick up truck that looks like it is crop-spraying.
The competitors then do a couple of laps of the course.
With this one providing comedy value as it kept trying to turn round and was in danger of being lapped.
However, the front runners weren't much faster, it being an incredibly slow form of racing, allied to the fact that it is almost impossible to overtake.
Eventually, they just about managed to outpace some passing tectonic plates, and the horse that was in the lead at the start was still in the lead at the end. Cross Country came in fifth, which was better than their namesake.
I watched a couple more races, before heading off to the adjacent park and ride. However, despite the presence of about fifty buses, none actually turned up to take any passengers. Eventually, the bloke in the cafe came out to say that no drivers had turned up, so buses weren't operating on the route today. The utter disorganisation of the bus company has to be endured to be believed.
A mad sprint across the suburbs saw me do a journey google maps said would take 38 minutes in 16, and arrive at the stop just as my bus was pulling away, but fortunately the driver stopped for me, mainly because I stood in the road blocking his way. Anyway, the journey gave a slightly more scenic approach to the stadiums I had been at earlier, with the floodlights now illuminated in the middle of the park.
The roads were in gridlock, so we were dropped off in the middle of a roundabout.
I made my way to a by now much more busier NAtional Stadium. IT was half way through a double header of local derby's, with the crowds disgorging from the early fixture of Tarxien Rainbows v Hibernians.
The centenary stadium was hosting Zejtun Corinthians v Zabbar St Patrick.
Though I carried onto the main event.
Valletta 1 v Floriana 0, Bank of Valletta Maltese League - First division
Valletta were officially formed in 1943 as a merger of a few sides from the city, but they have taken over the records of those teams, most notably title winning Valletta United, even though they had gone out of business by the 1940s. The new side have gone on to much success, winning 23 league titles and 13 cups. Their European record is less impressive, including a 0-28 aggregate in their four games against Rangers. They did manage to beat B36, though, who are my favourite Faroese club named after a bra size.
Floriana is on the outskirts of Valletta, indicated by the town being named after the Italian designer of the outer city walls of the capital, within which the town grew. The football club are one of the oldest on the island, being formed in 1894, influenced by local British and Irish servicemen, the latter giving the green club colours. They are jointly the most successful Maltese side, with 25 title wins, although only one since the 1970s, and none this century. They have 20 cup wins, and were also the 1953 winners of the intriguing sounding 'Infantile Paralysis Cup'. Though their major contribution to the world of football seems to be ending Mark Wight's delusions of being a football manager after a two month stint at the club in 2012.
The stadium opened in 1981...
...with the main west stand still in use today...
... but the east stand was declared unsafe so was replaced in 2002 with the current Millenium Stand, which is open seating and with a large hospitality offering.
There are plans to replace the north...
...and south banks of open seating with squared off covered stands.
This was less a local derby and more like playing against someone who lives in your front garden. It gave a very lively atmosphere, and I was in with the Floriana supporters.
Diagonally opposite the Valletta fans also put on a bit of a show.
This flag was a great homage to clipart.
The ultras had a youth wing.
Disappointingly, no cranes were on display.
So instead, the Floriana central defenders did impressions of them by spending the whole game throwing their arms out. They did it when someone fell over.
They did it when someone stood up.
They did it when someone shot wide.
There was also a very unusual tactic at corners, with all the players stood in a big huddle.
But it worked as Valletta scored from it.
I watched a bit of the other game.
Into the second half and my allocated seat had the goal obscured by a flag with a photo shopped lion on it.
Our mate was waving his arms again, but to no avail.
As the game finished 1-0 to the capital.
It was yet another gridlocked bus move.
But only a short hop to the outskirts of the adjacent town of Mosta.
Where a short walk took me to here, which whilst being very visible, didn't give an obvious way to get to the actual game.
Eventually I found an open door, which led me through the changing rooms and down the players tunnel, which I assumed not to be the official spectators entrance.
But eventually I was in the final game of the weekend.
Ghaxaq 2 v Kirkop United 0, Bank of Valletta Maltese League - Third division
Ghaxaq is a village in south central Malta. The football team were formed in the 1950s and have spent their history at the lower level of Maltese football, switching between the second and third divisions with a few spells in the amateur leagues.
Kirkop is a village near the airport, which meant this was another local derby being played nowhere near the two places. The village is host to an electronics plant that produces 60% of Malta's exports. Kirkop United were formed in 1956 and since then have had an uneventful existence in the second and third divisions.
The Charles Abela Stadium was originally a gravel pitch but was significantly upgraded in 2010. This saw an open stand built, along with a 3G pitch and floodlights. It is located in the middle of a residential area and the club and the locals don't appear to be particularly harmonious, with various objections to the development.
As ever, there was one stand, this being a modest block of open seating.
The central area again blocking out a quarter of the pitch, despite being made of glass.
Although a large wooden gazebo was located in the middle, which acted as the ticket office.
At one end were the dressing rooms and a lively club bar.
I'd arrived at half time, with Ghaxaq leading 1-0, and they soon added a second with a well taken goal.
Kirkop had some chances but couldn't reduce the deficit.
Though they did get the highest ball of the weekend.
For once a direct and punctual bus move from outside the ground...
...which deposited me back to the hotel.
Which had been overun by a load of middle aged German couples, who all looked to be on some sort of Euro-swinging weekend.
The next morning and I was leaving, I was surprised to find that my room had not only a balcony, but also a hot tub. I'll leave that for the German's.
As this was my last bus of the trip, it was heartening to find it ten minutes late and already full and standing.
And back to the airport.
And another three hours forty minutes in the company of Ryanair and half of Wythenshawe.
And back to the normality of a crawling class 150 down the Calder Valley, stuck behind a Biomass train struggling to get traction in the seven degree drizzle.
But apart from the Maltese bus network, an otherwise a very enjoyable few days, especially being able to clear all the stadiums in the top four leagues of a competition in one weekend.
