The new season could not have started with a hotter matchup for the Naxxar Victorians as the hotly contested derby of the north kickstarted our season, and what a Victorians win it was.

Speaking to the MAFA review programme after the 1-0 win against Mosta, goalkeeper Kurt Aquilina said the derby was extra motivation to play well.

“The derby, albeit at the beginning of the season when you’re still unsure of what other teams can offer after a summer of changes, gives you that extra motivation because you’ll want to do your best for the bragging rights,” Aquilina said.

The 29-year-old kept this new season’s first clean sheet, particularly with a spectacular diving save in the second half, minutes away from the Victorians’ winning goal scored by newcomer Luke Mifsud.

“As those who were there could see, we were very compact as a team and we stayed strong until we scored the goal.,” he explained to Robert Busuttil’s programme.

“From here, I’d like to congratulate Luke (Mifsud) because this was his first game with the club. He came in as a substitute and made an instant impact.”

Redemption

This first outing for the Victorians was the beginning of a plan for redemption by the club this season and Aquilina believes the side has grown over the summer.

“The game was important for us, but it was also one in which we enjoyed ourselves playing football,” Aquilina said.

“This summer, the team has gelled together – we’ve brought in new players together with the nucleus we had last year so you can say we’ve kept a second division squad – we barely lost players and the additions we brought in, personally I think they’ve done great things for us already.

“To be a relegated team is not a nice experience – I think last season we took it personally to get relegated, so to be in the third division is already motivation in itself to try and push ourselves back to where we were.

“Obviously promotion is our main target this season and just like we’ve shown during the game, we won’t be backing down from fighting for this!”