Matthew Grech

Goalkeeper - Birkirkara
20 Aug 2027
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Marked for Matthew Grech

24 Edition

The Birkirkara Courier

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad11 Jan 2027

Nhlanhla Gasa gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nhlanhla Gasa has just signed for Birkirkara, and for once the answer mattered.

The dugout11 Jan 2027

Matthew Grech: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birkirkara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad11 Jan 2027

Tempers go at Birkirkara

Franklin Sasere was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad11 Jan 2027

Nhlanhla Gasa signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nhlanhla Gasa commits to Birkirkara for another 3 years.

Squad11 Jan 2027

Jefferson Vinicius falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout11 Jan 2027

The manager makes an example of Roni Santos

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Market11 Jan 2027

A long bet from Birkirkara on Nhlanhla Gasa

He is 20, and nobody at Birkirkara signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.

The dugout11 Jan 2027

Jere Vrcić has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Birkirkara will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout11 Jan 2027

William Azzopardi on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” William Azzopardi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

In brief

Back issues
16 Edition

The Birkirkara Courier

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings16 Nov 2026

Macula scores twice — 8.84

Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Match14 Nov 2026

8 unbeaten for Birkirkara

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Birkirkara did not have in the autumn.

Squad16 Nov 2026

Zach Muscat in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match14 Nov 2026

Birkirkara see off Gzira United

Three points for Birkirkara, 3‑1 the final word against Gzira United in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad16 Nov 2026

Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match14 Nov 2026

Macula answers Gzira United immediately

Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Macula had Birkirkara level again within 1 minutes, and Gzira United never got to play with a lead at all.

Player ratings16 Nov 2026

Kemar Reid was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout16 Nov 2026

William Azzopardi has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” William Azzopardi on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

The dugout16 Nov 2026

The manager makes an example of Jake Vassallo

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

11 Edition

The Birkirkara Courier

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad12 Oct 2026

Tempers go at Birkirkara

Zach Muscat was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings12 Oct 2026

Jan Busuttil beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad12 Oct 2026

Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout12 Oct 2026

Half-satisfied: William Azzopardi on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

Squad12 Oct 2026

Jere Vrcić named player of the week

One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Jere Vrcić has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.

The dugout12 Oct 2026

Matthew Grech gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout12 Oct 2026

Donovan Makoma dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

Match10 Oct 2026

Birkirkara and Sliema Wanderers cancel each other out

Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Sliema Wanderers came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.

Looking ahead12 Oct 2026

JP Iseppe goes back to face Naxxar Lions

Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is JP Iseppe’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Birkirkara needing him to play as if none of it matters.

In brief

9 Edition

The Birkirkara Courier

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings28 Sep 2026

A brace, and Franklin Sasere takes the afternoon — 8.62

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franklin Sasere provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad28 Sep 2026

A falling-out at Birkirkara

Zach Muscat and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match26 Sep 2026

Franklin Sasere sends Birkirkara past Mosta

It finished 2‑0, and it was Franklin Sasere’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Birkirkara.

Player ratings28 Sep 2026

Kemar Reid was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Squad28 Sep 2026

11 new faces, and Birkirkara are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

The dugout28 Sep 2026

William Azzopardi: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.

Looking ahead28 Sep 2026

A reunion for Rashed Al-Tumi

He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Valletta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.

The dugout28 Sep 2026

Macula knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Macula trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Player ratings28 Sep 2026

Nobody could get near Louis Pahama

Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief