Santa Lucía

Down in the south of Malta, Santa Luċija's derbies are with neighbours rather than history: Tarxien Rainbows, Gudja United and Sirens, clubs close enough that a short drive separates the grounds, and Valletta gets mentioned too when the fixture list allows it. There is no single match carrying the town's name as a derby, but the geography does the work anyway.

The club took the name Il-Qaddisin, "The Saints," from Saint Lucy, and it wore yellow and blue from the start in 1974. For decades that meant staying in the lower divisions of the Maltese pyramid, the kind of existence where a mid-table finish counts as a quiet season. That changed in 2018–19: third place in the Challenge League, then a run through the promotion play-offs that ended with St Andrews beaten and Santa Luċija in the Premier League for the first time.

The cup form followed a similar arc. A first semi-final in the Maltese FA Trophy came in 2021–22, and the club went one better the next season, reaching the final in 2022–23. Birkirkara beat them 2–0 there, so the Trophy itself is still missing from the cabinet, but a small club from an 800-capacity ground getting that far was not something Il-Qaddisin had managed before.

Justin Haber has worn the gloves for Santa Luċija and for Malta itself, a goalkeeper whose presence in the side carries more weight than the club's modest home crowds might suggest.