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Archive - Archive 2004 - July 2013

Football: Barclays league division one-St Francis sink sorry St Louis Suns |07 October 2011

The sun did not shine on St Louis Suns as the heavy downpour at times affected visibility but St Francis were up for the job of recording their second league win over the Victoria-based team this season.

St Louis Suns had inflicted a first defeat on St Michel which had given them hope of fending off relegation, but on Wednesday, they missed the inspiration of captain Trevor Poiret who is hospitalized. Mervin Mathiot was also absent after a freak accident.

For their part, St Francis were hyped up for this encounter and should have taken the lead in the 16th minute from a long ball over the St Louis Suns defence which fell to Stephan Barallon who had all the time in the world to adjust his shot but he crashed it against the post. The rebound fell to Yves Zialor but his shot was charged down as St Louis Suns survived a scare.

St Louis Suns responded two minutes later from some good approach play by Fabien Cadeau who released the overlapping Eddie Bistoe whose teasing cross was missed by Roddy Melanie’s header.

In the 28th minute, St Louis Suns should have broken the deadlock from a superb through ball by Ryan Antat to Melanie who weaved his way past a couple of tackles and goalie Andréa Libanotis. However, Melanie’s weak shot was cleared on the goal-line by Yannick Manou.

Ten minutes later, St Louis Suns went even closer as Antat played a neat one-two with Yannick Charlette before firing a thumping shot which Libanotis parried out of danger.

St Francis rocked St Louis Suns’ boat in the 42nd minute as Barallon raced onto a free-kick to flash his cross on the penalty edge and Zialor’s header was surprisingly flapped by St Louis Suns’ reserve goalkeeper Elvis Leopold. The ball bounced off him and into the net for a 1-0 lead for the boys of coach Patrick Cafrine.

St Francis hardly gave St Louis Suns time to re-adjust their susceptible defence in the second half as they struck a second goal in the 48th minute.

It all started from Malagasy Fortunat delaying his pass to young Yannick Confiance who was not in an offside position and then reversed a pass to Barallon.  Assistant referee Jason Damoo was right not to signal for an offside despite appeals by the St Louis Suns bench, letting Barallon race through to slip the ball under Leopold’s desperate dive to score a valid goal and make it 2-0.

St Louis Suns tried to get a foot in the game and in the 52nd minute, Melanie floated a corner to Brian Dorby whose header was deflected into corner by captain Ronny Monthy.

The game threatened to boil over despite the cool weather and persistent rain as tempers flared from some crunching tackles but referee Jean-Claude Labrosse was too lenient at times.

In the 63rd minute as St Louis Suns pushed forward, they were caught on a counter as Barallon pierced the opponents’ defence with a darting run, but his shot was pushed out by Leopold for a decent save.

St Francis killed off St Louis Suns’ resistance in the 73rd minute from a high ball which was not cleared and Alpha Baldé laid it on a plate to the unmarked Zialor who let fly a rasping shot which went in off the post for a 3-0 scoreline.

It was a wonderfully crafted and executed goal which sent the St Francis supporters in raptures and left St Louis Suns pondering on their plight.

R. J-L.

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