Football: First Division League - St Michel overwhelm Anse Reunion, Côte d’Or, La Passe, St Louis win |27 March 2017
Ten-man St Michel overwhelmed Anse Reunion 5-0 with Malagasy Jocelyn scoring four at Stad Linite on Saturday while on
Praslin, St Louis beat Revengers 3-0 and on La Digue, La Passe defeated LightStars 1-0. On Friday, Dine Suzette grabbed a hat-trick to inspire Côte d’Or to a 5-0 victory over Red Star-Defence Forces.
Jocelyn hit four to lead 10-man St Michel to victory
St Michel’s Malagasy Jocelyn Fenosoa hit four goals for his team St Michel to lead them to an overwhelming 5-0 win over hapless Anse Reunion at Stad Linite in this re-scheduled match.
This match was delayed for 15 minutes as referee Emile Fred was not happy with the lack of police officers at the match but agreed to kick start the match after receiving reassurances for his security.
St Michel showed their intention from the word go in this match as Anse Reunion gave a debut to their new recruit, former La Passe midfielder Tanzanian Rashid Gumbo Mohamed who is in his third spell here in our league.
St Michel threatened in the opening five minutes as Jocelyn latched onto a long ball to hold off Don Fanchette’s challenge but he could not squeeze the ball past goalkeeper Ian Ah-Kong.
St Michel broke the deadlock though midway in this half as Kenner Nourrice combined with Andy Mougal and the inspirational Ghanaian Emmanuel Nuhey to lay the ball on a plate to Jocelyn who kept his cool to tuck the ball into an empty net to make it 1-0.
In the 28th minute, Jocelyn tested goalkeeper Ah-Kong with a stinging shot which he parried into the path of the onrushing Nuhey whose tap-in looked goal-bound but the Anse Reunion custodian produced a superb point blank save to push the ball over the crossbar.
St Michel stretched their lead in the 40th minute when Nuhey went on a darting run from the half-way line into the Anse Reunion penalty area as he rode tackles and was flattened by Don Fanchette. Assistant referee Elderick Adelaide flagged to indicate the infringement and referee Fred obliged as he pointed to the spot. Jocelyn stepped up to bury the ball past goalkeeper Ah-Kong but the referee ordered the spot kick to be retaken for an error but it was the same result as Jocelyn drilled it into the net to make it 2-0.
St Michel suffered a major setback on the stroke of half-time when Kenner Nourrice was given his marching orders for elbowing Elton Monnaie in the face after he was booked earlier though in hindsight the sending off had little bearing on the final result.
St Michel re-shuffled their squad after half-time as they pulled off Darwind Rosette to bring on Basil Bertin and Anse Reunion sent Yelvanny Rose in attack in place of Warren Bibi.
The La Digue side nearly cut the deficit in the opening minute as Adrian Constance fed Yelvanny Rose whose flick fell invitingly to Mohamed but he was stopped in his stride by goalkeeper Michel.
St Michel extended their advantage in the 53rd minute from Nuhey’s mazy run at the Anse Reunion goal before he rolled the ball into the path of Jocelyn who cut inside to loft the ball brilliantly over goalkeeper Ah-Kong and it sailed into the net as he completed his hat trick at 3-0.
Jocelyn was in the groove as he scored a fantastic solo goal on the hour mark as he went on a slalom run gliding past defenders as he showed sublime skill before slotting the ball through goalkeeper Ah-Kong’s legs to make it 4-0.
Jocelyn provided an assist for his team’s fifth goal as they put the icing on the cake in the 76th minute with a cross-field pass to Nuhey who made space before cutting the ball back into the path of Nelson Laurence who smashed it low into the bottom corner to complete an emphatic 5-0 triumph.
St Michel coach Roddy Victor was pleased with his team’s performance in a match where they were just too good for a poor Anse Reunion side.
“Our objective was to win the three points but it was also nice to score five unanswered goals and we put in a good performance as a result of the high level of competition in our squad,” the St Michel coach said.
As for Anse Reunion coach Ted Esther, he was really upset with the way his team was easily dismantled by a rampant St Michel side despite the man deficit.
“We did not start well as our tactics did not work and our approach looked comfortable. We tried to carry the match to our opponents in the second period but their third goal killed us off and overall we lacked commitment and this is a harsh result and therefore I’m very disappointed,” coach Esther told Sports NATION.
La Passe sneak past LightStars
La Digue side La Passe sneaked past LightStars on a 1-0 scoreline on La Digue on Saturday.
Malagasy Fredo scored the all-important goal for his team in the first half to secure all three points to inflict a first loss on the Praslin team.
St Louis return to winning ways
St Louis bounced back from two draws to pile the pressure on struggling Revengers with a 3-0 victory at the Stad Amitié on Praslin on Saturday.
St Louis took the lead in the first half through a well-taken free kick by Nigerian Kazeem Adeyeri to make it 1-0 and Gerick Vidot made it 2-0 at half-time.
Visitors St Louis added a third goal courtesy of Malagasy Tahiry to compound coach Basil Hoareau’s team to their fourth defeat on the trot in as many matches this season.
Côte d’Or crush Red Star-Defence Forces
Reigning league champions Côte d’Or registered their biggest win of this new season as they crushed second division champions Red Star-Defence Forces 5-0 at the Stad Amitié on Friday afternoon in a lop-sided match
Newly promoted Red-Star Defence Forces are finding the going really tough in the top flight as they conceded in the first half to a strike by Malagasy Jean Tigana for a 1-0 lead at half-time.
The Praslin outfit raised the tempo in the second period as they went on the rampage with Dine Suzette netting a hat-trick and Ryan Antat also got on the scoresheet to hand this combined team their fourth loss in four matches since joining the big boys in the first division.
Côte d’Or coach Ralph Jean-Louis told Sports NATION that he was happy that his team improved in the second half to win comfortably against a very defensive opponent.
“We did not play well in the first half though our opponents also played very defensively which made it difficult for us to find space but we changed our tactics for the second half and we were rewarded as our opponents ran out of steam and it was a good win to help boost the confidence of my players,” coach Jean-Louis said.
The Lions share the spoils with St John Bosco
The Lions shared the spoils with St John Bosco in a goalless draw at Stad Linite on Friday evening in this re-arranged match.
This encounter may have ended scoreless but Bosco will rue themselves for not claiming all three points as they were by far the more threatening side and should have broken the deadlock in the 54th minute after a goalless first half.
It all started from a bad error by The Lions midfielder Yannick Charlette whose sloppy back pass was pounced upon by Bosco’s Ghanaian striker Emmanuel Awkrah but with the goal at his mercy, he shot wide.
The Lions also missed a gilt-edge opportunity to go ahead a minute later when Malagasy Estel Randrina shook off Perry Bijoux’ challenge but his shot ricocheted off the cross bar with goalkeeper Duane Romain well beaten.
In the 67th minute, Bosco had another chance to open the score from Ghanaian Jonas Baffoe’s floated free kick in the penalty area where his countryman Awkrah rose majestically to tower his header on goal but goalkeeper Raphael Moustache produced a world class save to deny him a goal-bound header.
This match almost got out of hand for referee Egbert Havelock in the latter stages with some rough tackles and Bosco physio Yves Zialor was even sent to the stands for his over protest as the match petered out to a share of the points which was a fair result for coach Gavin Jeanne.
“We struggled in this match as injury forced us to re-shuffle the team as we have six players out and therefore we have to be satisfied with a point in this match where our opponents were better and we lacked determination,” coach Gavin told Sports NATION.
As for the Bosco manager Andrew Bristol, he was impressed with his team’s showing after their debacle last week at the hands of La Passe.
“My team put in a very good performance and we created good scoring chances in a match we could have won and it shows that we are on the right track,” the Bosco manager claimed.
R. J-L.