Football: First Division League - St Michel drop points, The Lions win on La Digue |03 April 2017
First division league leaders St Michel drew 0-0 against St John Bosco at Stad Linite on Saturday afternoon whereas on La Digue, The Lions defeated La Passe 3-1. On Friday, Red Star-Defence Forces shared the spoils with Revengers.
St Michel drop points against battling Bosco
St John Bosco put in an impressive performance to hold league leaders St Michel to a goalless draw at Stad Linite on Saturday afternoon.
Free scoring St Michel met an opponent who were ready for the battle and should have collected all the points in a match where they looked good value for money whereas the league leaders were disappointingly poor.
St Michel struggled in the absence of playmaker Malagasy Hassan Aly and the hardworking Ghanaian Emmanuel Nuhey who are both injured.
The first decent chance of the first period arrived on the half hour mark from Norvil Gaspard’s cross which filtered through to Andy Mougal at the far post but he could not hit the target.
Bosco then had three gilt edge opportunities the first coming in the 39th minute from a darting run by Ghanaian Jonas Baffoe and the ball ricocheted off a defender to roll to his teammate Emmanuel Awkrah but he stabbed the ball wide in a good scoring position.
Two minutes later, Baffoe released Deroy Brutus who turned on goal but Malagasy defender Nassure Beanjara produced a timely intervention to deny him.
Brutus showed his pace on the stroke of half time as he left two defenders in his wake but his low shot flew agonisingly wide of the far post for a 0-0 score at the break.
St Michel brought on Leeroy Corallie early in the second half for winger Neil Confiance as they opted for a two pronged attack alongside Malagasy Jocelyn as their play improved slightly.
In the 66th minute, Jocelyn was pulled down by Travis Quatre on the penalty edge and his beautifully curled free kick was turned onto the post by a vigilant Bosco goalie Duane Romain.
Bosco almost set the cats among the pigeons in the 75th minute from Terry Lesperance’s free kick which goalie Michel dropped and was hooked into the net by Rahman Esparon but it was disallowed for offside by assistant referee Elderick Adelaide.
In the 84th minute, Bosco had a decent chance from Awkrah’s spreaded pass to substitute Alexander Esparon whose pinpoint cross fell to Brutus but he shot straight at goalie Michel from close range.
St Michel went close to steal all the points in added time as Jocelyn latched onto a long ball but Perry Bijoux stuck to him to block his goal bound shot as the match ended goalless.
The St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis accepted that his team was not up to scratch as they struggled to find their rhythm.
“We were far from our best as we lacked creativity and were poor in the first half though we were slightly better after the interval. Nonetheless we also rode our luck against an opponent
that worked hard to deny us space and time on the ball. Overall we were out of sorts and this is normal in football where we had an off day but we will aim to bounce back,” manager Jean-Louis told Sports NATION.
For his part, the Bosco manager Andrew Bristol was very proud of his players who held their own against high-flying St Michel.
“This was expected to be a tough match for my team but we accustomed ourselves very well as we put in a fantastic performance for our best showing this season and it proves that we are capable of rubbing shoulders with the best and I must congratulate my players in a match where we had chances to win,” reflected the Bosco manager.
The Lions roar past La Passe
The Lion registered a solid victory as they roared past La Passe 3-1 on La Digue on Saturday afternoon.
The Lions broke the deadlock through Denis Auguste for a 1-0 lead but Marcus Labiche levelled matters for a 1-1 score at half time.
The Lions restored their lead as their new Malagasy import Lanto Rasalihery opened his account for the Cascade based team to make it 2-1 and Yannick Charlette confirmed victory with a third late on in the second half for a 3-1 triumph.
Côte d’Or and LightStars clash postponed
The clash between champions Côte d’Or and their close rivals from Praslin LightStars scheduled to be played on Saturday at the Amitié playing field has been postponed to a later date.
Apparently the Football Federation office had not informed the defending league champions that this fixture for this coming weekend had been pushed forward due to no international matches taking place here in this reserved Fifa international date where our national team was supposed to face Tanzania but it did not materialise.
Sports NATION spoke to the president of the Côte d’Or football club, Robert Payet, and he explained the reason why this derby encounter had been called off.
“We only learnt of this change in fixture from the Football office on Tuesday as they had by mistake not informed us earlier but it was very inconvenient for my team as we had made other plans where two of our foreign players were going back home and quite a number of the local players were working extra time to cover for the period when they were granted leave from work to travel to Ethiopia with the team while coach Ralph Jean-Louis had gone to Mahé to visit his relatives and we were only engaging in light training so we could not play,” claimed the Côte d’Or club chief.
Red Star-Defence Forces share the spoils with Revengers
Newly promoted Red Star-Defence Forces and Praslin outfit Revengers shared the spoils in a 0-0 draw at Stad Linite on Friday evening.
Revengers though should have won this match as they were awarded a penalty in the first half but last season’s top league scorer Malagasy Evariste saw his spot kick saved by goalie Danny Larue as the two bottom of the league teams won their first points in five matches so far this season.
R.J-L