Football: Airtel Cup - Dynamo, St Louis, LightStars, Revengers gain upper-hand |10 July 2017

Northern Dynamo, St Louis, LightStars and Revengers gained the upper-hand in the first leg matches played over the weekend in this year’s Airtel Cup competition.

Northern Dynamo demolish Foresters

Northern Dynamo recorded a big win in a controversial match on Saturday at Stad Linite as they brushed aside Foresters 4-1 to almost secure their passage to the quarterfinals.

This match took time though to get going as the persistent rain caused havoc for the players and coaches on the sideline and it was only in the 24th minute that there was the first scoring opportunity from a rasping shot by Dynamo’s Gambian forward Musa Njie which was spilled by Foresters goalkeeper Randolph Bijoux and Wesley Esther pounced on the rebound but he was crowded out before he could shoot at goal.

Dynamo broke the deadlock in controversial fashion 10 minutes later as their new recruit Randolph Elizabeth, who has joined them from St John Bosco, latched onto a through ball when he was yards offside but strangely it was not signaled by assistant referee Sadjee Padayachy to let in the Dynamo player to shoot at goal and score on his debut to make it 1-0.

Dynamo should have gone further ahead five minutes later from Esther’s instinctive cross to Njie who decided to attempt a fancy back flick when he could have easily tapped in from close range to waste a good chance.

A minute later, Dynamo added another goal again in controversial circumstances as their skipper Warren Mellie had handled the ball in the build-up which was surprisingly not spotted by referee Kerens Yocette and when the ball was spread out to Aldo Dufresne, he was also in an offside position which was not flagged and he bore on goal to place the ball into the far corner though goalkeeper Bijoux should have done better to stop the ball as the first half ended 2-0.

Foresters brought on Elvin Estico for Nick Labiche in the second half and they were gifted a penalty in the first minute after the resumption of play from Francis Nourrice’s free kick in the penalty area and the ball seemed to come off Foresters Vanerick Michel’s hand as he jumped to head the ball but the official pointed to the spot which baffled the two sets of players.

Nourrice took responsibility for the spot kick and he scored emphatically to reduce the deficit to 1-2.

Dynamo though restored their two-goal cushion in the 51st minute and there was another element of controversy in the build-up as Esther had strayed offside which was not signaled by assistant referee Gilbert Lusta and the ball then broke to Darren Gonzalves who was hacked down by Mike Lesperance for a blatant penalty awarded by referee Yocette.

Njie was assigned the penalty and he blasted the ball past goalkeeper Bijoux as it crashed in the net for a 3-1 score.

On the hour mark, Dynamo scored a brilliant goal as Njie curled in a superb cross to Esther who finished equally with aplomb to make it 4-1 before he made way for their star player, Malagasy Rajamana who is returning from injury after missing quite a few matches for his team.

Foresters saw a good goal ruled out for a non-existent offside deep in injury time when Martin William floated the ball into the Dynamo penalty area and Nourrice sneaked in to fire past goalkeeper Ricky Pool.

Foresters coach Bryan Bastienne was very disappointed at the final whistle with the level of commitment of his players in this encounter.

“We lacked concentration in this match and conceded some soft goals but we will have to go back and prepare for the return match where we have a mountain to climb, but we will try to reverse this situation,” the Foresters coach told Sports NATION.

As for Dynamo coach Cliff Nolin, he was happy his team made a winning start after a long break.

“It was a good result after such a long time being out of action and we were a bit rusty but it was vital to win so we are satisfied,” claimed the Dynamo coach.

St Louis turn the tables on Côte d’Or

This was regarded as the tie of this year’s Airtel Cup as it paired together the current league leaders as well as reigning league champions Côte d’Or and second placed St Louis.

St Louis had suffered two heavy defeats in their previous two travels to Praslin against these same opponents at Stad Amitié, but on Saturday they managed to keep their opponents at bay for the entire match and struck a telling blow in the dying minutes of this match which was heading for a goalless draw.

St Louis’ sole strike was netted by Travis Laurence in this smash and grab encounter for  an important 1-0 victory before they meet again at Stad Linite on Friday.

LightStars beat La Passe on La Digue

Praslin outfit LightStars registered a very solid victory on La Digue on Saturday against La Passe as they won 3-1.

Malagasy Paul Bruyelle opened the scoring for LightStars early in the first half and his countryman Mario Ravo made it 2-0 at half-time.

La Passe reduced the arrears in the second period courtesy of a strike by Malagasy Florent to make it 1-2 but Ravo restored his team’s two-goal advantage and at the same time bagged his brace for a final 3-1 result which puts them in a strong position to qualify for the quarterfinals.

Revengers edge Red Star Defence Forces

Praslin side Revengers had to come from a goal down to edge Red Star Defence Forces 2-1 at the Amitié playing field on Friday evening.

New Malagasy recruit Sydo Bonvoyage gave visitors Red Star Defence Forces a 1-0 lead on his debut before Malagasy Evariste scored twice for Revengers to make it 2-1 at the interval.

Revengers were reduced to 10 men early in the second half when Cliff Cesar received a second yellow card from referee Alistair Barra but the players of coach Basil Houareau held on for the win.

R. J-L.