Football: First division league Red Star Defence Forces add to Bosco’s woes |19 August 2017

Red Star Defence Forces added to bottom club St John Bosco’s woes with a 3-0 triumph on Thursday afternoon in a league fixture in wet weather at Stad Linite.

Red Star Defence were on a high after upsetting league champions Côte d’Or last week on Praslin in the Airtel Cup, but were lucky not to concede a penalty in the 3rd minute of this encounter when Marcus Botsoie brought down St John Bosco’s Deroy Brutus but referee Bernard Camille turned down the Pointe Larue-based team’s appeal for a blatant penalty.

To add insult to injury, Red Star Defence Forces scored as they went forward a minute later from Malagasy Jocelyn’s cross which was flicked into the path of Collin Francourt by Carlos Mondon and Francourt rifled an unstoppable low shot into the bottom corner to make it 1-0.

The goal revived St John Bosco who went on to dominate this half and in the 5th minute, Ghanaian striker Emmanuel Ankrah should have done better with a header from Julio Edmond’s free kick but with goalkeeper Danny Larue off his line, he headed wide.

In the 12th minute, Ankrah showed good skill to turn the army team’s captain Michel Souris inside out but he then shot straight at goalkeeper Larue.

Eight minutes later, Ankrah’s brilliant header from Rahman Esparon’s inch-perfect cross was destined to hit the net but goalkeeper Larue produced a world class one-handed save to turn the ball into corner.

Red Star Defence Forces almost made it 2-0 with a swift attack in the 35th minute as Jocelyn linked up with Francourt before setting up Malagasy Jean Albertho Sydonie who was thwarted by a great block by goalkeeper Duane Romain.

St John Bosco were again denied an equaliser in the 37th minute when Ankrah eluded captain Souris to fire at goalkeeper Larue who did well to push the ball away into corner for a 1-0 score at half-time as he kept their opponents at bay in a man-of-the-match display by the Red Star Defence Forces custodian.

The second half began in driving rain and it was the 2016 second division champions who had the best moments such as in the 62nd minute when Jocelyn twisted and turned his marker before his cross-cum-shot forced goalkeeper Romain to take immediate action to scoop the ball into corner.

In the 74th minute, Malagasy Michel Nambintsoa combined with Jocelyn who cleverly back-heeled to Sydonie who unleashed a thunderous shot which came off the crossbar. St John Bosco failed to clear the danger in the impending mêlée and Carlos Mondon picked up the loose ball to let fly a cracking shot which sailed over goalkeeper Romain to crash into the net for a 2-0 score.

Red Star Defence Forces were on a roll and in the 79th minute, Kenner Nourrice went on a marauding run down the left and set up Sydonie who was stopped from scoring by a good block by St John Bosco goalkeeper Romain.

In the 83rd minute, Jocelyn latched onto a long goal-kick from goalkeeper Larue but was hassled by two St John Bosco defenders. The ball broke to substitute Anile Pauline who slipped a pass to Nambintsoa in the penalty area and he went down under a trip by Rahman Esparon from behind which referee Camille thought it was worthy of a penalty.

Sydonie was assigned the spot kick and he scored with aplomb sending goalkeeper Romain the wrong way for a comfortable 3-0 score.

Sydonie should have scored again in the second minute of added time from a good move by substitute Erol Bacco to feed him and he tried to squeeze the ball in at the near post but goalkeeper Romain denied him but Red Star Defence Forces collected three more points in their battle to avoid relegation in this bottom-of-the-table clash as they are in 10th position with 13 points while St John Bosco lie rooted to the foot of the table with their 10th defeat and have a meagre seven points.

Red Star Defence Forces manager Philip Barbé was pleased with his team’s performance to grab all the points despite a drop in form in the first half.

“We dropped our level of play after we scored and allowed our opponents to dominate us but we improved in the second half to win comfortably as we also rested some of our players with slight injuries,” manager Barbé told Sports NATION as his team prepare for their return leg with Côte d’Or next Friday in the Airtel Cup.

R. J-L