Football: SFF Cup - The Lions scrape past Northern Dynamo to reach semifinals |21 October 2017

The Lions scraped past the Airtel Cup champions Northern Dynamo on a narrow 1-0 triumph to reach the semifinals of the SFF Cup on Thursday at Stad Linite.

The Lions were missing several key players like Andrew Onezia, Rashim Padayachy, and Dennis Auguste for this match but had welcomed back defender Geno Agathine who had been out of action for over a year with injury and had played his first match against La Passe in this cup competition a fortnight ago.

Northern Dynamo dominated proceedings in this match which lacked quality and it was the Glacis-based team who created the first chance in the 9th minute from Malagasy Andriy’s lofted free kick which was met by captain Warren Mellie but The Lions’ goalkeeper and captain Jerome Dingwall saved.

The Lions responded two minutes later through Malagasy Lanto who lifted a free kick over the Northern Dynamo wall but goalkeeper Frank Moutoni was alert to the danger.

Midway in this first half, Marcus Maria held off a couple of defenders to find an opening but his shot from the edge of the penalty area flew agonisingly over the crossbar.

Northern Dynamo felt they deserved a penalty in the 37th minute when their Malagasy forward Rajamana went down under a strong challenge by his fellow countryman Estel Randrina but referee Kerens Yocette and assistant Hensley Petrousse thought otherwise much to the anger of the Northern Dynamo bench as the first half panned out on a scoreless note.

The Lions had to replace Lanto early in the second half as he walked a tight rope after picking up a yellow card for a reckless tackle and in came Liberian striker Mohamed Varney.

Northern Dynamo kept pushing for a goal and in the 64th minute Aldo Dufresne sprinted past a defender to loft the ball at the far post to Kevin Mirabeau but his header came off a defender before the danger was cleared.

In the 73rd minute, the whole stadium was stunned when referee Kerens Yocette blew his whistle to penalise Northern Dynamo’s Joel Larue for handball after The Lions’ Churchill Rose’s shot came off his hand after a deflection. It resulted in a penalty which was really harsh to say the least as it was more a case of ball to hand as Larue’s hands was stuck to his body and this really upset Northern Dynamo but their protest was to no avail.

To add insult to injury, Randrina who had almost given away a penalty for Northern Dynamo which was not awarded, stepped up to send goalkeeper Moutoni the wrong way for a 1-0 lead against the run of play.

Northern Dynamo had to try and restore parity in this match which was quickly slipping away from their grasp as a result of this controversial penalty and in the 76th minute, captain Mellie collected a loose ball from the half-way line and went on a mazy run to their opponents’ penalty box and he linked up with Rajamana and appeared to get caught by Agathine as he fired at goalkeeper Dingwall but the official did not deem it was worthy of an infringement.

Tension was high in the Northern Dynamo camp as there was some strong exchange of words between manager Clive Delorie and substitute Musa Njie and in this tense scene, assistant manager Nigel Michaud was ordered off the bench by referee Yocette for words said to the fourth official.

The Lions, for their part, defended in numbers their slender one-goal lead and almost added a second on a counter in injury time through Randrina but when in the clear, he shot wide but his team just managed to squeeze past Northern Dynamo who were furious with the official after the match.

“We are disappointed with the official for giving a non-existent penalty against us when in the first half, we had a stronger appeal for a penalty which he turned down. It was sad to lose in such a manner especially in a match where we had been dominant and our opponents just defended,” coach Cliff Nolin told Sports NATION.

As for The Lions coach Gavin Jeanne, he was honest enough to admit that his team had always played second fiddle in this match but was just relieved they had progressed to the semifinals.

“We had to reshuffle our starting line-up a lot today so we struggled in this match as we were poor but our defence was quite solid to help us get the result we had hoped for and we are the least bothered how we scored as it is the result that counts,” explained The Lions trainer.

R. J-L.