Football: Land Marine Cup-Beginners perform giant killing act |16 September 2011

It was a sensational victory for double winning Beginners who won both league and cup last season in the inner island league.  However they declined promotion to the third division due to a lack of finance to enable their travel to Mahe.

In fact Beginners only came to existence two years ago after Anse Kerlan and Forest joined forces to cut cost and help their survival.

On Wednesday, Beginners came all out to prove a point to the Cote D’or team which is packed with foreign players and other recruites from the first division.

Beginners showed their intention quite early as James Alcindor shocked a full strength Cote D’or side to make it 1-0.

The inner island champions though suffered a setback when Rick Esther was given his marching orders in the first period by referee Jose Pillay.

Cote D’or fought back in the second period to equalize through Francis Louis.

Beginners had another sent off in the second half as Michel Oreddy had a confrontation with Cote D’or Malagasy captain Nicolas Simouri and both players were shown a red card.

Nine men Beginners were not to be denied their moment of glory as they scored a late winner courtesy of the same James Alcindor with his second strike of the game to give his team a deserved 2-1 victory.

It was a moment to savour for Beginners who are desperate for financial backing as they try to make ends meet.

They do not have a recognized coach but they are united in their fight to keep afloat and they hope this victory will help well wishers to sponsor the team so that they do not cease to exist.

As for Cote D’or, Malagasy coach Ahmed Abdou, he told Sports Nation after the match, in a telephone conversation that his team were too casual in their approach as they thought it was going to be an easy match.  Coach Abdou was unhappy with his team’s attitude.

Beginners though deserve full credit for a sensational victory which caused a major upset as they progress to the quarter finals for the first time and will face Northern Dynamo who also created a bit of history on Tuesday when they dumped defending cup winners St Louis Suns out of the Land Marine cup.

R.J-L