Football: Airtel Cup-St Michel complete campaign with victory |10 August 2012

St Michel supporters were eager to see if they could emulate La Passe’s 10-0 victory over Quincy a fortnight ago.

The boys of coach Vivian Bothe though were missing captain Don Anacoura and the suspended Alex Nibourette.

However, St Michel started brightly and took the lead in the fourth minute as Gervais Waye-Hive did well to skip past a tackle to centre to Henny Dufresne who had all the time in the world to head past goalkeeper Trevor Bill who got a touch but could not stop the ball from finding refuge at the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

Quincy had a half chance in the eighth minute after St Michel defender played a stray pass to Hervé Toulon but he failed to hit the target.

St Michel extended their advantage in the 15th minute as Leeroy Mathiot played a quick free-kick to Dufresne who crossed to Leeroy Corallie who tapped the ball home to make it 2-0.

Corallie should have scored again a minute later as he latched onto Malagasy Jean Del’Or Tsaralaza’s through ball to bore on goal but his shot was deflected into corner by goalkeeper Bill.

It was all St Michel as they dominated proceedings and swarmed all over Quincy but at times it was their crosses that let them down.

On the half hour mark, St Michel went further ahead as Tsaralaza flicked a pass to the marauding Waye-Hive whose cross was half cleared to Leeroy Mathiot and he rifled the ball into the net for a 3-0 score.

In the 33rd minute, Quincy’s James Bill, who was making his debut, pounced on a mistake to release Robin Joubert but his cross was easily cut out by goalkeeper Nelson Sopha.

Nine minutes later, St Michel’s Dufresne went close from a long cross-field pass by Mathiot which he controlled well but rifled agonisingly wide.

On the stroke of half-time, St Michel produced a string of decent passes and Mathiot filtered a pass to Corallie who looked odds on to score in a one-on-one situation but goalkeeper Bill turned his shot into corner.

From the resulting corner floated in by Waye-Hive, Corallie thumped a bullet header past goalkeeper Trevor Bill for a 4-0 half-time lead.

St Michel must have fancied their chances of a high double digit score but Quincy made two substitutions as they brought on Jerry Freminot and Julius Herminie.

 As for St Michel, they gave Joel Barbé his first start this season after injuring his leg late last season but he lasted only nine minutes as he limped off with an ankle injury and was replaced by Lorenzo Mathiot.

As for the match, Quincy should have reduced the arrears in the 54th minute as St Michel’s Dereck Agathine’s poor back pass was latched on to by substitute Freminot who bore on goal but goalkeeper Sopha stood defiant to block his shot and save the blushes of his defender.

Quincy dominated the second period as they enjoyed plenty of possession to frustrate St Michel who looked out of sorts and struggled to find their rhythm.

Quincy’s Robin Joubert should have done better in the 71st minute as Freminot’s corner kick dropped to him but he made a meal of the opportunity.

St Michel’s only decent goal-scoring chance in this period fell to Corallie who should have completed his hat-trick from Agathine’s cross but defender Steven Domingue threw himself in the firing line to block his goal-bound shot.

Quincy were quite pleased with the final result as stated by coach Elsie Ernesta to Sports Nation.

“We improved in the second half as we swapped to a 4-4-2 formation and we bettered on our last result against St Michel where we had lost 6-0.  We still can play better though,” coach Ernesta added.

As for St Michel, although they won the match, they must be quite disappointed with their second half showing where they lacked conviction and interest in the match.

R. J-L.