Football: Airtel Cup - Nibourette and Jocelyn net hat-tricks as St Michel demolish St Francis |26 June 2014

Airtel Cup defending champions St Michel bounced back from defeat in style as they demolished sorry St Francis 9-0 at Stad Linite on Tuesday afternoon in a pool A group match.

This rescheduled match was a lopsided affair in favour of St Michel who were keen to return to winning ways against St Francis who introduced their new striker, Malagasy Loe Lahimpira.
However, it was St Michel’s Malagasy pair of Hassan Aly and Jocelyn Fenosoa who grabbed the limelight with their performances.

Aly opened the floodgates for St Michel as early as the sixth minute as his long range effort bounced awkwardly in front of Cameroonian goalkeeper Frank Maloum to make it 1-0.
Lahimpira threatened to restore parity two minutes later but he was crowded out and the ball fell to his teammate Perry Monnaie but he could not trouble goalkeeper Gino Melanie who was back after serving a two-match suspension.

St Michel increased their lead in the ninth minute as Malagasy Jocelyn scored with a brilliant curled 25-metre free kick which flew in at the top corner for a 2-0 lead.
Two minutes later, Jocelyn was denied a clear penalty by referee Alistair Barra as he latched onto Alex Nibourette’s ball but Jude Barra hacked him down.

On 12 minutes, referee Barra was again too lenient as Jocelyn was brought down from behind by captain Jones Larue as he bore on goal but the official turned a blind eye and instead gave a corner in favour of St Michel.

St Michel went further ahead from a Gervais Waye-Hive corner kick which was met by a brilliant glancing header by Nibourette at the near post which grazed the crossbar and into the net for a 3-0 lead.

The goal knocked the stuffing out of St Francis who had no solution to St Michel’s persistent onslaught and in the 16th minute they added a fourth.
It all started as Jocelyn raced onto Aly’s long pass and he tried to pull it back to Waye-Hive but St Francis captain Larue and his teammate, Malagasy Ducaud could only manage to bundle the ball past goalkeeper Maloum as they tried to clear the danger to concede an own goal (4-0).

St Michel then slackened a bit but still managed to score again on 35 minutes as the impressive Aly threaded a pass to Jocelyn who in turn set up Leeroy Mathiot who eluded goalkeeper Maloum’s tackle to drill the ball into an empty net for a 5-0 score at half-time.

St Michel continued to batter St Francis in the second period and in the 51st minute, Nibourette picked the ball in midfield to waltz past three half-hearted tackles to reach the penalty area after which he thumped the ball past goalkeeper Maloum for a fantastic individual goal to make it 6-0.

Jocelyn then missed two glorious chances before he scored from man-of-the-match Hassan Aly’s glorious pass over the St Francis defence.  Jocelyn glided past two defenders to slot the ball low into the net for a 7-0 lead.

Four minutes later, Jocelyn completed his hat-trick as his audacious free kick on the right hand side of St Francis’ penalty area was whipped in strongly and it caught everyone by surprise and even goalkeeper Maloum as the ball crept in at the far post for an emphatic 8-0 score.

St Michel completed the rout in the 76th minute as they were finally awarded a penalty by referee Barra after Kenny Hoareau scythed down Nibourette in full flight.
Nibourette picked himself up to coolly ram the spot kick into the net to complete his first ever hat-trick for St Michel and rounded up the 9-0 scoreline.  Sadly for Nibourette, he did not finish the match after he suffered a leg injury.

St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis was pleased with his team’s whopping victory though sympathised with St Francis’ plight.
“Our opponents lacked cohesion in their play and we exploited these weaknesses in this one-sided affair as they made it too easy for us, providing very little resistance,” manager Jean-Louis told Sports Nation.

As for Deoraj Sharmah, a member of the St Francis management, he agreed that his team are in dire strait but is hoping they can sign some new players to boost the team’s fortune.

“We are having problems with training as the floodlights at our training venue are out of order and we also need to reinforce the team with a few more players to help our cause,” the St Francis official told Sports Nation.

The win was St Michel’s surprisingly first in three matches in their pool while St Francis suffered their fourth consecutive defeat in this group.

The players of coach Camille Gresle have another difficult assignment this Saturday with an away Barclays league division one rescheduled fixture on Praslin against LightStars in a competition where they are rooted to the bottom of the league.

R. J-L