Football: Barclays league division one - La Passe, St Michel win, Cote D’Or held to draw |20 October 2014
Barclays league division one leaders St Michel and second-placed La Passe won on Saturday while on Friday, defending champions Côte d’Or drew 0-0 against The Lions.
St Michel won 4-1 against LightStars on Praslin and La Passe came from a goal down to beat St Louis Suns 3-1 on Saturday.
La Passe brush aside St Louis Suns’ challenge
La Digue-based La Passe came from behind to beat St Louis Suns 3-1 at Stad Linite to maintain their challenge in the Barclays league division one title race.
This game started a few minutes late as the authorities had to eventually open the two stands to cater for both sets of supporters after originally they had quite inconsiderately tried to place both in one stand but the La Passe camp did not accept which was right as this was quite risky and might have led to trouble.
As for the match, referee Kierens Yocette and his two assistants namely Gerald Pool and Steve Marie handled it very well as they were spot on with most of their decisions.
St Louis Suns stunned the Airtel Cup winners in the fifth minute though from a beautifully struck free kick by Roddy Melanie which former La Passe defender Nadim Lucas guided past goalkeeper Dave Mussard for a 1-0 lead.
La Passe looked unsettled at the back and in the 10th minute Elijah Tamboo sent in a teasing cross to Melanie but he could not direct his diving header on target.
A minute later, St Louis Suns threatened again as Tamboo’s deep cross fell to Nigerian Kazeem Adeyeri but a last ditch tackle by Jean-Paul Adela denied him a scoring opportunity.
La Passe though got their acts together and in the 21st minute, Tanzanian Rashid Mohamed capitalised on a defensive mistake to race into the penalty area and draw goalkeeper Joel Lesperance out of his goal on the bye-line before playing the ball to captain Achille Henriette who adjusted himself before shooting but St Louis Suns captain Bertrand Esther charged down his shot.
In the 33rd minute, La Passe were on equal par as Tanzanian Salum Kinje threaded a pass to Renick Esther who held off the challenge of captain Esther to thump the ball past goalkeeper Lesperance for a 1-1 score.
La Passe struck again with another quick break as they caught St Louis Suns outnumbered at the back in a three-on-one situation with Mohamed linking up with Renick Esther who played the ball into space to Collin Esther. Collin Esther made no mistake as he slotted the ball into the net past goalkeeper Lesperance for a 2-1 lead.
St Louis Suns were rattled and they re-grouped in the remaining minutes and in the 40th minute, Tamboo played a neat one-two with Adeyeri but instead of squaring the ball to Trevor Poiret, he went for glory but shot in the side-netting.
In the 42nd minute, Tamboo did well to elude two defenders and fire at goalkeeper Mussard who spilled the ball to the lurking Poiret but he could not bring it down to get a clear shot.
La Passe took a decisive step to claim all the points as they opened up St Louis Suns’ fragile defence in the 50th minute as Collin Esther combined with Mohamed before unleashing a fierce shot which goalkeeper Lesperance pushed out to Renick Esther who punished him as he tucked the ball home for a 3-1 lead.
St Louis Suns brought on Nigerian Kazeem Sulaimon for Bernard Ste Ange to try and redress the balance and in the 57th minute, Lucas put in a good cross but Tamboo’s header was too weak to trouble goalkeeper Mussard.
On the hour mark, St Louis Suns went close from Poiret’s well taken free kick which goalkeeper Mussard misjudged and missed as it fell to Lucas at the back post and his goal-bound header was cleared on the goal-line into corner.
As St Louis Suns piled forward, they were caught in the 72nd minute as Stan Fanchette who had replaced the injured Mohamed, exploited space on the left to race on goal but goalkeeper Lesperance came out to narrow the angle and block his shot.
Fanchette missed a sitter three minutes later as captain Henriette set him up after a darting run which left his markers flagging behind but the young midfielder shot over the bar from a few metres out.
St Louis Suns goalkeeper Lesperance came to the rescue of his team once again in the 84th minute as he had to come out a long way to tackle Renick Esther who looked odds on to complete his hat-trick.
La Passe though had done enough to secure all the points to continue their league challenge despite not being at their best.
“We started slowly due to a bit of fatigue in the players but we were conscious that we needed all the points and I’m satisfied with the three points. We now have five matches and they will be similar to finals as we will try to win all of them to try and close the gap on St Michel,” coach Bruno Saindini told Sports Nation.
For his part, St Louis Suns coach Patrick Cafrine was bitterly disappointed with his team’s performance.
“We started on a good tempo but committed some silly mistakes which gifted our opponents the goals and the points. Therefore I’m very disappointed,” coach Cafrine said.
St Michel win at a canter
League leaders St Michel won comfortably on Praslin as they swept aside LightStars on a 4-1 score on Saturday.
St Michel did all the damage within 17 minutes in the first half after Leeroy Mathiot had opened the scoring in the 25th minute.
Malagasy Hassan Aly made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute and Trevor Vidot increased the score to 3-0 in the 36th minute before Malagasy Jocelyn Fenosoa got in the scoring act in the 42nd minute for a 4-0 lead at half time.
LightStars reduced the deficit in the 75th minute from an Andrew Jean free kick for a 4-1 final score.
Ten-man The Lions snatch point against Côte d’Or
Defending Barclays league division one champions Côte d’Or could only manage a goalless draw against 10-man The Lions on Friday afternoon at Stad Linite.
However, the result does not tell half the story of this highly controversial match where there was a poor officiating display which affected The Lions.
Referee Alix Bonne put on a very poor officiating display which affected the final result and more worrying was that his assistant Gilbert Lusta, a Fifa official, was not at all better as he failed to help the referee.
The tone of the match was set from the opening minute as The Lions Darrel Damou raced clear which forced goalkeeper Kitson Cecile to rush out of his goal but he handled the ball outside the box. Surprisingly both Bonne and Lusta turned a blind eye to allow goalkeeper Cecile to avoid a sending off, let alone a booking.
Côte d’Or, who had former national team coach Jan Mak as part of their coaching staff, had to replace injured Malagasy midfielder Patrick Rasaminana in the 11th minute and Darwind Rosette came on.
In the 26th minute, Rosette chipped a pass to Malagasy Paul Razafimantsoa at the far post but The Lions goalkeeper Jerome Dingwall dived to his feet.
A minute later at the other end The Lions were denied a blatant penalty after Damou had exchanged passes with the overlapping Jude Nancy to beat the three-man Côte d’Or defence. Damou latched onto a through ball but was scythed down by goalkeeper Cecile for what looked like a straight-forward penalty but the assistant referee flagged for an offside against Nancy who was lurking in the penalty area but had yet to touch the loose ball.
The Lions always looked a threat with their play and in the 28th minute Gabonese Tony Moussikoue evaded a couple of defenders but failed to hit the target with his low shot.
Seconds later, Damou was again the victim of some poor decisions as he sprinted past Côte d’Or skipper Benoit Marie who held him back. But the official failed to penalise the defender as he allowed play to go on much to the frustration of Damou.
Just past the half hour mark, Damou collected a ball in midfield and ran at the Côte d’Or defence but was tripped from behind by lanky Côte d’Or midfielder Ryan Antat but once again the official failed to blow his whistle.
To add insult to injury, The Lions were reduced to 10 men in controversial fashion in the 34th minute after Yannick Charlette, who was just returning to action after a lengthy break, allowed the ball to roll away from him. Charlette tried to win the ball back but fouled Dine Suzette in an innocuous challenge. Referee Bonne though over-reacted and awarded a red card to Charlette, a decision which really angered The Lions camp and shocked the crowd gathered at Stad Linite as they had seen worse incidents in the first half hour of this match which warranted firmer actions. But sadly Charlette was the victim of another of many poor decisions on Friday.
Despite the man shortage, The Lions had a decent chance in added time as Malagasy Herizo Razapany filtered a pass to Moussikoue but he shot weakly at goalkeeper Cecile as this half ended goalless.
Côte d’Or tried to raise their game in the second period and in the 53rd minute, Malagasy Jean Tigana threaded a pass to Rosette who forced goalkeeper Dingwall to parry his shot.
In the 65th minute, the official almost lost control of the match after a fracas broke in The Lions’ penalty area after Malagasy Razamfimantsoa kicked out at goalkeeper Dingwall in retaliation as they tangled for the ball on the floor. The Lions players were furious with this incident and it took some time to restore peace and Razamfimantsoa was only yellow carded for his part in this ugly scene.
There were no clear-cut chances in this half except in the 82nd minute when Gerald Basset cut inside a defender to slip a pass to Suzette whose toe-poke flashed across goal.
In the 88th minute, Basset played a quick short corner to Tigana who centred to Razafimantsoa whose glancing header sailed agonisingly wide as the match ended on a stalemate.
Sadly, the talking point of this encounter where the league champions dropped more points will be the poor level of officiating – an issue raised by The Lions coach Gavin Jeanne when he spoke to Sports Nation.
“We suffered a lot at the hands of the officials today and were even given a red card which was not justified. But my players showed a lot of commitment in difficult circumstances and I would like to salute their hard work to help us earn a point,” coach Jeanne said.
As for the league champions, coach Ahmed Abdou was left frustrated with his team’s below-par performance.
R. J-L.