Football: Barclays league division one - St Michel edge St Louis, La Passe halt Côte d’Or |05 October 2015

St Michel sneaked past St Louis in a fascinating seven-goal contest on Saturday while on La Digue, La Passe halted Côte d’Or’s progress in a controversial match which ended 1-0. Also on Saturday The Lions earned a goalless draw against Revengers on Praslin and on Friday, Foresters defeated LightStars 3-2.

St Michel victorious in Saints derby

Defending Barclays league division one champions St Michel had to come from behind to sneak past St Louis 4-3 in a fascinating contest at Stad Linite in front of a very large crowd on Saturday afternoon.

Both teams adopted an all-out attack in this match filled with drama and it was St Michel who drew first blood as early as the 7th minute when Leroy Corallie rounded goalkeeper Jalyl Servina who had rushed out but Bertrand Esther cleared the St Michel striker’s shot on the goal-line.

Ten minutes later, Carl Hall should have directed Malagasy Jocelyn’s cross on target with a free header but he headed wide.

In the 21st minute, St Louis were furious with referee Kerens Yocette as he did not play the advantage when  Roddy Melanie, despite having being fouled, played a through ball to Malagasy Fagnorena who was clean but the official stopped play to award a free kick for the foul on Melanie thus denying them a goal scoring opportunity.

A minute later, St Louis did take the lead. Following a mêlée from Nigerian Kazeem Sulaimon’s centre, Yannick Julie, who had a bandaged head from an earlier injury in this match, pounced on the ball to drill into the net for a 1-0 lead much to the delight of his supporters.

St Louis should have been 2-0 up three minutes later from a teasing cross by Melanie to Fagnorena but somehow he shot wide with the goal begging.

St Michel then took control of the match and Corallie was unlucky not to equalise in the 29th minute while in the 38th, St Louis defender Nigel Freminot cleared captain Alex Nibourette’s hooked shot on the goal-line. Nibourette had taken the armband from Allen Larue two minutes earlier.

St Michel were finally rewarded in the 43rd minute from substitute Gervais Waye-Hive’s corner which  St Louis captain Mervin Mathiot failed to stop at the near post and there was Corallie to bundle his header over the goal-line for a 1-1 score at the break.

If the first half was interesting, the second period was end-to-end stuff which captivated the audience as St Michel missed a golden opportunity to take the lead in the opening seconds from Waye-Hive’s pass to Jocelyn but he inexplicably hit the crossbar from a metre out.

St Michel had to make two more changes as both Nibourette and Corallie were injured which meant they had to have a third captain in this encounter with Hall taking the armband.

St Louis were unhappy with the official in the 62nd minute when he let goalkeeper Gino Melanie off the hook. Goalkeeper Melanie dropped a cross under pressure from substitute Elijah Tamboo who forced the loose ball into the net but the goal was disallowed for a foul much to the disgust of the St Louis players and fans.

In the 67th minute, St Louis defenders gifted their opponents a goal as Esther tried to dribble past two St Michel players on the right and was dispossessed which gave substitute Yannick Manou the chance to centre to Hall who headed home to make it 2-1 to send their fans into celebration.

Six minutes later, captain Hall scored a beauty from another St Louis mistake as Nigerian Oladele Olamiti cleared the ball as far as Hall who fired a cracker from 30 metres which crashed into the net for a 3-1 score.

In the 81st minute, substitute Leeroy Mathiot latched onto a through ball but goalkeeper Servina was quick off his line to thwart the danger.

Surprisingly St Michel let their foot off the accelerator which helped St Louis’ cause as Tamboo headed past the advancing goalkeeper Melanie captain Mathiot’s floated pass for a 2-3 score in the 85th minute.

In the 88th minute, Roddy Melanie curled in a well-worked free kick which brought an equally good save from goalkeeper Melanie.

St Louis stunned St Michel with an equaliser on the stroke of full-time as Tamboo volleyed home Roddy Melanie’s threaded pass to make it 3-3.

There was to be a final twist in this brilliant match as St Michel grabbed a late winner in the 92nd minute as captain Hall set up Mathiot who rifled a low shot which found refuge into the net for a thrilling 4-3 victory for his team which brought wild celebration for his supporters while St Louis were left crestfallen and bitter with the officials.

“We put in a decent performance but the officials spoilt this match and unfortunately his decisions gave our opponents an advantage over us and cost us this match,” coach Cafrine said.

As for St Michel manager, Andrew Jean-Louis, he expressed his appreciation for the two sets of players for a value for money match.

“This was a derby and it was always going to be tough but it was quite entertaining and I must congratulate both teams for this attacking football which produced plenty of goals and more so for my team who won and go back to the top of the league,” the St Michel manager told Sports Nation.

La Passe bring 10-man Côte d’Or down to earth   

La Passe halted Côte d’Or’s progress with a narrow 1-0 win on La Digue on Saturday in a match marred by ugly scenes at the final whistle.

La Passe had taken the lead in the 50th minute through Jules Constance for a 1-0 score and Côte d’Or were angry with assistant referee Hansley Petrousse in the 71st minute for disallowing Gerald Basset’s goal for offside after La Passe goalkeeper Vincent Euphrasie had spilled Ryan Antat’s shot.

Antat was then shown a straight red card by referee Emile Fred for dissent and from then on this match was played in a tense atmosphere and even the sending off of goal scorer Constance for two bookable offences late in the match did not help.

At the final whistle, some Côte d’Or players and supporters confronted assistant referee Petrousse and there are allegations he was even hit before he sought refuge in the changing room with very little protection from the police which is surely ugly and there must be a thorough investigation to punish the guilty party in this incident.

Côte d’Or’s coach Ahmed Abdou lamented about the level of officiating after the match.

“We did not play too badly but the level of officiating leaves a lot to be desired though we accept defeat but the authorities must look into officiating as we were denied a good goal through lack of communication among the officials,” explained the Côte d’Or coach.

For his part, La Passe coach Bruno Saindini felt his team came out of their shell for this match to register a morale-boosting win.

“We showed some improvement and collected a hard-fought win. But the incident after the match was not nice as we must always respect the officials’ decision and my team always accept defeat in the spirit of fair play,” coach Saindini said.

Revengers draw with The Lions 

Revengers and The Lions shared a goalless draw on Praslin at the Amitié Stadium on Saturday.

Foresters beat LightStars

Foresters came from a goal down to beat Lightstars 3-2 on Friday at Stad Linite.

LightStars’ Malagasy captain Noelson Jeannot had given his team a 1-0 lead only for Elvin Estico to level matters a 1-1 at half-time.

Francis Nourrice put Foresters 2-1 ahead but Malagasy Haja equalised at 2-2 before another Malagasy Jules Rapiera sealed victory for Foresters with a free-kick for 3-2 final score.

R. J-L.