Football - St Michel, Barclays league division one champs |14 December 2015

Anse Aux Pins-based St Michel were crowned Barclays league division one champions with a hard-fought 3-1 triumph over St Louis in a top-of-the-table clash at Stad Linite on Friday afternoon in front of a decent crowd.

The victory enabled St Michel to retain their league title with a game remaining notably their abandoned match with bottom-of-the-table Northern Dynamo.

St Michel got off to a perfect start as they opened the scoring as early as the eighth minute through Malagasy Jocelyn who fired past goalkeeper Joel Lesperance to make it 1-0.

St Louis, who lost midfielder Yannick Julie in the 18th minute through injury, should have levelled matters as Nigerian Kazeem Adeyeri rounded goalkeeper Nelson Sopha but shot over the crossbar.

St Michel doubled their advantage in the 27th minute as Leeroy Corallie controlled a long ball before pulling it back to Carl Hall who coolly placed the ball past goalkeeper Lesperance for a 2-0 lead.

In the 37th minute, St Michel had to replace goalkeeper Sopha who was injured and in came Gino Melanie for the remainder of the first half.

St Louis took only three minutes in the second period to reduce the deficit as they were awarded a penalty when referee Bernard Camille adjudged that defender Yannick Manou had handled the ball. The league’s top scorer Kazeem Adeyeri stepped up to shoot past goalkeeper Melanie for a 1-2 score.

St Louis also lost goalkeeper Lesperance in the 51st minute and he was replaced by Jalyl Servina.

In the 72nd minute, St Michel re-established their two-goal cushion as goalkeeper Servina brought down Corallie and his striking partner Carl Hall, the top contender for the footballer of the year award, rifled the resulting penalty past Servina to make it 3-1.

St Louis suffered further misery in the 85th minute when defender Danny Madeleine received his second yellow card for a foul on Jocelyn and was shown red for his marching orders as his team fell short in this title deciding match.

As for the St Michel players and fans, they rejoiced as they retained their league crown and their manager Andrew Jean-Louis was delighted with another league triumph.

“We knew it was going to be a tough encounter but we believed in our chances as our opponents had come to upset us. But we are very happy to have retained our league title in a difficult season and I would like to congratulate my players, fans and sponsors for their endless support,” the St Michel manager told Sports Nation.

The cups and medals were handed to league champions St Michel by representatives of main sponsors Barclays Bank – head of risk Kwabena Koranteng and IT officer Gerard Corallie – as well as Seychelles Football Federation secretary general Jemmy Adela as an explosion of celebration burst in the grandstands.

Sports Nation extends its warmest greetings to the St Michel football club on their marvellous achievement of retaining their league title.

Meanwhile, in another Barclays league division one match played on Saturday at the Amitié Stadium, LightStars and Foresters drew 0-0.

R. J-L.