Football: SFF division one league Côte d’Or champions |22 November 2016
Praslin outfit Côte d’Or were crowned SFF first division league champions after St Michel crashed to a 1-0 defeat to St Louis on Saturday at Stad Linite.
St Michel had to win this crucial match to stay in the title race especially with Côte d’Or opening up an eight-point gap on Friday with a 3-1 victory over their neighbours Revengers, but they fell short of their objective.
Côte d’Or beat Revengers
Ryan Antat continued in his rich vein of form as he set his team on the road to a win by making it 1-0 early on and Malagasy Jean Tigana then fired home a penalty for a 2-0 lead after Revengers goalkeeper Jean-Michel Marie had brought down Dine Suzette.
Suzette extended his team’s advantage before half time for a 3-0 score and then went through the motions in the second period.
Revengers were awarded a penalty in the dying minutes of this match from a foul by defender Steve Esther on Malagasy Evariste who picked himself up to score for a 3-1 final result.
Côte d’Or rejoice in league success
The players and supporters of newly crowned champions Côte d’Or celebrated St Michel’s defeat by spontaneously organising a motorcade on Praslin.
Club president Robert Payet expressed his joy at his team’s success to Sports Nation in a telephone conversation hours after they were confirmed as league champions.
“We were determined to win this title after our huge investment to assemble such a good group of players and we also wanted to make up for losing in the Airtel Cup due to a lack of concentration and in the PillayR Group Cup where it was the official who decided our fate. I must congratulate my management team especially Mr André Bédier and I feel we deserve to win this title and it is good we won it early rather than wait for the deciding game against St Michel which would have been a lot of pressure. I must praise the players for their hard work and I would also extend my greetings to the supporters and to all who have helped us this season,” Mr Payet related to Sports Nation as his team lifted their second league title after their first in 2013.
St Louis return to haunt St Michel
St Louis had a lot to prove in this match especially after their surprising battering against Côte d’Or the previous weekend which had raised a few eyebrows as well as being knocked out by Northern Dynamo at the semifinal stage of the PillayR Group Cup competition which had not gone down well with their supporters.
St Louis this time were ready for this challenge and should have taken the lead in the 27th minute from a quickly taken free kick by Damien Maria to Travis Laurence who slipped a pass to captain Mervin Mathiot who had sneaked in behind St Michel’s defense but his control let him down with the goal at his mercy.
St Michel responded just past the half hour mark from Neil Confiance’s cross which was cleared as far as Gervais Waye-Hive whose off-balance left foot shot brought out a great one-handed save out of goalkeeper Jalyl Servina to push the ball onto the crossbar.
St Louis then broke the deadlock with a classic counter attacking football as Maria fed captain Mathiot who threaded the ball to Nigerian Kazeem Adeyeri who in turn flashed the ball across St Michel’s goal to Roddy Melanie and he beat goalkeeper Alvin Michel with an intelligent back heel for a fantastic goal to make it 1-0 in the 35th minute.
St Michel made a double substitution in the second half as Ghanaian Emmanuel Nuhey and Nelson Laurence came on for Confiance and Malagasy defender Leonard Besabotsy.
However, it was St Louis who had two good chances to stretch their lead. Malagasy Tahiry’s goal-bound shot after 50 seconds of play was just deflected into corner and two minutes later, Yannick Julie should have found the target with a free glancing header from Mathiot’s cross which flew agonisingly across the goalmouth.
St Michel then raised their game and in the 51st minute, Malagasy Jocelyn should have scored from Nuhey’s inch-perfect cross but he was badly positioned and a minute later, Malagasy Hassan Aly threaded a pass to Leeroy Corallie who fired under the advancing goalkeeper Servina but Maria cleared the ball on the goal line.
In the 66th minute, St Michel were furious with referee Kerens Yocette who had a tough match to handle. It all began when Jocelyn latched onto a long ball from a clearly offside position which was not signaled by assistant referee Hensley Petrousse and the St Louis custodian raced out and brought down the Malagasy striker.
The crowd were awaiting a straight red card but referee Yocette dished only a yellow card much to the anger of the St Michel camp and their fans especially as the free kick came to no avail.
St Michel needed to win this match but their only other chance to score fell to Jocelyn in the 75th minute from captain Alex Nibourette’s pinpoint cross but he headed straight into the gloves of goalkeeper Servina.
St Louis, for their part, had a great opportunity to kill off the contest in the 81st minute as Adeyeri exchanged passes with Collin Bibi to open up St Michel’s defence and then the Nigerian forward cut the ball into the path of Bibi who should have scored but shot tamely at goalkeeper Alvin Michel who was grateful to smother the shot.
St Michel though had run out of ideas to come back in this match as well as ran out of steam as they conceded defeat to their bitter rivals as well as relinquish the league title to Côte d’Or who now have an unassailable points tally of 45 with a game to play while second-placed St Michel are stuck on 37 points with two matches to play.
St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis was gracious in defeat as he extended his congratulations to their rivals Côte d’Or on winning the league title when he spoke to Sports Nation after the match.
“I would like to seize this opportunity to congratulate Côte d’Or on winning the league title and as for my team, we have to regroup and fight for the next title. When we look back on the league race though, we lost too many games but this is football and we have to live with it. Today we had a good second half but I feel the official made some costly mistakes for my team against an opponent who was playing for its pride,” manager Jean-Louis said.
As for St Louis coach Nigel Freminot, a former St Michel defender, he was pleased with his team’s performance.
“We played very well today as we were more committed and we did not want to be seen as doing anyone any favours and it was a good result for my team and I must congratulate my players,” coach Freminot told Sports Nation.
La Passe, Anse Reunion win
In other results of league matches played over the weekend, La Passe defeated LightStars 2-0 on Praslin on Saturday with goals by Malagasy Ludovigue in the first half and Collin Esther after the interval.
As for Anse Reunion, they trailed Foresters 1-0 at half time courtesy of a strike by Ugandan Tonny Kizito.
However, Yelvanny Rose and Ugandan Baryeno Kanakuma scored in the second period to secure Anse Reunion’s 2-1 win.
On Friday, St John Bosco went ahead through a goal by Randolph Elizabeth but Northern Dynamo’s Marcus Maria cancelled it out in the second half for a final 1-1 score.
R. J-L.