Second and Third division football-Northern Dynamo return to top flight, Forest Youth third division champions |19 November 2005

Praslin’s Forest Youth are the third division champions and will play in the second tier next year.

Against Anse Etoile on Thursday November 17 at Stad Linite, Northern Dynamo needed a victory to win the championship and Jules Désir opened the score for them against his former team in the sixth minute.

Evans Thélémaque scored a second half brace, hitting the back of Anse Etoile goalkeeper Gino Melanie’s net in the 48th and 59th minutes to make sure of the win. Elvis Songwar reduced the score for Anse Etoile, beating Northern Dynamo’s custodian in the 61st minute.

The win, Northern Dynamo’s 11th, brought their points tally to 38, one more than runners-up The Lions who had completed their league campaign a week earlier.

Speaking to Sports Nation after his team’s triumph, coach Cliff Nolin said:
“There’s no time to rest on our laurels. Our preparation for the top flight starts right now. What has been accomplished is already history. We have to start working on building a brighter future. This will only come true if we get a management team. For the past three years, only three persons have been behind the team and there’s no way we can continue functioning like this as a team.

“It was quite a difficult season as we had to persuade our top players, who were courted by big first division teams, to stay with the team. Our objective was to return to the first division after just one year and we did it. Injuries to key players also troubled the team’s performance and as coach I had to use seven junior players from our youth team. They played well and should be proud of themselves,” said coach Nolin.

Northern Dynamo will now replace last year’s second division champions Baie Ste Anne 96ers in the first division in 2006.

The Lions can still make the grade to the top flight via the play-offs against Survivors who upset Northern Dynamo last year.

South Olympic will be relegated to the third division after finishing at the bottom of the table, while Beau Vallon will try to preserve their second division status by winning the play-offs.

In the third division, Anse Kerlan missed the opportunity to be crowned before their own supporters last Saturday at the Grand Anse Praslin playing field. A win would have given them the title but they were held to a goalless draw by visitors St John Bosco, gifting fellow Praslin side Forest Youth the crown.

With 12 wins, one draw and five defeats, Forest Youth finished the season with 37 points, one more than Anse Kerlan who collected 10 wins, six draws and two defeats.
Anse Kerlan will now play Beau Vallon in the play-offs.

The following are the final second and third division league tables.

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