Football: First Division league - La Passe dent St Louis’ title aspiration, Revengers win |05 June 2017

La Digue-based La Passe dented St Louis’ title aspiration with a hard fought 2-0 victory at Stad Linite on Friday in a first division league encounter while on Saturday, Revengers defeated Northern Dynamo 2-1 as the first round of the league takes a short break.

La Passe stun St Louis

This was a match that St Louis were expected to win against a struggling La Passe side to go top of the league standings but the players of coach Bruno Saindini had other ideas in this encounter which began with a minute’s silence in honour of Gael Savy, the La Passe player who passed away last month.

In fact, the loss of their player fired up La Passe who started with all guns blazing and in the 9th minute, Malagasy Rhino forced a good save out of goalkeeper Michel with a free kick.

In the 14th minute, Malagasy Fredo broke clear on the right and was tripped by St Louis captain Bertrand Esther and assistant referee Hensley Petrousse flagged to indicate the infringement and referee Jean-Claude Labrosse complied.

Rhino took responsibility of the penalty but he shot narrowly wide to let St Louis off the hook as the official took quite a while to place the ball on the right spot which may have deterred the La Passe player.

La Passe though deservedly took the lead in the 35th minute from a mistake by St Louis’ Malagasy midfielder Tahiry who waited for the ball but defender Nadim Lucas stole the ball to send in a devilish cross which was headed home by Marcus Labiche for a 1-0 lead.

St Louis were denied a clear penalty in the 37th minute when Gervais Waye-Hive’s free kick in the penalty area came off La Passe defender, Tanzanian Edwin Missiko’s hand but the official turned a blind eye to keep La Passe in the lead at half-time.

La Passe stretched their advantage in the opening minute of the second period as Fredo raced clear to shake off the challenge of St Louis skipper Esther and Danny Madeleine to plant the ball past goalkeeper Michel to make it 2-0.

St Louis made two substitutions as they pulled off Yannick Julie and Madeleine and in came Serge Asba and Gerick Vidot as their attacking play improved with La Passe dropping back to defend their lead.

As St Louis pushed forward, Lorenzo Nibourette had a decent chance to extend his team’s score on the hour mark from Rendy Emile’s cross but he failed to hit the target.

A minute later at the other end, Tahiry picked out Waye-hive after a good run but the former St Michel midfielder shot straight at goalkeeper Basil Esther.

St Louis were now dominant and in the 64th minute, Waye-Hive lobbed a pass to Elijah Tamboo who fired at goal but the ball came off the foot of the post.

Tamboo should have done better in the 70th minute as he sprung La Passe’s offside trap but instead of boring on goal, he took a shot from a distance and it flew wide.

St Louis kept pushing to redress the balance and the last chance to score came in the 91st minute from Waye-Hive’s cross to Tahiry whose shot hit the post as his team missed a great chance to take the top spot on the league table in a match La Passe had outwitted them to help them improve their points tally.

La Passe coach Bruno Saindini was very happy with his players’ performance as they stunned high flying St Louis.

“We want to dedicate this win to our former player Gael Savy as we think of him always and his memory will live forever with us. We had prepared for this match two weeks ago and our plan worked perfectly so we deserved to win,” coach Bruno told Sports NATION.

As for his counterpart, Nigel Freminot, he was disappointed that his team could not convert the chances they created in the second period after a slow start.

“Today was just not our day as we created many scoring opportunities but could not score after a poor start against an opponent who was fired up for this encounter,” coach Freminot said.

Revengers beat Northern Dynamo

Praslin side Revengers defeated Northern Dynamo 2-1 at Stad Linite in the last first division match as the league takes a short break with the first round matches almost completed.

Northern Dynamo though will rue themselves in a match they should never have lost and they should have gone ahead in the 6th minute when Gambian forward Musa Njie broke clear to race on goal but Revengers captain Cliff Cesar produced a last-ditch tackle to stop him in his stride.

Revengers responded in the 21st minute from Malagasy Mazinot Valentin’s free kick which forced goalkeeper Frank Moutoni to tip over.

Dynamo’s Njie again was unlucky in the 33rd minute as he created space to let fly a thunderous shot which crashed against the crossbar and on the counter, Revengers opened the scoring. It all started from an Evariste lob which both captain Warren Mellie and Darryl Louise failed to cut out to let in new recruit Ludovigue who joined Revengers last month after leaving La Passe.

Ludovigue accepted the windfall to surge on goal and rifle the ball into the net to make it 1-0 at half-time.

Northern Dynamo drew level in the 55th minute in controversial circumstances as Wesley Esther was clearly offside when he received Aldo Dufresne’s pass but assistant referee Elderick Adelaide, who was off with a few of his decisions in the second period, did not flag allowing the flying winger to drill the ball through goalkeeper Jean-Michel Marie’s legs to make it 1-1.

Revengers though restored their lead on the hour mark as Ludovigue hassled for the ball and surprised goalkeeper Moutoni with a near post which crept in for a 2-1 score.

Northern Dynamo threw everything in attack to try and get back on level terms and in the 81st minute, defender Louise headed wide Marcus Maria’s free kick.

Revengers should have added a third goal on a counter in the 82nd minute from Ludovigue’s cross to Danio François but his near post header flew just wide.

Northern Dynamo, for their part, had a last chance in the 84th minute when Njie eluded a couple of tackles to race on goal but captain Cesar produced a great recovery tackle to deny the burly Gambian and help his team to three precious points.

“It was a good win for my team to help improve our league position and we worked hard for such a result,” Revengers coach Basil Hoareau said.

As for Northern Dynamo coach Cliff Nolin, he felt his players’ wayward finishing cost them the points once again.

“We failed to take the chances that we created in this match and once again we ended up on the losing end as we also gifted our opponents two goals through defensive errors which are unacceptable at this level,” the Dynamo trainer told Sports NATION.

R. J-L.