The Lions register first win at Bosco’s expense |16 April 2016
Football: Barclays league division one
Cascade-based The Lions registered their first victory against neighbours St John Bosco of Pointe Larue in a 2-1 triumph in the Barclays league division one at Stad Linite on Thursday afternoon.
This eastern derby was a hard fought affair as The Lions went all out for victory after losing their opening four matches to lie at the foot of the table while Bosco were in buoyant mood after claiming a point on Praslin on Saturday.
However, the boys of coach Gavin Jeanne, who is planning to bring Marc Mathiot to help with coaching, made a bright start as they nearly went ahead in the 2nd minute as Darren Payet played a neat one-two with Liberian James Soto but Bosco goalkeeper Duane Romain raced out to block Payet’s shot.
The Lions opened the scoring nine minutes later from a corner kick by Soto and it was Darrel Damou who headed past goalkeeper Romain in a crowded penalty area to make it 1-0.
Bosco though hit back in the 15th minute to level matters somewhat in an innocuous fashion as referee Nelson Emile rather harshly penalised Soto for a handball and pointed to the penalty spot.
Former The Lions midfielder, Malagasy Herizo Razaparany, was assigned the spot kick and he coolly sent reserve goalkeeper Raphael Moustache the wrong way to equalise at 1-1.
Bosco should have taken the lead on the half hour mark from a corner by Razaparany which Antonio Ratafina headed across goal to Rahman Esparon who blazed his shot over the crossbar.
The Lions restored their advantage on the stroke of half-time from a glorious through ball by Collin Bibi to Liberian striker Mohamed Varney who eluded his marker to stab the ball into the far corner for a 2-1 lead.
Varney should have added a second in added time as he was gifted the ball with a poor clearance but he miscued his shot with only goalkeeper Romain to beat in the penalty area.
Bosco, who lost captain Perry Bijoux at half-time, made three substitutions early in the second half to try and redress the balance but almost conceded a third goal in the 55th minute when their defence failed to clear Soto’s corner and the ball dropped to Steven Lesperance whose shot on the turn crashed against the crossbar before the danger was cleared.
Bosco saw plenty of the ball in this half as they put pressure on The Lions who were content to play on the counter and in the 66th minute, Varney chased a long goal kick to fire at goalkeeper Romain who had to tip over.
The Lions wasted a clear-cut opportunity two minutes later from a Damou cross which Varney met to force goalkeeper Romain to parry as far as Rashim Padayachy but somehow he missed the target from close range.
Bosco huffed and puffed but lacked ideas to break down The Lions who again went close in the 89th minute as Soto and Damou exchanged passes to open them up but Soto’s shot was blocked at the near post as the score ended 2-1 in favour of The Lions to put an end to their losing streak.
Coach Gavin Jeanne was a relieved man after the final whistle as he felt this win will be a big boost to his team.
“We started well in this match as we fought hard but allowed our opponents to come at us in the second period but we held on as we wanted to win at all cost and this victory will surely boost morale in our camp,” coach Gavin told Sports Nation.
As for St John Bosco coach Roger Labonte, he felt his team did not rise to the challenge in this match.
“We have not recuperated from our last match so we rotated the squad with new players who were eager to play but unfortunately did not perform to the expected level and we also had to re-adjust when we lost our captain and central defender. And overall we need to be stronger mentally in this league,” reflected the Bosco trainer.
R. J-L.