Football: SeyPearl Premier League |28 September 2019

Corallie (second right) scored twice in Foresters’ win against Red Star Defence Forces

Ten-man Foresters fight back to shoot down Red Star Defence Forces

Ten-man Foresters had to come from behind to beat Red Star Defence Forces 4-3 in a classic match at Stad Linite on Thursday evening in the SeyPearl Premier League to go top of the league standings.

It was the second match where Foresters had to play with 10 men as they started brightly to carry the match to their opponents in this eagerly awaited clash between two teams with great rivalry stemming from the association of the coaching staff and a large bunch of Foresters players who broke ranks with the army team to join the Mont Fleuri-based club this season.

Martin Williams should have broken the deadlock in the 15th minute from Nigerian Kazeem Adeyeri’s inch-perfect cross but Williams saw the ball come off his hand as he attempted a diving header and even if Francis Nourrice thumped the loose ball into the net it was ruled out for handball.

Williams though created his team’s opening goal as he picked out Leroy Corallie 10 minutes later and the former Red Star Defence Forces striker lofted the ball over a badly positioned goalkeeper Andrick Hortense to make it 1-0.

Red Star Defence Forces raised their game and duly leveled matters in the 33rd minute from Malagasy Tojo whose fiercely driven free kick was met by a bullet header by Marcus Maria which flew in the net for a 1-1 scoreline.

Foresters were denied a good goal in the 35th minute when Coralie sneaked in behind the Red Star Defence Forces defence to collect Laurence Leon’s quickly taken free kick to slot the ball into the net but amazingly assistant referee James Emile signaled for a non-existent offside.

On the stroke of half-time, Francis Nourrice picked up a long pass to cut inside his marker and fire at goal and the ball appeared to come off defender Laurel Ladouce as they claimed for a penalty but referee Nelson Emile was deaf to their appeals for a 1-1 score at the interval.

Red Star Defence Forces were quick off the block in the second half and Darrel Damoo missed a clear chance in the 47th minute from Maria’s superb cross across the Foresters’ goalmouth but the national team forward miscued the ball.

Damoo though redeemed himself in the 49th minute when Maria drilled substitute Errol Bacco’s long throw-in at goalkeeper Kitson Cecile who failed to hold on to the ball and Damoo pounced to bury the ball into the net for a 2-1 lead for his team.

Foresters should have levelled the score in the 54th minute from Leon’s throw-in to Tigana who   hooked the ball to Adeyeri but he hurried his shot from a good scoring position.

The central Mahe side then suffered a big setback when a minute later Collin Francourt brought down Damoo in the middle of the pitch and referee Nelson Emile decided to issue a second yellow card to give him his marching orders which was rather harsh in a match where he dished out yellow cards to more than half of the Foresters team which was quite severe and not always justifiable.

Nonetheless, this title-chasing squad continued to push forward and in the 55th minute, Williams floated a free kick to Adeyeri who headed the ball across the Red Star Defence Forces goalmouth to Corallie whose header from close range ricocheted off the crossbar.

Foresters went close once more in the 65th minute from Adeyeri’s free kick into the penalty area which was cleared as far as substitute Brandon Labrosse whose stinging low left foot volley from the edge of the penalty area crashed against the foot of the post.

Ten minutes later, Foresters again hit the post from Brandon Molle’s cross into the penalty area to another substitute Warren Mellie whose header came off the upright as Red tar Defence Forces rode their luck for the third time.

The colleagues of captain Leonard Besabotsy though drew level in the 79th minute when Molle exchanged passes with Tigana before pulling the ball into the path of Adeyeri whose instinctive shot took a slight deflection to fly through goalkeeper Hortense’s legs to make it 2-2.

Foresters turned this match in their favour in the 81st minute from Molle’s centre to Adeyeri whose shot was fumbled by goalkeeper Hortense and Corallie, who was lurking slotted the loose ball into the net to make it 3-2 to bag his brace and fifth goal in three matches for his new team.

Red Star Defence Forces though battled back and leveled the score in the 83rd minute when Foresters were down to nine as captain Besabotsy received treatment on the sideline.

It all started from Tojo’s in-swinging corner which Kieren Sinon headed across the goalmouth from the back post and there was Bacco who headed into the roof of the net for a 3-3 score

There was to be another twist in this cracking match as in the 88th minute, Adeyeri intelligently back heeled Molle’s throw-in to Tigana who surged in the box but his run was stopped by Red Star Defence Forces captain Rashim Padayachy’s tackle which brought the former Côte d’Or and Red Star Defence Forces midfielder sprawling to the ground and referee Nelson Emile pointed to the spot for a penalty much to the dismay of the army team.

Tigana dusted himself off before he sent goalkeeper Hortense the wrong way to break the resilience of his former team to help Foresters claim all the points in a hard fought but intriguing 4-3 triumph and the club’s vice president Sam Payet was just relieved his team had won this topsy-turvy match.

“We are quite satisfied with the final result as we had expected a tough match against our opponents whom we knew would make things difficult due to our previous affiliation and at one point we were just hoping to get at least a point but the players dug deep despite a man shortage to break our opponents’ resilience and we are really happy with the victory which propels us to the top of the league and this season we mean business as we aim to challenge for the title,” Foresters vice-president Payet related to Sports NATION.

For his part, Cliff Nolin, who was leading this team only for the second time, felt there is still a lot of work to be done to raise the level of this squad.

“We gifted out opponents two goals when we had the advantage and we did not press them but rather fell back and invited them to come at us which shows naivety in out tactical knowledge and we also lack strength in depth in this squad but it will take time to improve things and we need to keep working hard,” Red Star Defence Forces coach Nolin said.

R. J-L.