Football: Seypearl Premier League |28 October 2019
La Passe, Revengers bounce back
La Digue side La Passe and Praslin outfit Revengers bounced back from defeat last week to record impressive victories as La Passe beat Au Cap 3-1 and Revengers stunned St Michel 4-3 at the Amitié playing field on Saturday in the SeyPearl premier league.
Revengers shatter St Michel’s unbeaten run
Revengers caused the shock so far in the SeyPearl premier league as they shattered league leaders St Michel’s four match unbeaten run with a hard fought 4-3 triumph on Saturday at the Amitié playing field.
The players of former St Michel defender Neddy Rose raced to a two-goal lead with Malagasy defender Zenith heading home past goalie Jalyl Servina who had started this match as a result of number one goalie Alvin Michel nursing an injury due to a motorbike accident during the week.
The former Côte D’Or player Zenith headed his team into the lead from a corner as early as the eighth minute for a 1-0 score and five minutes later, his countryman Marthelin added a second to make it 2-0.
St Michel’s Malagasy striker Oliver Livakely reduced the deficit in the 34th minute for a 1-2 score line but Marthelin bagged his brace in the 41st minute for a 3-1 advantage for Revengers at half time.
St Michel substitute Antonio Ratafina, who had replaced Travis Quatre for the second period, got on the scoresheet in the 51st minute to close the lead to 2-3 but the league leaders suffered a major blow when goalie Servina handled outside the penalty area in the 65th minute and was quite rightly sent off by referee Bernard Camille with a straight red card which forced coach Nigel Moustache to pull off Norris Bibi and bring on Alvin Michel for the remainder of this match.
Revengers though were not to be denied their moment of glory when Danio François struck in the 85th minute to put his team 4-2 up and though Malagasy Hassan Aly netted in the 86th minute to make it 3-4, Revengers held on to beat ten-man St Michel and end a two-match losing streak which delighted coach Neddy Rose when he spoke to Sports NATION after the match.
“My players showed maturity and played with a lot of determination as they did not want to lose this match and they surprised me with their performance and I must congratulate them and maybe our opponent underestimated us a bit because we had lost our last two matches so I hope this result will be a stepping stone for my team,” the Revengers coach Rose said.
As for the St Michel club secretary Michael Delpeche, he told Sports NATION that his team had lots of possession and goal scoring chances and cannot complain about the defeat to a hungrier opponent than his team who did not take their chances.
“We had a lot of control of the match but our opponent took the chances that came their way and we unfortunately failed to convert the many chances we created and the players may have been too confident after four wins on the trot so we were beaten fair and square,” Delpeche said.
La Passe return to winning ways against Au Cap
La Digue side La Passe returned to winning ways with a comfortable 3-1 victory over winless Au Cap on a 3-1 score line at Stad Linite on Saturday evening in a late kick-off.
Malagasy Florent and Brandon Fanchette scored two goals in the first half to give La Passe a 2-0 lead but Ghanaian striker Emmanuel Armah netted from a free kick before half time which flew past goalie Ian Ah-Kong for a 1-2 score at half time.
La Passe sealed all three points with another strike by Fanchette midway in the second half to help coach Bruno Saindini’s team to bounce back from their home loss to St Michel to a 3-1 win which keeps them in the runner up berth.
Anse Reunion-Foresters match abandoned
Anse Reunion’s home match against high flying Foresters was abandoned after just over half an hour of kick-off due to heavy downpour at the L’Union playing field which made the pitch water logged and unplayable.
Referee Alix Bonne decided to abandon the match after 35 minutes as the condition of the pitch made it very dangerous and even one of the Anse Reunion players namely Malagasy Christophe suffered a hand injury in the 12th minute and had to be transported to the Seychelles Hospital on Mahé where he was admitted with a fracture and his hand was placed in plaster of paris.
The match will now be played at a later date which will be decided by the Football Federation in agreement with the two teams though it is not clear if the match will be restarted or continue for the 65 minutes that was left to be played in this encounter.
The Foresters coach Harold Hoareau felt it was the right decision to cancel this match due to the high injury risk though it was a missed opportunity to take the league leadership with a win but the condition was not good and he added if the official had waited for the rain to stop it would have caused them to miss their trip back to Mahé.
“It would have been difficult to continue this match after the heavy downpour though we would have gone top with a win but the match will have to be rescheduled and will start afresh and we now have to prepare for two tough matches against St Louis and St Michel in the coming week,” the Foresters coach Hoareau told Sports NATION.
As for the Anse Reunion coach Basil Hoareau, he was not pleased with the decision by the official to cancel the match.
“I think the official should have waited a while as the rain did stop but sadly he was in a hurry to catch his boat so he decided to abandon the match which made the supporters very unhappy and they requested to be refunded for the ticket they had bought. We are also disappointed with the official who denied us a clear penalty and failing to penalise the Foresters’ defender for a nasty foul on our player Christophe who had to be transported to hospital,” the Anse Reunion coach stated.
R.J-L