Football: SeyPearl Premier League |22 November 2019
Waye-Hive (left) scored St Louis’ first goal
St Louis stutter past Au Cap
St Louis stuttered past bottom club Au Cap on a 5-0 scoreline at Stad Linite in a SeyPearl Premier League match on Wednesday afternoon.
Many had expected St Louis to win this encounter by a heavier score especially after two good results on Praslin in their last two matches where they had drawn with champions Côte d’Or and beaten LightStars but on Wednesday, they played below par though they went on the offensive from the kick-off in search of goals.
In the 17th minute, Gervais Waye-Hive beat the Au Cap offside trap but when he had the goal in his sight, he chose to try and square to Hubert Jean but his pass was too strong.
Waye-Hive again had a clear chance two minutes later when Roddy Melanie back-heeled the ball to him but his shot from close range was blocked by goalkeeper Terence Mondon’s outstretched leg.
St Louis enjoyed plenty of possession but lacked the cutting edge to break down an average opponent and with half-time approaching and the crowd becoming frustrated with the lack of goals, St Louis finally found a breakthrough on the stroke of half-time.
It all started from Headley Havelock’s pass to Malagasy Georges Kalo who burst through on the left and his teasing cross across the Au Cap goalmouth was slotted home by Gervais Waye-Hive to make it 1-0 at the break.
St Louis’ coaching staff reshuffled the pack as they brought on Darren Anaou and Dean Mothé for Melanie and Jean in the 55th minute.
However, St Louis rode their luck when they gave away a cheap free kick two minutes later from Dean Balette’s floated free kick in the penalty area where Sean Romain guided his header at goal only for young goalkeeper Gino Pleureuse to produce a brilliant one-handed save to deny Au Cap an equaliser.
St Louis then broke forward and Kalo threaded a pass to Waye-Hive who picked out Mothé with a teasing cross allowing him to head past goalkeeper Mondon for a 2-0 score.
On the hour mark, St Louis went further ahead as Kalo, who had his best game for the 2018 league champions, skipped past a couple of defenders to centre to his countryman Tahiry who had all the time in the world to direct his shot into the roof of the net to make it 3-0.
The Malagasy midfielder added a second personal goal in the 76th minute after a poor goal kick by the Au Cap goalkeeper which fell to Anaou who in turn played to Kalo who laid it to Tahiry whose rasping shot from the edge of the penalty area found refuge in the roof of the net for a 4-0 scoreline.
St Louis substitute Johan Waye-Hive also got on the scoresheet in the dying seconds of added time as he linked up with Jude Nancy and Kalo before adjusting himself from outside the penalty area to thump the ball into the net with a looping shot to round off the scoring at 5-0.
Nonetheless, St Louis’ head coach Michel Renaud was not happy entirely with his team’s performance as he felt they were rather complacent and played without enough determination.
“The players took things too easy maybe because they knew the position of their opponents on the league table and so our performance was rather poor compared to our last two away matches but we did what was necessary to collect all the points and score some goals which will help us for our next match where we face Red Star Defence Forces,” the St Louis coach told Sports NATION.
As for Au Cap club president Nichol Dogley, he still feels his team need to raise their performance if they are to survive in this top flight.
“We still have a lot to do if we are to survive as for the moment our performances are not good enough though in this match where we opted for more younger players, we tried to be more defensive in the first half but we then lost our concentration in the second half to a more physically stronger opponent,” remarked Mr Dogley.
R. J-L.
