Football: SeyPearl Premier League |23 November 2019

Livakely (left) scored St Michel’s winner against LightStars

St Michel last-gasp strike sinks LightStars

Anse Aux Pins-based St Michel scored in the dying seconds of their battling encounter against Praslin outfit LightStars to earn a narrow 1-0 triumph at Stad Linite on Thursday afternoon in a SeyPearl Premier League match.

LightStars gave St Michel some food for thought as early as the 7th minute from Malagasy Mamy whose strongly driven free kick crashed in the side-netting.

Seven minutes later, the Praslin team had a decent appeal for a penalty turned down by referee Kerens Yocette after Malagasy Mario Ravo went down from Yannick Manou’s tackle.

The players of coach Nigel Moustache’s response came in the 26th minute when Malagasy Francis teed up Jean-Claude Berlouis who thumped a thunderous shot which ricocheted off the post.

Evariste also fired a stinging low shot in the 40th minute after Malagasy Hassan Aly’s free kick was cleared as far as the Malagasy striker by Renick Esther who had headed the ball to him but it was deflected into corner as the first half ended on a 0-0 score.

St Michel reshuffled the pack 10 minutes into the second period as they brought on their trump card, namely Malagasy Oliver Livakely and Leroy Chetty to bolster their attack with Yannick Julie and Francis replaced and on the hour mark, Livakely and Berlouis exchanged passes but the Malagasy playmaker was too greedy as he tried to force his way to goal.

St Michel huffed and puffed and could only create another gilt-edge opportunity in the 80th minute when substitute Norris Bibi stole the ball from LightStars substitute Chris Uranie to set up Chetty whose rasping low left footer flashed into the side-netting with goalkeeper Darnsley Joubert scrambling to cover his near post.

The record league winners kept pushing for a breakthrough against a well-drilled LightStars defence and on the stroke of fulltime, Evariste rolled the ball to Livakely who juggled the ball to produce a dipping shot from the edge of the penalty area which was well pushed away by goalkeeper Joubert.

As this match headed to a goalless draw, St Michel managed to conjure a final chance in the 93rd minute as Evariste won a duel with Fabio Lemiel and then released Livakely who manufactured a fantastic shot at the near post which flew past a bemused goalkeeper Joubert to finally break the stalemate and give St Michel a 1-0 lead as the seconds ticked away to spark joyous scenes in the St Michel camp as they had secured a hard fought victory in the dying seconds and their manager Andrew Jean-Louis praised the players for never giving up.

“I must congratulate the players as they kept going throughout the match as we had already thought of conceding a draw and dropping points in a very balanced first half though we put a lot of pressure on our opponents in the second period where they had to defend and it is a welcome relief to collect all three points which strengthens our position in the league standings,” St Michel manager Jean-Louis related to Sports NATION.

As for the LightStars coach Ted Esther, he was left crestfallen as his team were within seconds from holding St Michel to secure a much needed point.

“We were targeting a draw in this match after two defeats and we had prepared ourselves to defend for long periods but our counterattack was not as effective as we had hoped for and we are very disappointed to lose this match after keeping our opponents at bay for almost the entire match but we will have to regroup to improve our results,” LightStars coach Esther told Sports NATION.

R. J-L.