Football: Transitional league division one Ten-man Northern Dynamo upset St Michel |15 June 2019

Ten-man Northern Dynamo upset St Michel to hand them their first loss in this first division Transitional league with a 1-0 victory at Stad Linite on Thursday afternoon.

St Michel though had more possession as they threatened early on to break the deadlock with Malagasy Evariste testing goalkeeper Ricky Pool with a curling free kick in the 14th minute but the young custodian punched away the danger.

Three minutes later, Malagasy Olivier Livakely showed superb footwork to drift past defender Dino Clarisse with consummate ease but instead of pulling the ball back to two of his club mates, he tried to go for goal but the ball flew across goal.

Despite St Michel having the edge in this half, chances were few and far between and the only other chance came in the 24th minute from a good run by Norris Bibi as he skipped past defender Clarisse to pick out Malagasy Evariste but the former Revengers striker made a meal of his shot for a 0-0 scoreline at half-time.

The second half was also very tight with St Michel going close on a few occasions but the decisive moment came in the 75th minute when defender Nigel Hoareau was penalised by referee Kerens Yocette for handling the ball in his penalty area despite the national team player pleading his innocence.

Dynamo’s Malagasy Patrick Rasaminana took responsibility of the spot kick and made no mistake as he sent goalkeeper Jalyl Servina the wrong way to make it 1-0 for the northern Mahé team.

St Michel’s only opportunity to draw level in this encounter came in the 82nd minute as substitute Jean-Claude Berlouis combined with Bibi but the on loan Pointe Larue Bazar Brothers’ midfielder fired wide when he should have at least hit the target.

Controversy loomed large on the stroke of full time when Malagasy Patrick and St Michel substitute Francis got entangled as the Dynamo midfielder chased a ball forward but went down under the St Michel striker’s challenge.

Referee Yocette blew his whistle indicating a foul but amazingly it was in favour of St Michel which was a really bizarre decision as the whole stadium felt the decision should have gone the other way.

To add insult to injury, referee Yocette even flashed out a yellow card towards Patrick which was his second in this match and he had to leave the pitch as the goal scorer turned from hero to villain in what appeared to be the wrong decision by the official, but fortunately it didn’t matter as Northern Dynamo held on to inflict a first defeat on St Michel in this Transitional league and their manager Nigel Michaud-Payet was very happy with the result though not impressed with the officiating.

“This is a very good result for my team which shows that we are on the right track but we are not pleased with the sending off as the official had a good game but messed up in the end. But as for us, we are targeting to win this league and are aiming for victory in our next two matches,” Michaud explained to Sports NATION.

As for St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis, he was disappointed with his team’s poor finishing and also had doubts over the penalty decision.

“We played well and had control on the match but we didn’t play with enough intelligence and we should have been more organised in our play but I have my doubts if the penalty was really genuine,” claimed the St Michel manager whose team lost for the first time in his Transitional league.

R. J-L.