Caen 1 : 0 Saint-Etienne - Caen maintain momentum

Posted Monday, February 02, 2015 by PA

Caen continued their impressive start to the year as Julien Feret scored the only goal to seal a victory over St Etienne and move Patrice Garande's side out of the Ligue 1 relegation zone.

Garande has now guided Caen to three league wins out of four since the return from the winter break and this was arguably the most high-profile yet as it came against Champions League-chasing St Etienne - who have now gone three without a win.

Feret struck five minutes before the interval to wrap up the points for the hosts as Christope Galtier's visitors failed to test Caen goalkeeper Remy Vercoutre until deep into the second half.

Things could have been different for fourth-placed St Etienne as Yohan Mollo came close to opening the scoring when his 13th-minute corner curled directly onto the crossbar with Vercoutre looking beaten.

His counterpart Stephane Ruffier was brought into action soon afterwards as he kept out an acrobatic overhead kick from Sloan Privat, who connected well with Herve Bazile's cross to test the St Etienne stopper for the first time.

With neither side really taking control of the encounter, it was St Etienne who almost broke the deadlock just before the half-hour mark, with another Mollo corner causing problems for the Caen defence.

This time the former France Under-21 international played the set-piece into the box, with Paul Baysse rising highest but only able to direct his header inches wide of Vercoutre's post.

That miss proved costly as Feret broke the deadlock as he collected a smart pass from Privat before taking on Baysse and finishing well to put Caen in front at half-time.

The second half started slowly until Caen's teenage midfielder Thomas Lemar was played in by N'Golo Kante and controlled well before forcing a smart stop from Ruffier, who was called into action moments later to keep out a drilled Kante strike.

The home side again came close to doubling their advantage when a mix-up in the St Etienne defence saw Lemar gain possession and play in substitute Emiliano Sala - who drew another stop out of Ruffier.

Vercoutre had enjoyed a much quieter afternoon than Ruffier but was on hand to keep out Fabien Lemoine's curling effort with 12 minutes remaining, as St Etienne hit the target for the first time of the afternoon.

That was the only meaningful effort Galtier's side could muster in their forlorn search for a share of the spoils as Caen hung on for a third league win in succession, with the points lifting them out of the bottom three.