France: Ligue 2: Chamois Niortais - Bourg en Bresse Peronnas 01

 

Ahead of Niort's last home start, where we sided with Lens my notes included  .....

Two teams with a desperate need for points. Niort are only a point above the drop zone, they have "only" lost 11 games this season, which is just one more than third placed Le Havre, but 16 draws have not helped much as we have so often discussed, you do not win much in modern football and can easily get yourself in trouble by too often settling for one point.
 

Niort went for it there and were unlucky not to take something from the game and ahead of their trip to Red Star last week, I spoke about that .....

We have already discussed Niort and how they were denied by the woodwork four times last week, failure to win that and it was not for want of trying has seen them slip into the drop zone. They are going to have to find probably 7 points + to survive from five remaining games, only two of which are at home and they will need the same offensive commitment from now on in, if they are to survive. The mood at the club this week has seemed quite good and players have tried to take positives from the performance, rather than dwelling on the defeat, one spoke about the team having found "a soul". Red Star are a real enigma and seem far happier on the road, rather than at home where they play in front of low crowds and in a subdued atmosphere. The hosts have conceded nine goals in their last five starts, including six in their last two here in Beauvais and Niort will take great heart from the last of those a 4-2 loss to basement club Paris FC.
 

They won that 2-0 and those points ghave taken them back out of the drop zone, they will surely not make the mistake of stepping off the gas now that they have found some real form offensively and especially given that this is their penultimate home start.  BEBP looked to be tumbling towards the drop zone with some very shaky form in 2016, but three consecutive wins last month took them back into mid table safety and they can plan for next season in Ligue 2. However, if we remove those three games from the equation, they are 0-5-6 since mid January and they have lost the last two with a 5-0 goals difference, including a 2-0 loss at basement club Paris and Niort can surely ask for no better opponent right now. eight of BEBP's last 11 defeats have been by two or more goals and they have conceded at the rate of 1.875 per game on the road this season. Young Benin goalkeeper Saturmin Allagbe will continue between the sticks for Niort, but did little wrong on his debut at Red Star. The visitors are without a couple of full backs and Mickaël Alphonse is a big loss, with no natural replacement on the right and we are again likely to see three central defenders in the backline.

 

1.5 units Niort -0.75 ball 2.28 asian line/Sportmarket.
 

 

Niort : Allagbe, Desmas - Lahaye, Sambia, Bong, Sans, Kiki, Choplin - Selemani, Djigla, Roye, Koukou, Omrani, Batisse, Kikalishvili - Koné, Dabasse.

 

BEBP : Callamand, Fabri, Perradin, Berthomier, Boujedra, Boussaha, N'Simba, Ogier, Bègue, Sane, Nirlo, Traore, Faivre, Dembele, Damour, Ba.