Laurent Battles’ choices paid off. Traveling to Amiens, Saturday, October 22, the Saint-Etienne coach had decided to considerably reshape his starting lineup. He took it well since his team, more coherent, won for the third time this season (0-1) and gave themselves a little air at the bottom of the classification. The Amiens, they suffered a setback with a second consecutive defeat, and missed the opportunity to temporarily take the lead in the championship.
Yvann Maçon and Sergi Palencia remained in Saint-Etienne on the coach’s decision, Etienne Green on the bench, Anas Namri holder for his first professional match… After four games without a win (three losses and a draw), ASSE returned a copy applied, without conceding a goal, for the third time this season only. United, the Greens tied with the fourth in the championship, without putting Régis Gurtner, the Amiens goalkeeper, in difficulty, in the first period.
The situation changed after returning from the locker room, with a penalty scored by Ibrahima Wadji to put Saint-Etienne in front of the scoreboard, on the first and only shot on target from Stéphanois in the meeting (50th). All the same a little feverish, with the fear of being caught in the score, the Greens trembled until the end of additional time but the Amiens were not dangerous enough to catch Matthieu Dreyer at fault.
Satisfied with this first away victory, the Stéphanois were able to savor this success with their supporters, present in large numbers in the visitor park as at each meeting. “It feels good, we are going through a very complicated period, with a lot of pressure. This victory is also for them. We managed to be solid and not concede a goal, but we are not getting overwhelmed. We take what there is to take, we turn our backs, we work hard during the week and there, it paid off”, rejoiced defender Léo Pétrot at the microphone of BeIN Sports. These three points pocketed allow the Greens to overtake Nîmes in the standings, in 18th place, before the Crocos match in Pau.