Rennes leapfrogged Lille to go top of the French first division on Saturday on a day when topflight referees and goals were either absent or a rare commodity.
Officials from the third division were called in to take charge of the weekend fixtures after first division referees were suspended in response to their plans to stage a protest to try and gain more respect.
Rennes had Razak Boukari’s 27th minute goal to thank for their 1-0 win at Montpellier, which lifted them up to 49 points, as title-rivals Paris Saint-Germain slipped up 1-0 at Auxerre.
Photo: AFP
Goals were in desperately short supply on Saturday, with only four from seven games.
Fourth-placed PSG missed the opportunity to take provisional second spot as a late goal from Kamel Chafni lifted struggling Burgundy side Auxerre out of the relegation zone, leaving the Parisians on 44 points.
PSG had dominated the match before Chafni’s strike four minutes from time.
“We took three very important points tonight but there will be an even more important match next Saturday at Nice,” Chafni said.
“It’s the success we’ve been lacking since the beginning of the season. We showed everyone that we want to succeed and we managed to win this match,” he said.
Caen scraped home in their game against Saint-Etienne due to Youssef El Arabi’s injury time winner, while Sochaux saw off Toulouse by a similarly slim margin after Modibo Maiga’s 64th minute contribution.
Elsewhere it was a case of blanks being fired all round, with goalless stalemates at Lorient v Nancy, Nice v Lens, and Valenciennes v Monaco.
Rennes they came away from their trip to Montpellier having extended their winning run in the league to five.
For their hero, new recruit Boukari, it was his second goal in as many matches and his fourth in seven games for his new club.
Sochaux’s win at Toulouse moved them from 12th to eighth.
Top flight referees were dispensed with for the weekend’s action by the French Football Federation after their planned protest to start matches 15 minutes late as a way of trying to gain more respect from players, managers and club owners.
French referees’ disquiet at their abusive treatment follows November’s strike by Scottish referees upset at the way they were being treated by players and managers.
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