Saint Etienne sink to foot of table

Former giants Saint Etienne sank to the foot of the French first division after their seventh straight league loss on Saturday, 1-0 at home to Nice, although coach Alain Perrin insisted he saw some chinks of light.

Veteran Olivier Echouafni headed the only goal of the game after 20 minutes to send Nice provisionally up to second spot on 28 points from 15 games – five adrift of seven-time reigning champions Lyon, who were away to Paris Saint Germain in the late game.

“We're very frustrated of course – but I saw some encouraging signs. We can get out of this,” insisted coach Alain Perrin, who took over from sacked Laurent Roussey but has now overseen a 3-0 thumping at Lille and the Nice reverse.

“We didn't deserve this. We have to keep working hard and if we keep playing like we did tonight we will gain some reward,” added the former Lyon and Portsmouth boss whose arrival has yet to shake up the ten-times champions and former European Cup finalists.

Saint Etienne have also brought in Tottenham's sacked sporting director Damian Comolli, but the club where Michel Platini, now UEFA president, made his name in the 1970s and early 1980s has lost 11 of 15 league games and scored just eight goals all season.

With third-placed Marseille, who have 26 points, not in action until Sunday, when they host Lille, Nice made the most of their smash-and-grab success and further profited from a 1-1 stalemate between Bordeaux and Rennes in the southwest.

Yoann Gourcuff, who had promised that the Girondins would bounce back from last week's loss at Lyon which put a major crimp in Bordeaux's title aspirations, netted against his former club to save a point after Olivier Thomert had put Rennes into a 20th-minute lead.

The point at least enabled Rennes to move level on points with Marseille with Bordeaux a point further back in fifth spot.

Toulouse missed a chance to keep pace with Nice after they slid to a 1-0 loss at a Lorient side which last week stunned Marseille by winning a five-goal thriller at the Stade Velodrome.

This time Gameiro was on hand 15 minutes from time to secure the points for the Bretons, who consolidated their mid-table status.

Elswehere, Le Havre managed a goalless draw at Grenoble to stay out of the drop zone while Valenciennes and Sochaux parted 2-2 to leave both clubs level on a meagre ten points with Saint Etienne.

As well as Marseille's match against Lille, Sunday further sees action between lowly Nantes and Nancy while midtablers Monaco face Le Mans.