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Sochaux recorded their first home win of the campaign with a deserved 1-0 victory over Nantes.
The situation did not look promising for the hosts before tonight's encounter as top-scorer Araujo Ilan was forced to miss out with a groin injury, but early efforts from Moumouni Dagano and Mourad Meghni indicated a strong desire to take a stranglehold on proceedings.
With 22 minutes gone, Dagano then drew a smart save from France international Mickaël Landreau, suffering from a thigh complaint, and centre-back Souleymane Diawara really should have done better with an off-target header in first-half stoppage-time.
Nantes had been entirely absent as an attacking force and that did not change after the interval. Rather, Mickaël Isabey and Romain Pitau upped the pressure before Dagano at last made the breakthrough on 52 minutes. Jérémy Menez was the provider with a superb run down the left and cross, and the Burkina Faso striker made up for his earlier misses by heading past substitute goalkeeper Tony Heurtebis.
The more the match wore on, the more Sochaux were content to sit on their lead, and only an Isabey shot which flew just wide on 74 minutes came close to troubling the scorers again. Les Lionceaux Coach Dominique Bijotat will be a relieved man to have lifted some of the pressure of his back, but his team nonetheless only climb one place up to 15th, while Nantes fall to ninth.
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