Reims add to Sochaux misery

Struggling Sochaux's quest for only their second win of the season goes on after they lost 2-0 to Reims

Struggling Sochaux's quest for only their second Ligue 1 victory of the season goes on after they slumped to a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Reims, for whom goalkeeper Kossi Agassa was in outstanding form. Christopher Glombard opened the scoring early on following a defensive error and Prince Oniangue added a late second as 11th-placed Reims picked up their first win in four matches to halt their slide towards the relegation places. It did nothing to help Sochaux's bid to escape the clutches of the bottom three though, and they remain rooted to the foot of the table and still seven points adrift of safety. Sochaux can consider themselves somewhat unfortunate not to have got anything out of the game, though, as they created almost all the chances of note in the opening hour, with Agassa proving unbeatable. In the opening seven minutes alone he was forced into making two superb saves to deny Abdoul Camara and Julien Faussurier. That was a promising start for the home side but they suffered a major blow in the 16th minute when defender Mathieu Peybernes' back-header failed to find Simon Pouplin and Glombard nipped in to slide the ball into an empty net to give Reims the lead. Despite that setback, Sochaux regrouped and Agassa did well again in the 22nd minute to block Sanjin Prcic's thumping shot before the veteran Togo international performed more heroics to turn Camara's 41st-minute shot behind for a corner. Agassa was back in the action again at the start of the second half as he miraculously kept out Pierre-Alain Frau's volley in the 56th minute, and four minutes later he kept out Frau's curling free-kick. Sochaux must have felt it was not going to be their night and they saw the opportunities dry up in the final half-hour as Reims, having weathered the storm thanks to the brilliant Agassa, finally started to cause the home side more problems. Nicolas De Preville was denied by a superb tackle by Sochaux defender Lionel Zouma and Reims substitute Gaetan Charbonnier came within inches of netting with an 85th-minute strike that hit the post. Reims did not have to wait much longer for the killer second goal though, as 60 seconds after hitting the woodwork they found the back of the net when Oniangue pounced after De Preville's shot had been parried by Simon Pouplin.