St Etienne back in the groove

St Etienne bounced back from their humiliating thrashing by Paris St Germain to beat Caen 1-0 at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Saturday.

After a 5-0 hammering at the hands of the reigning Ligue 1 champions before the international break, St Etienne fans would have been hoping for a response and they got one - in the end.

The hosts toiled for long periods before Caen defender Jean-Jacques Pierre put through his own net 16 minutes from time to gift St Etienne the win they craved.

Despite their poor performance at the Parc des Princes, Christophe Galtier's side have largely been solid this season and they now climb to second, while Caen sit 12th.

The fact they managed to keep a clean sheet will be a massive boost to Galtier as he looks to find a way to cope without Loic Perrin, who is sidelined for up to six weeks with a thigh problem.

Romain Hamouma, restored to the starting 11 as St Etienne shifted back to a 4-4-2, almost opened the scoring as early as the third minute.

He was released by Benjamin Corgnet, who also benefited from the formation change, but his powerful drive was bravely blocked by Caen keeper Remy Vercoutre.

Julien Feret forced St Etienne keeper Stephane Ruffier into his first save of the evening shortly after, but the hosts then took a stranglehold on proceedings.

Mevlut Erding twice went close as Vercoutre's goal went under siege, with the 34-year-old keeper first getting down well to save before the Turkish forward watched on as his attempted lob went agonisingly over the bar.

Corgnet headed just wide from Kevin Monnet-Paquet's corner, but Caen survived to keep it goalless at the break.

It was more of the same after the interval, with St Etienne on the front foot and Caen just about keeping them at bay for long periods.

Corgnet went even closer with a second powerful header - this time watching his effort from Franck Tabanou's superb ball into the box crash back off the crossbar.

At that point the hosts, and Corgnet, must have been thinking it was just not meant to be, but they got a huge slice of good fortune in the 74th minute.

Amid confusion caused by Corgnet's corner delivery, Pierre nodded past his own keeper to finally give St Etienne the victory they deserved.

They almost let it slip at the death though, with Caen defender Jean Calve finding the post with a header in stoppage time.