Nick Stern saluted his players after L'Equipe produced the upset of the day with a thrilling 4-3 victory putting them in the second round of the Peter Morrison Trophy.
A deadly double from Richard Alexander and Nick Stern and Jon Kay helped the second division to a famous win over first division Los Blancos.
With MGBSFL chairman David Wolff in attendance, things did not look good early on for L'Equipe who turned up with a small squad, ravaged by injuries, and with their kit arriving only 10 minutes before kick off. Things went from bad to worse as they fell two goals behind after just 20 minutes.
Stern was concerned at how Blancos's pacy strikeforce got behind his defence so easily, with David Prager and the player-manager himself chasing shadows.
However, just as they had shown against MGBSFL champions North London Raiders A recently, L'Equipe showed great character and pulled one back via a great header from Kay. Stern said: "We are more used to seeing him flick on the ball but the way he finished his chance from a delicious cross from Richard ‘Scotty’ Alexander was a joy."
L'Equipe continued to enjoy the majority of the possession as Blancos started to show signs of frustration and their pressure was rewarded when Alexander received the ball on the edge of the box from a corner, composed himself and smashed the ball into the corner of the net.
2-2 at half time and without doubt, L'Equipe were on top. They were kicking downhill and were full of confidence. Bell Grant and Jules were dominating the midfield and the defence had finally worked out how best to handle Jono Gaon.
Within 15 minutes of the restart L'Equipe were ahead. A beautiful corner was delivered from the right and Stern dived to head the ball into the net even making contact with the post as he did. Despite a sore head and bravery bordering on "stupidity" from him, it was a huge goal and L'Equipe now had something to defend.
Los Blancos finally woke up and through some last-ditch defending - "admittedly some rather illegal which resulted in five bookings" - L'Equipe withstood the threat until a break away goal from Alexander, who was put through by Grant Bates, sealed the win.
Blancos pulled one back late on but it counted for nothing as the final whistle sparked joyous scenes in the L'Equipe camp.
Jono Gaon, Alex Lewis and Adam Hersh were the marksmen for Blancos.
L'Equipe boss Nick Stern told JC Sport: "I was extremely proud of the 12 warriors on the pitch today. We wanted it more than our opponents and this showed through the result."
Blancos boss Jonathan Ison told JC Sport: "There were not too many positives from today, besides Lewis getting his first goal in a Blancos shirt. L'Equipe are set-piece specialists and it showed.
"A 3-4 scoreline sounds an exciting game, but all is not as it seems. We were not at the races, it looked like no-one fancied a trip up to Manchester in a future round, so they just threw the towel in.
"It was quite a lacklustre performance, and I know that we will, as we will have no choice, take it up a fair few notches in the league, starting again Sosobad this Sunday."
I am confident we do well in the league this year, and yesterday's game has not changed that.
