St Etienne continue climb

St Etienne continued their impressive climb up the Ligue 1 table with a 2-1 victory at Reims on Saturday night.Goals either side of half-time from Yohan Mollo and Romain Hamouma put the visitors in control, and although a late own goal from Renaud Cohade sparked hopes of a fightback from Reims, their dreams were ended with the dismissal of Antoine Conte moments later.St Etienne remain unbeaten in the league since early October, with Saturday's result lifting them up to third - two points behind leaders Marseille.Things looked ominous for Reims as early as the third minute when a header from Mollo struck the crossbar, but they called visiting goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier into action after 10 minutes with a threatening 12-yard volley from Gaetan Charbonnier.Reims keeper Johnny Placide was then kept busy at the other end, turning away efforts from Antoine Devaux and Hamouma.And St Etienne finally broke the deadlock a minute before half-time, winning a dangerous free-kick 20 yards out which Mollo bent over the wall and into the corner.A second goal then followed three minutes into the second half. Placide did well to palm away Ricky van Wolfswinkel's strike but the ball fell kindly for Hamouma, who tucked the rebound low into the net.Reims also had the ball in the back of the net after 54 minutes, but Devaux's turn-and-volley was ruled out because the midfielder had strayed into an offside position.The clock was ticking for Reims and Ruffier made a vital intervention to deny Diego's point-blank header from Charbonnier's cross.Yet they were thrown a lifeline with a minute remaining when Cohade's attempts to clear a free-kick from Diego resulted in the midfielder turning the ball into his own net.A frantic finish looked on the cards at Stade August Delaune but any hopes of sneaking a draw were extinguished moments later when Conte was shown a second yellow card following an altercation with Franck Tabanou.