Ligue 1: Fabian Lemoine earns St Etienne a late winner at Lorient

Fabian Lemoine fired a late winner to hand St Etienne all three points away at Lorient in Saturday's Ligue 1 action at the Stade du Moustoir.

Lemoine scored from 25 yards with just three minutes on the clock to snatch a late win 1-0 for the visitors to give them their fifth league win of the season.

ASSE wasted several chances to score during the game but the late win boosted them to fourth place ahead of the evening kick-offs.

St Etienne went close early on and could have opened the scoring with less then five minutes played but Benjamin Lecomte did well to keep out Ricky van Wolfswinkel's back post volley after Franck Tabanou picked him out.

Les Verts continued to do all of the early running and Kevin Monnet-Paquet was unfortunate to see his 20-yard effort finish up the wrong side of the post after he superbly saw off Lamine Gassama.

Lorient continued to struggle as the first half wore on as Benjamin Corgnet tested Lecomte once again but this time the hosts' keeper gathered the 25-yard effort with ease.

With half-time fast approaching Van Wolfswinkel wasted the best opportunity of the opening 45 minutes when he escaped the Lorient defence following Monnet-Paquet's pass, but the former Holland international hesitated and failed to beat Lecomte with a weak effort in the end.

The interval did nothing to invigorate Lorient, nor stem St Etienne's flow, and Romain Hamouma worked the busy Lecomte just five minutes after the restart but his free-kick from the edge of the area was well kept out.

Van Wolfswinkel and co continued to huff and puff but despite having the lion's share of the ball the visitors lacked the quality needed to break down a disappointing Lorient side as Christophe Gaultier threw on exciting Les Verts youngster Allan Saint-Maximin with 25 minutes left to play.

The 17-year-old wasted no time in getting involved in the action but his 25-yard half-volley sailed over the bar before fellow substitute Max Gradel wasted a good chance for that elusive opener.

Monnet-Paquet escaped down the right and his pinpoint delivery found the former Leeds man at the penalty spot, but he got his execution all wrong and the ball sailed over the bar again.

Lemoine saved his blushes, though, with just three minutes left of normal time to play.

Out of nothing and with no options, St Etienne's number 18 saw off Mathieu Coutadeur before despatching a superb 25-yard effort which lodged in the inside netting beyond Lecomte to claim all three points for the visitors.