FC Nantes 2-1 Toulouse FC

THE MATCH
Toulouse had dropped into last place following Nîmes Olympique's home draw with FC Metz 24 hours earlier, but Antoine Kombouaré's men's hopes of moving clear of trouble were quickly dealt a major blow.

Young midfielder Kouadio Koné picked up an early yellow card and soon followed that up with a second to leave his side down to ten men just 23 minutes in. Worse was to follow when Issiaga Sylla handled and Abdoulaye Touré tucked away the resulting spot-kick (43').

Sylla had earlied saved his side by clearing a Kalifa Coulibaly effort off the line (16'), and the visitors — on a run of four successive losses — saw Max-Alain Gradel rattle the crossbar with a free-kick (55').

Simon effect

By that time, they were two behind though. Ludovic Blas looks more and more at home since his summer move from En Avant Guingamp, and he latched onto a Moses Simon cross that Coulibaly had allowed to run, smashing his shot in off the crossbar (53').

Abdoul Kader Bamba went close to a third (62'), and Coulibaly even thought he had scored it only for Simon to have been ruled offside before he had delivered the cross from which his towering teammate had found the net with a close-range header (88').

Mehdi Abeid's foul on Ibrahim Sangaré allowed Aaron Leya Iseka to pull one back by beating ex-Toulouse man Alban Lafont from the penalty spot (90+7'), but it was too little much too late from the visitors, who have not won away from home since 19 January.

THE PLAYER: Moses Simon
The Nigeria international is flourishing under Christian Gourcuff's tutelage with his pace and accurate delivery out wide giving Nantes a potent weapon on the flanks.

THE STAT: 3
This was only the third time this season that Nantes have scored more than a single goal in a league game.