Safety first for Papin's Lens

Clouds lifting
The northerners ought to be celebrating the ten-year anniversary of their only ever title win, but instead they have been battling to keep themselves in the top flight. It has been a long and painful campaign for the side more used to competing for European places, but the dark clouds hovering over the Stade Félix-Bollaert have begun to lift since Saturday's hard-fought 3-2 success over FC Sochaux-Montbéliard. Labelled "a practically must-win game" by president Gervais Martel in the run-up, it ended a nine-match sequence without victory and gave Les Sang et Or a three-point cushion of safety with four fixtures remaining.

Calendar concerns
Coach Jean-Pierre Papin will also have been delighted to watch Aruna Dindane register a brace in that match, following a disappointing year for the Ivory Coast striker. The mission now will be to follow up with another three points at Le Mans UC 72 this Saturday – especially as Lens's last two games are a local derby at LOSC Lille Métropole and a home encounter with a FC Girondins de Bordeaux team possibly still in the hunt for the title. "We mustn't get too carried away," warned Papin after the Sochaux result. "I'm very happy but it's really been a difficult season for us."

Luck changing
"It made a nice change that the luck was on our side for once," added defender Fabien Laurenti, reflecting the feeling that the club have been cursed ever since their heartbreaking French League Cup final loss to Paris Saint-Germain FC on 29 March. Now it is the capital outfit – placed 18th – who appear more likely to go down, along with already-doomed FC Metz and possibly RC Strasbourg, Papin's previous employers. Staying out of that equation would hardly constitute a successful first season for the former French international striker, but the alternative is unthinkable for the club's passionate fans. A first ever league win at the Stade Léon-Bollée this weekend would help banish that thought for good.