The visiting Algerian team of JS Kabylie scored three-half goals [one in their own net] at the Banjul Independence Stadium to earn themselves a 2-1 victory over Gambia league champions Armed Forces in the first leg of their CAF Champions League preliminary round on Saturday.

Fares Hamiti scored the first for the former continental champions just after half-time and Mohamed Amine Aoudia added the second nine minutes later. The Gambian side were handed a lifeline just minutes left in the game when the stylist Algerians put a goal into their own net, but the mistake was too late too little for the home side to rescue a point ahead of the February 28 return leg in Algiers.

The Gambian champions, who are struggling to live up to last year's standards, have made a lackluster start to 2010 domestic league season winning just one match in their first five matches. Facing a side that currently occupy the second spot in the Algeria's 18-team league table, the Gambian soldiers were well aware that despite the advantage of having home fans cheering for them, they would still have to improve on their current form in order to garner the desired result.

But it appears JS Kabylie were just not their match on the pitch. The technically organised Algerians dictated the pace of the match throughout the regulations with a string of scoring chances.

End of the road
The financially motivated soldier club are aiming to become the first Gambian side ever to go as far as possible in the continental event, but if the words of the JS Kabylie's Swiss-born coach Alain Geiger are anything to go by, the Gambian champions' story in this year's championship will end in fortnight time when they travel to Algeria for the return leg.

In a post-match interview with Observer Sports, the 49-year-old former Swiss international defender said, if they can beat Armed Forces on their own soil, then nothing can stop them from winning back home in Algeria. Coach Alain Geiger said he had expected a much tougher fixture prior to encounter, but added that the Gambian team's weekend display cannot pose a threat to any organised side.