Dolly's Montpellier audition starts with defeat

South African attacker Keagan Dolly made a losing bow to life at his new side Montpellier, going down 2-1 to Monaco in Ligue 1 on Tuesday.

Dolly lasted 81 minutes before he was replaced by Paul Lasne as La Paillade failed to build from the previous weekend’s win.

Having moved from Premier Soccer League and African - club football- Champions Mamelodi Sundowns during the recent transfer window, the Bafana Bafana hitman found himself in very unfamiliar territory; an unusual central midfield role and an unforgiving relegation tussle at the base of the Ligue 1.

Despite Jean-Louis Gasset’s current 13th spot, they are not too far from team that are as low as 18th and they have played a game more.

Kamil Glik opened the scoring with a header from Thomas Lemar’s free-kick before Dolly’s mistake led to Monacco’s second goal in the 20th minute through Kylian Mbappe-Lottin.

After a turnover and quick transition in attack, the South African’s lethargic pass was intercepted and Les Monegasques launched a swift counter-attack and doubled their lead.

After exchanging positions- for a more familiar left wing role- with Jonathan Ikone, the 24-year-old did show a flash of his quality and set up the earlier on a one-on-one with an inch perfect pass. The effort sailed across goal as Monaco took the two goal cushion to the interval.

Montpellier did manage to pull one back shortly after the restart through Hilton but Leonardo Jardim’s men hung on to remain at the summit of the French top tier.