Dominic Savice guided Paynesville FC to a home and away victory over Cameroon’s Fovu de Baham in the first round of the 2024-2025 CAF Confederation Cup .
It’s the first time in history for a Liberian Coach to achieve such feat in continental club football.
Paynesville won eight-man Fovu De Baham 4-0 a fortnight ago at the SKD Stadium, the first time for a Liberian team to secure such win in a caf competition.
Many football pundits , including sports journalists didn’t give Savice and his side any credit due to their man advantage against the Cameroonians, with some still persimistic that Paynesville couldn’t have defended their 4-0 lead.
With eleven players at peiece in the return leg in Yaounde, Cameroon, Coach Savice won 1-0 .
It was also the first time in many years that a Liberian club won a CAF club Qualifier match away.
In 2021, Savice took over then third division side, Paynesville FC as Head Coach.
In 2022, he guided the team to the National Third Division play-offs which was held in Grand Bassa, as one of the representatives of Montserrado Sub-association.
Paynesville finished as Champions and were one of five teams that gained promotion to the Second Division league that year.
In his first season coaching a team in the country’s second tier, Savice qualified Paynesville FC to the Liberia Football Association First Division , top tier of the Liberian football system.
They finished second in the 2022-2023 Second Division season with 57 points.
The team won 17,drew six, lost five, scored 74 goals and was the joint top-scoring team along with Tony FC.
Seeing his tremendous work in the second league, Paynesville officials made some investment by bringing on some of the best players on the local scene.
In a shocking transfer move, Edward Ledlum, Eugene Swen, Emmanuel Deanneh all joined from money-spinning Bea Mountain .
There were doubts in Savice’s ability to manage some of the top players on the local scene,as a young coach.
Some even thought that Paynesville couldn’t get a well-rehearsed squad, as mixing experience players with the lad from league two would have a challenge.
But Savice easily menuvered and the club immediately became a center of attraction.
Paynesville became a title contender in just a short-while, although they eventually finished 6th with 44 points.
The season however didn’t finish fruitless, as Dominic Savice and his boys went on to clinch the League Cup.
With the qualification over Fovu, Paynesville have now set a tie against Stade Malien of Mali in the second round preliminary .
The first leg will be played at SKD Stadium in Paynesville City on the weekend of September 13-16, with return fixture a week later.
Savice and Paynesville FC could even set the biggest record , becoming the first Linerian club to reach group stage of the CAF confederation cup.
Defunct Barrack Young Controllers (BYC) came close twice.
Savice is widely remembered for his leadership and disciplinary attributes during his playing days.
He captained Nimba United from 2011-2013 and also went on to play for LISCR FC.
He was part of Ansu Keita technical set up at the famous U-17 team.
