Goalkeepers : Mondillon, Quiévreux.
Defence : Adam, Aïteur, Guion, Richter, Savry, Sighiri.
Midfield : Dumoulin, Elisor, Hamidi, Imbert, Kéhiha, Maufroy, Mille, Mzé-Issa.
Attack : Akrour, Belissaoui, Duboscq, Tabet, Thiaw

In : Adam (Gap), Akrour (Woking FC, England), Belissaoui (Red Star 93), Duboscq (Reims), Elisor (Trélissac), Mille (Manosque), Quiévreux & Sighiri (Paris SG).
Out : Bellini, Bououdène (Paris FC), Cassèse, Cerulei, De La Quintinie, Falzon, Henneuse (Valenciennes), Olive, Poinçon (Clermont Foot), Priou, Rossi (GFCO Ajaccio), Usaï (Valenciennes).

Istres, currently third in the National, hope to gain promotion back to D2, in which it took part for nearly ten years from 1985 to 1994. In 1998, Istres came close to promotion, finishing fourth. Last season after a good start, Istres slipped away somewhat in the final run-in. Istres have many new faces this season, including former Red Star men Aziz Belissaoui who has linked up again with former team-mate David Guion. Aziz has already scored three goals this season, as has another recruit Akrour.

D2 week 28, (27th March 1986)
ISTRES (16th) – RED STAR (13th) : 3–3 (2-0)
Goals : Priou (14), Goupil (30), Piq (47) – Rached (47), Belkebla Y. (50), Boukada (86)
Attendance 1 800
Trailing 2-0 at the break, including one goal from Franck Priou, who last year returned to Istres to see out his playing days, Red Star pulled a goal back through Rached, only for Istres to score a third. But the team from Seine-Saint-Denis staged a remarkable come-back, Y. Belkebla getting the score back to 3-2 before Boukada earned a point three minutes from the end. An astute substitution by the then coach Roger Lemerre.
ISTRES : Simonella, Gautier, Francioli, Djefafila, Folcher, Kerjean, Lafleur, Djennadi, Goupil (Monczuk 72), Piq, Priou. Coach: Coinçon.
RED STAR : Lemasson, Havet (Boukada 67), Besançon, Séguy, Aniol, Mezzache, Belkebla Y., Zehringer, Leverrier, Rached. Coach: Lemerre