We suffered our first defeat of the Nigeria Premier Football League 25/26 season conceding four against Niger Tornadoes on matchday five and scored two in the process.
LINE UP: Michael Atata; Junior Christian, Alfred Odinaka, Gift Udoh, Ayomide Abatan; Kelechi Onwe, Abass Lawal, Tosin Oyedokun; Musa Maliq, Waliu Ojetoye & Uchechukwu Onyemaechi.
An unchanged back line was immediate under fire from the start of the game, expectedly struggling with the movement of the ball on the largely bouncy and uneven surface.
A freekick in front of the area produced the first goal as Michael struggled to deal with a harsh bounce of the ball in front of him, leading to a follow up that brought the goal.
A first quickly became a second minutes later when the home side broke free on the left and fired home. Two minutes later, a third came in via the left hand side as the home team took advantage with a heavy lead after a quarter of an hour.
The game then turned on its heads as the lads found confidence and started to dominate play, pegging the home side to their half. Musa Maliq hit a chance slightly over the bar and the goalkeeper stood as a wall blocking some critical moments.
The second half started just as we ended the first and just after three minutes, we pulled one back. Musa Maliq arrived to meet a perfect cross from Waliu Ojetoye to score our first. With all our dominance and pressure, the home side scored the next goal.
Joseph Arumala came on and won a penalty which Tosin dispatched as we approached the final quarter of the game. The chances came but it wasn’t to be as we fell to a defeat in Minna.
UP NEXT
We turn our attention to the weekend as we welcome the People’s Elephant, Enyimba FC at the Arena.
SUBSTITUTION
OUT: Abass Lawal IN: Tomisin Adebayo 25’
OUT: Gift Udoh IN: Joseph Arumala 46’
OUT: Tomisin Adebayo IN: Ayomide Cole 46’
OUT: Ayomide Cole IN: Oladimeju Dada 55’
OUT: Kelechi Onwe IN: Dagogo Ibifubara 90+1’