Coach Obafemi made six changes to the team that played a draw against J.Atete in Lagos, giving debut appearance to Okachi and Ismail as well as first start to Saheed and another 90 minutes to a couple others, with majority of the regulars not in the traveling squad for the game.
We slump to a 2-1 defeat in Ikot Ekpene to Ibom Youths in the Nigeria National League (NNL), Matchday Nine fixture, despite leading for about 70minutes of play.
LINE UP: GK: Akor Paul; Sebastine Godwin,Uchenna Emmanuel, Anu Oluwole,Idowu Yusuf; Gafar Ojo, Oyedokun Tosin, Issa Saheed,Salami Ismail; Salami Farouk & Henry Okachi.
The game started really intense and there was huge physical battle but we settled in nicely and controlled play, creating a few half chances while keeping possession.
The first goal eventually came when Gafar slipped Ismail through on goal, with pressure on him, he managed to lift it over the goalkeeper from distance to give us the lead after 11 minutes.
It was a long first half from then on, but we kept on dominating and dictating play, even as we went into the break with a deserved lead.
With the home crowd cheering their team on, the hosts started the second half in control with more physical presence, but were unable to break the defense till they were handed a golden opportunity from the penalty spot which brought the leveler around 70mins.
Few minutes later they added a second but the Oga Boys were not relenting and kept piling the pressure, as the rest of the match was played in the half of the hosts, but the score line remained the same as we crumbled to a hard defeat.