We began the second half of our debut Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) campaign with a 4-3 defeat to Sunshine Stars in Ikenne.
With a 2-1 win confidence from the first leg, we felt positive coming into this one after the break which led to the opening of the transfer window.
LINE UP: James Faith; Harrison Uzondu, Waliu Ojetoye, Chibuike Oheagbulam, Freedom Marvelous; Abdulmalik Olatunji, Salau Yusuf, Tosin Oyedokun; Toyeeb Ajeyigbe, Shola Adelani & Solomon Alade.
Playing a different structure from the usual, we struggled to settle a bit into shape but eventually began to gel. Waliu had his chance in the first half saved after a series of pressure on the home side.
The home side broke the deadlock a minute after the first quarter of an hour. Liman Ahmadu’s intended cross caught James off guard and went into the back of the net.
Six minutes later, Promise Awosanmi doubled the lead off a rebound before Alao Danbani came off the bench to score the third for his side in the 34th minute.
The lads never stopped fighting and Shola Adelani reduced the deficit in the first minute of first half added time, hitting a rebound in after Waliu’s cross was punched into his path by Richard Ofori in goal for Sunshine Stars to take the scores 3-1 into the break.
A switch in formation saw us start the second half with more intent and we got rewarded soon after. Leonard Ngenge came on to replace Freedom Marvelous at the start of the half to help tweak things.
Shola Adelani grabbed our second to secure his brace from a well worked free kick five minutes past the hour mark after being set us by Harrison. It was Harrison’s sixth assist of the season.
We pressed on for an equalizer and got pegged back when Alao Danbani scored a fourth for Sunshine Stars off a rebound from a free kick.
We however kept pressing till the end and Emmanuel Solomon scored our third of the game in added time and there wasn’t enough time left for an equalizer as we finished with a 4-3 defeat.
SUBSTITUTION
OUT: Freedom Marvelous IN: Leonard Ngenge 46’
OUT: Solomon Alade IN: Emmanuel Solomon 68’
OUT: Tosin Oyedokun IN: Rivio Ayemwenre 68’
OUT: Olatunji Abdulmalik IN: Kelechi Onwe 68’
OUT: Toyeeb Ajeyigbe IN: Chineme Chinonso 79’