Nigerian Football
Shooting Stars Seek Redemption in Makurdi
BY JUBRIL AROWOLO.
The Oluyole Warriors suffered a huge defeat at home last Sunday as FC IfeanyiUbah clinched three points at Adamasingba, but their opponents this weekend, Lobi Stars, continued their march up the Nigeria Professional Football League table by recording an away 1-0 win over Sunshine Stars in Akure.
The 0-3 home loss to FC IfeanyiUbah in the Week 20 fixture was still an unimaginable dream for an average Shooting Stars’ supporter.
But in the actual sense, it is the bitter reality and also very obvious as the team languishes in the 19th position on the log and swimming in the relegation waters.
Perhaps, the heat in the relegation zone is becoming quite uncomfortable. This has prompted the teams’ top hierarchy to give the coaches a wakeup call to reassess their approach and strategy and find a way out of danger.
This sets the tone for the Match Day 21 fixture as Shooting Stars Sports Club heads to the 15,000-seater Aper Aku Stadium in Makurdi to face Lobi Stars on Sunday afternoon.
This fixture is the one the team must take with all seriousness knowing that a further decline might plummet their position and chances of surviving the drop thus, in getting a good result; they must be in their best elements.
Shooting Stars’ last visit to Aper Aku Stadium was a 1-2 loss to Lobi Stars but an emphatic 2-0 win in Ibadan on the opening day of the season in January might serve as a motivation for the lads in grinding out a good result on the road. Also, our good precedence at away matches will also come into play and be a great factor on the outcome of the match.
The lads are already in Makurdi with a squad which consists of some of the mid-season signings and they are optimistic about the upcoming fixture. 3sc.com.ng touched base with the experienced Ajani Ibrahim before heading off and he told us that the “team has moved past last week’s result and working really hard to change its fortune’’.
He continued, “3SC is not supposed to be in this kind of situation, we have resolved that all hands must be on deck and we can only prove that on the pitch, that starts on Sunday, we hope for a good result’’.
Fatai Amoo was positive in his pre match interview and offered that he is upbeat and still believe the team will survive the drop as the Technical Crew has figured out a few lapses and corrected them ahead of the fixture.
Lobi Stars’ Kingsley Eduwo will hope to continue where he stopped last week as his 15th minute goal was all Lobi needed to sink Sunshine Stars in front of their fans in Akure.
All said and done, we hope to start the drive of surviving relegation and also putting the team in a rightful position with the Lobi match. Hopefully the team will be able to grind out a good result on the road.
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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