NPFL : Enyimba Rides Kano Pillar To 1-0 Win

Enyimba Football Club of Aba on Sunday defeated Kano Pillars Football club 1-0 in the week 32 of the Nigerian Professional Football League match played at the UJ Esuene Stadium Calabar.

The tension soaked encounter saw the two teams making frantic efforts to get the opener but none was able to break each other’s defense line.

The match ended 0-0 at half time but the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Junior Lokasa fouled an Enyimba player and centre Referee Wole Adeniyi from Oyo State wasted no time in giving him a red card.

On resumption of the second half, the home team tried to take advantage of their numerical strength by pushing forward but Yusuf Mohammed in goal for Pillars stood firm.

However, in the 71st minute a penalty was awarded to Enyimba and the captain, Mfon Udoh, scored to put them ahead.

In his reaction, Technical Adviser of Pillars, Ibrahim Musa blamed the referee for the loss.

“Referees are the killers of Nigerian league. We try our best to teach these players what to do but the referees kill the game for us. My boys performed excellently well but we lost to very poor officiating,” he said.

Coach Gbenga Ogunbote of Enyimba thanked his players for giving a good account of themselves.

“It was a high tension match and thank God we won. I congratulate my boys we will take it up from there,”