Warriors and Enyimba share spoils in Umuahia
Abia Warriors and Enyimba International football club played out an entertaining draw in match day 12 of the Nigerian Professional Football League. Tagged the Abia derby, the match promised fire works and it lived up to expectations as both teams got off to a bright start much to the delight of the mammoth crowd that came out to cheer and support both teams.
Click here to read match preview.
Coach Yemi Olarenwaju made some changes to the line up for the visiting side. Francis Adikwu came in for Moses Odinaka in the defence line, the other change being Ekene Awazie taking the place of Joseph Atule in attack. For the home team, coach Imama also made some changes to the side that lost 3-1 last time out to Lobi Stars. Uzoigwe took the place of Ishaku Ali in goal, Wilson Elu replaced Innocent Godwin in the defense line with the others keeping their place.
As the both teams battled it out in the early stages of the game so came the goals as the visiting team took the lead as early as the ninth minute. Clinton Jephta scored a controversial goal to put the visiting side in the lead as his right footed shot found it’s way into the back of the net. Appeals from Abia Warriors players and coaching crew delayed the decision a bit but didn’t deter the officials from awarding the goal, which seemed to have found it’s way in from the side netting.
But not long enough and much to the delight of the home fans Adejoh Ojonugwa scored to level the scores at 1-1 heading into the half time. After some brilliant interchange of passes between Warriors players in the Enyimba half, Ojonugwa slotted a sleek right footed shot past the Enyimba keeper from just outside the edge of the box.
Both teams came out in the second half looking to get the winner and take all three points, with Abia warriors looking the most threatening and most likely to secure the winner but were let down by poor finishing and some excellent defensive work by the away side.
One player who stood out from the lot was Collins Nwoburuoke, who wore the number 26 jersey for Abia warriors. He was relentless in defense and was instrumental to stopping and breaking up various attacks from the visiting side, making an impressive 7 tackles, 4 interceptions, 4 clearances while putting up a 97% pass accuracy. See stats here.
Combining his ball retention and ball winning capabilities to his ability to spot a teammate with a pass as evident in his pass accuracy. He was instrumental in the home teams excellent performance during the match up. His partnership with Ogbugbu in the heart of defense was solid, calm and very confident.
For Enyimba, they didn’t have much chances but wanted to steal the game at the death, with Captain Paschal Eze denied twice after he tried to score from two consecutive corners.
At full time the match remained 1-1, a result which leaves the visiting side Enyimba 3rd on the log with 20 points from 12 games while the home team Abia Warriors moved to the 13th spot with 15 points from same number of games.
Both teams will hope for a better result next time out on match week 13. On Saturday 23rd November 2024 Enyimba will welcome Sunshine Stars, while Warriors will visit Rivers United in Port Harcourt.
