Although a superlative display before a large crowd of fans at the New Jos Stadium, Zaria Road, Jos, the ‘Flying Antelopes’, Rangers International F.C was denied any share of the spoils in the match day 12, NPFL 2023/2024 encounter as hosts, Plateau United ran away with a 2-1 victory.
The host, under former Rangers Chief coach, Mbwas Mangut, ran into an early lead as central defender, Moses Adikwu connected perfectly with his head a long throw-in from Daniel Itodo just two minutes into the match to send the home fans into wild jubilations.
Stunned as they were, the coach Fidelis Ilechukwu tutored side fought back gamely with the trio of Kazeem Ogunleye, Chidiebere Nwobodo, and Isaac Savior pulling the strings but met a closely knit defense line by the host ably marshaled by former Rangers defender, Olawale Doyeni.
At the quarter-hour mark, Nwobodo reacted the quickest to stab home the much-needed equalizer for the visitors after goalkeeper, Bamidele Adeniyi had fumbled a Kazeem Ogunleye’s stinging long-range shot.
Efforts for more goals in the first stanza from both sides failed to materialize as Albert Hillary and Nenrot Silas came close for the host just as Chukwudi Nwaodu and Savior Isaac saw their efforts either cleared on the line or Adeniyi doing a full-length dive to push out the goal-bound shot.
In the second stanza, the visitors took complete control of proceedings with three clear-cut opportunities created in the process but Chidiebere Nwobodo, Kazeem Ogunleye, Isaac Savior, and Frank Uwumiro, all seeing their efforts miss targets with Saviour’s been the most glaring miss of the encounter as he took much time to find his footing after dribbling past the opponent’ goalkeeper and with a yawning goal at his mercy, got caught up by the sliding feet of the returning defenders on 68 minutes of play.
With only one minute left of the five additional minutes indicated by the fourth official, Olawale Doyeni scored the back-breaking goal that turned out to be the winner as he was left unmarked to stab home as the reserve bench and the home fans went into a frenzy to celebrate the victory.
Coach Ilechukwu in a post-match chat said, “The game has been won and lost. A very good game from both sides. This was a game we proved that we are capable of getting some good results on the road but today, it was just hard luck for us as our best player on the field missed a seater that would have turned the complexion of the match. That is football for you and we keep working till we get it right.”
Rangers, with fifteen points from eleven matches, will next play another away encounter against Bayelsa United at the Samson Yebowei Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa on Sunday, December 10, 2023.
CREDIT: NORBERT OKOLIE M/O