A poor coordination and lack of interpretation of tactics by the players of Abubakar Bukola Saraki (ABS) Ilorin FC, condemned them to a 2-1 loss in the hands of Kada City FC on Sunday.
The match day 1 2019/2020 Nigeria National League (NNL) was played at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium (ABS) Kaduna.
The hosts showed better intent in the early stages even though the Saraki Boys had experienced Godwin Emeka in the midfield to spin passes across the pitch for his wingers.
The duo of Ridwan Gafaar and Olamide Mudasir had to tracked back in quick successions in the 12th minute to deny the rampaging Kada City experienced players from scoring.
The first ABS opportunity came in the 14th minute, when Ibrahim Muhammed dribbled his marker and put in a fantastic cross but no one was in the box to nod home the effort.
Kada City were awarded a deserved penalty in the 16th minute when Ridwan Gafaar fouled Abdullahi Shaibu in his goal area.
Former ABS player, Ya’u Hassan made no mistake when he sent Abiola Sabitu to the wrong side for the first goal of the match in the 18th minute.
In the 26th minute, Emmanuel Atoe justified why he captained his side when he made a big safe to deny the hosts one more time in the game.
The centre referee called for the water break in the 32nd minute with the weather condition in Kaduna at the time unfriendly for a game originally scheduled for 4pm, which was brought back to 12 noon because of non availability of the venue of the match.
Two minutes later, the hosts doubled the advantage when Shabonya Jonathan raced faster than Ridwan Gafaar to connect a pass from his midfield and perfectly buried it to the far post.
The Saraki Boys reacted better in the 37th when Ibrahim Muhammed found Chukwudi Meze in front of the Kada City box, he made his way close to the goal area before his shot went aimlessly wide.
ABS Head Coach, Yomi Elijah, began his tactical changes which made the 2nd half a far better performance to the first with the introduction of James Elemiike, the right full back immediately brought stability to his defense.
Elijah introduced speedster, Chigozirim Metu 10 minutes later, his introduction pegged most of the Kada City defenders to their half as they struggled to cope with his pace.
The Saraki Boys dominated most of the proceedings in the 2nd half but there was a twist to their dominance when Abdulraheem Saad was shown a straight red card for an elbow on Ya’u Hassan in the 64th minute.
ABS would have scored in the 70th minute, after a perfectly exchanged passes between the duo of Samaila Sabo and Metu but one of the Kada City defenders had to stretch to the limit to clear his line.
A minute later, Metu took advantage of his speed to beat his marker but the next one brought him down in the goal area for a penalty but Kada City goalkeeper, John Chimezie denied Meze and parried to corner.
Meze reduced the tally in the 79th minute when he beat the offside trap to home a Samaila Sabo’s misplaced pass to make it 2-1.
A minute later, Sabo would have level the scores, when he was left with the goalkeeper to beat after a fantastic build up by the Saraki Boys but his shot narrowly went inches away from goal.
Jamiu Issa replaced Godwin Emeka and had an impact one minute later when he stretched to the limit to connect a pass but his effort again hit the post for a goal kick.
Speaking after the game, ABS coach, Yomi Elijah, said the boys didn’t play badly but were shaky and not composed for most of the first half.
He said for his young players to put up a performance they did in the first game of the season away, he is confidence they will do him proud at the end of the season.
“The boys slept off in the first half, which we were able to correct at the break.
“I want to assure our fans back home that we will make them proud in our subsequent matches, we were unlucky not to score our penalty.
“Our hosts are experienced and we paraded rookies, many of them are playing at this level for the first time” Elijah said.
ABS will face Malumfashi in their first home game of the season on Sunday in Ilorin at the Kwara Stadium Complex.
