Austin Tyowua, Media officer Lobi Stars FC In Ijebu-Ode
The second edition of Dapo Abiodun Pre-season tournament officially came to a close yesterday, November 24, at the main bowl of Dipo Dina International Stadium with 3SC successfully defending the Cup after overcoming the stiff challenge from Lobi Stars to run away with a narrow 1-0 victory.
The finals which was aptly tagged battle of stars kicked off at 3:54 off the foot of Lobi Stars Segun Alebosun.
At the start, both sides looked promising but Lobi Stars with more of the exquisite touches showed clearly that they had more quality and prospects of carrying the day.
However, the tragedy that was going to wreck them occurred in the 3rd minute when 19 shirted Gafar Olafimihan benefited from a goalmouth scramble to hit home an inch-perfect cross from unmarked Mohammed Mohammed for the first and only goal of the keenly contested finals.
Lobi Stars took over the game after conceding the careless early goal as two minutes later, Akile Monday benefited from 3SC defensive error but shot into the waiting hands of former Lobi Stars goaltender, Charles
Tambe.
23 minutes later, Ebube Duru received a back pass from wonder boy Abdulkareem Mumini and his trademark cross located Segun Alebosun who shot wide what would have to give Lobi Stars the equalizer they needed badly.
Alebosun got another chance one minute later when he had a one on a chance with a 3SC defender after a successful double pass with Victor Arikpo. Alebosun instead braked to beat the defender to the right and places the ball for Victor Arikpo who quickly prepared and unleashed a grounder which was desperately blocked out by 3SC defence.
Undoubted, Lobi Stars piled pressure on their opponents and in the 31st minute, Abdulkareem Mumini returned deep into his defence from where he picked the ball and made a solo run, outpacing two opposing defenders in the process.
His cross found two unmarked Lobi Stars players, Ogunye Austin and Segun Alebosun but Alebosun who was in the middle and better placed to convert the cross was denied the opportunity by Austin Ogunye as he was first to the ball but fired off target.
Again, Governor Ernest saw a wrongly positioned Charles Tambe while building an attack from Lobi Stars defence area and took a long kick over Tambe’s head but was not lucky as the ball went slightly over the bar.
Lobi Stars continued making frantic efforts but the equalizer never came as anxiety had set in because of the early goal they had conceded till the referee blew for half time.
5 minutes into the second half, Lobi Stars made some changes to fortify the team as Ossy Martins took over from Segun Alebosun while Spencer Bassey replaced Akile Monday.
Austin Ogunye gave way for Onuowa Chukwuka in the 63rd minute and Mathias Samuel went in for Douglas Achiv in the 72nd minute.
The changes increased the strength of Lobi Stars and indeed helped raised the tempo in their search for an equalizer the stars from Makurdi literally camped in the defending third of 3SC.
It was in the same zeal and determination that diminutive but highly efficient attacking wing-back Lazarus initiated an attack from the right full-back position, beat two players, released a pass to Spencer Bassey and continued with the run, Bassey, in turn, put the ball ahead in the direction of run of Lazarus in the penalty area.
Lazarus who was goal bound was brought down for what many rightly believed was a penalty but the centre referee signalled for play to continue.
Lobi Stars were making a chance every minute but the goal refused to come till the final whistle.
It, is, however, important to note that the loss to 3SC was the first and only defeat tested by Lobi Stars in the tournament.
Despite the undeserved mishap, Lobi Stars were rewarded with a fair play trophy.
