Niger Tornadoes suffered a first defeat in five NPFL matches at the Lafia City Stadium against Nasarawa United in a match day 14 encounter.
The hosts had a lively start to the game with series of incursions into the opposition’s end in search of an early lead, Bashir Usman was seen running down the flank on several occasions but his efforts were either fired over the bar or contained by the defenders.
Chijioke Alaekwe’s header broke the deadlock on the 23rd minutes in what looked like an offside positioning, but with the flag down, the goal stood, despite a shout by away team’s bench.
Niger Tornadoes technical bench made a tactical switch introducing Ahmadu Liman shortly before the half time, as he replaced Yahaya Adamu, in a bid to steady things and change approach to the game as the host dominated in the early stages. Half time whistle was blown with the guests trailing.
Usule Martins and Shamsudeen Hashim were also introduced shortly after the restart and the changes were spot on, as Tornadoes began dominating the game, launching series of attacks into the opponent’s end.
Munir Idris had a chance off a goal mouth scramble, but hit the ball sky high.
There were other begging chances towards the dying moments of the game but were not taken.
POST MATCH REACTION
While declining to speak about officiating, Coach Abubakar Bala Mohammed commended his boys for putting up a good fight saying he will put the defeat behind and focus on the next game.
“Our target was to get something out of the game, It’s a derby match which is always expected to be tough, it was very close; a 50/50 chance for both teams, Nasarawa United were lucky, they got there chance and they utilized it, we also got ours but couldn’t convert the chances, we will work on our areas of weaknesses and correct them ahead of our next game which is another north central derby”.
SUBSTITUTIONS:
34′ Ahmadu Liman In,
Yahaya Adamu Out.
48′ Shamsudeen Hashim In,
Kabiru Adeniji Out.
Usule Martins In,
Alhassan Mohammed Out.
75′ Imoh Saturday In,
Munir Idris Out.
UNUSED:
George Michael
Daddy Morris
Christian Nwabueze
BOOKINGS:
41′ Munir Idris
67′ Najeem Adeyinka
76′ Ahmadu Liman
