Niger Tornadoes Football Club Of Minna wrapped up its home matches in the ongoing Nigeria National League in a spectacular fashion, as the group leaders clinched a 2-0 victory over visiting DMD FC of Maiduguri.
The Ikon Allah Boys and promotion hopefuls, began the onslaught against their visitors and close rivals DMD in the early minutes when Shamsudeen Hashim, clear on goal, was recklessly brought down inside the box by DMD defender and left the referee with no option but to point to the spot-kick. Peter Momoh stepped forward and smashed the ball past Daniel Abba in post for DMD making it his fourth goal of the season.
Collins Atule, making his second start at home for the Ikon Allah Boys, was consistently a thorn in the flesh of DMD’s defence, with some dangerous runs and was later rewarded, barely on the half-hour mark, when he reacted quickly to an error by DMD defender who attempted to clear the ball but used his wrong foot as he kicked the ball in the direction of Collins who smartly did a simple ‘tap in’ to increase the tally, his second goal in three home matches.
Further efforts to increase the tally proved abortive, as Ahmadu Liman who returned to the starting line up after missing a couple of games due to health issues, came closest to adding to the score with an opportunity, after a goalmouth melee, but was unlucky, as he shot wide.
The visitors were not without their own chances, but Lucky Abdullahi in goal for Niger Tornadoes and Sunday Akinmoladun’s led defensive set up, were equal to the task, keeping all dangerous balls at bay and masterminding another clean sheet on home turf, making it 9 consecutive wins without conceding a single goal š
Niger Tornadoes 4-0 G&K Shekarau
Niger Tornadoes 2-0 Road Safety
Niger Tornadoes 2-0 Malumfashi FC
Niger Tornadoes 1-0 Yobe Desert Stars
Niger Tornadoes 2-0 Kogi United
Niger Tornadoes 2-0 ABS FC
Niger Tornadoes 2-0 Zamfara United
Niger Tornadoes 1-0 Kebbi United
Niger Tornadoes 2-0 DMD FC
Responding to questions from Press Men shortly after the match, Niger Tornadoes gaffer Abubakar Bala Mohammed expressed delight for the spirited performance by his boys from the beginning of the season to the last home match. ” First and foremost, I’ll like to give glory to Allah for a hitch-free match and for the three maximum points, we know the importance of the match and we worked towards achieving these results and keeping another clean sheet to make it 9 straight matches without dropping a point or conceding a goal at home. ‘The players kept to our match plan in both first and second half, so kudos to them.
He said his team will now await the outcome of next weeks’ fixture involving Zamfara United and Yobe Desert Stars to know how important the remaining two away matches would be… “If Yobe Stars loses, we automatically top the group, and if otherwise, we will also plan towards the two matches.
