As the NPFL 2021/2022 resumes this weekend across 10 centres in Nigeria, Lobi Stars will be home to Rangers Int’l in a reverse match-day 20 fixture and first in the second stanza on Sunday April 03, 2022 at the Aper Aku Stadium, Makurdi.
For the third time in 12 months, Lobi Stars have changed leadership for different reasons, the last been the exit of Emmanuel Tama Aondofar on account of low performance on March 21, 2021 which paved the way for a more experienced and dogged former Nigerian international, Dominic Iorfa, to come in as the new Vice Chairman/CEO with the mandate to save the former Nigerian champions from relegation.
In a couple of days, the Club has undergone a surgical operation under Iorfa with every sense of urgency in his 12 days in the saddle.
Lobi Stars had fared badly in the first round of the NPFL 2021/2022, sitting unattractively in a lowly placed 19th position, with 19 points from 19 games on the 20 team log, therefore threatened by relegation.
pitched against a high-riding Rangers Int’l who have been enjoying a good run of form, having been unbeaten in their last 5 games of the NPFL with Lobi Stars as their last victims in the match-day 19 and last of the first round, Lobi Stars will need to manifest the hand of the new CEO Mr Iorfa and pull a favourable result against Rangers in the reverse fixture of Match day 20 on Sunday in Makurdi.
Lobi Stars lived below the line of an average team in the first round as statistical performance indexes all showed negative. Having earned only 19 points from 19 games, averaging 1 point per game is abysmal, scoring 15 goals, averaging 0.79 per game and conceding 26, averaging 1.36 showed a team that was defective both in goal scoring and defence. A sharp contrast to their opponents who have excitingly won 34 points from 19 games, averaging 1.79 per game, scoring 25 times, averaging 1.32 per game conceding only 10, averaging 0.52 per game and comfortably sitting within the continental bracket as third on the log.
On an all time head to head, Lobi Stars have overwhelmingly showed superiority over Rangers, having won 14 and drawn 5 out of the all time 29 league games, leaving Rangers with only 10 wins. History will still speak on Sunday as the new spirit in the camp suggests.
Despite the precarious situation the club have found itself, Mr Dominic Iorfa has motivated the players, coaches and backroom staff of Lobi Stars well enough to be able to salvage the club from the present situation.
The result vis a vis performance of Lobi Stars in the game under preview will give the fans a clearer picture of what to expect going forward.
Coach Baba Ganaru has been sweating it out with the reinvigorated ‘Ortom boys’ under the scorching Makurdi sun to re-write the first round story.
The Vice Chairman and CEO of Lobi Stars, Mr Dominic Iorfa has, therefore, in an effort to bring back fans to the Stadium, directed that the gates into the Aper Aku stadium be thrown open for the teeming fans of Lobi Stars to come in and cheer up their darling club to victory free of charge.
