BY MFON PATRICK
With the second stanza of the 2020/2021 NPFL season resuming this weekend with matchday 20 fixtures expected in different centers across the country, third-placed Akwa United appear ready to continue their impressive run of form at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium – Nest of Champions, when they confront Sunshine Stars of Akure on Sunday.
The Promise Keepers will be aiming to further extend their unbeaten record in the league to ten matches, following a run of five wins and four draws in their previous nine games before the mid-season break.
With a run of seven victories and two draws at home in the first stanza of the season, Coach Kennedy Boboye’s team have made the Nest of Champions an uncomfortable ground for visiting teams having scored fifteen (15) goals while conceding just two in nine home games.
The Promise Keepers secured a vital point in their goalless draw with Sunshine Stars in the reverse fixture at the Agege Stadium in Lagos where the Akure-based side played their last two home games in the first stanza following their banishment from home for breaching LMC’s rule.
The two-time Federation Cup Champions are two points off the pace at the summit of the NPFL log, and have fortified their squad with five mid-season signings; they are strikers, Abubakar Ibrahim and Eko Barine, winger Nasiru Jibril, midfielder Adam Yakubu and defender Hamisu Saleh.
The Promise Keepers parade some of the best strikers in the league and the most resolute back-line as well, having scored a total of 23 goals and conceded 11 – the fewest by any team in the league after the first stanza.
Coach Boboye’s men have played four test games and won all during the mid-season break and they look sharp and ready to go all out for victory on Sunday against 16th-placed Sunshine Stars who are without a win in their previous twelve matches (six draws, six losses).
Akwa United is undefeated at home against Sunshine Stars and in the 19 previous meetings between the two sides, both teams have seven wins each while five of those matches ended in draws.
Victory on Sunday will see the Promise Keepers move top of the NPFL table for the first time this season if results in other venues go their way.
The match will kick-off at 4 pm and will be played behind closed doors, under strict Covid-19 guidelines.
