BY JACOBSON PARK
Bayelsa Queens FC on Wednesday at the Samson Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa defeated Dream Stars Ladies of Lagos by 3goals to 1 in the matchday 12 Encounter of the Nigerian Women Football League NWFL to continue their title aspirations.
The game which started on a low-key came into life when in the 11 minutes of play, Reuben Charity thought she had broken the deadlock with a looping header that beats the dream stars ladies goalkeeper but her celebration was cut short by the offside flag. The first half continued with no real action as both sides continued to size themselves up.
The second half began in a blistering form when left-back, Uzoamaka Igwe rifled home from a set-piece to give Bayelsa Queens the lead in 46 minutes as Dream Stars Ladies were caught unaware. Two minutes later in 48 minutes, Reuben Charity doubled the home side lead with a superb strike. The second goal from Gloryland Girls made the away side come out in the game and in the 52nd minutes, Dream stars Ladies were eventually rewarded with a goal after some nice move inside Bayelsa Queens eighteen-yard which led to Bukola Owoseni scoring a superb volley with her left foot after turning away from her marker to make the scores 2-1.
As the second half went on, Bayelsa Queens missed a lot of opportunities to put the game to bed, but in the 2nd minutes of added time, left-back Uzoamaka Igwe made sure the game was safe for Bayelsa Queens when she hit a superb curler to make the scores 3-1 for the home side and her second of the game.
At the end of the game, a relieved Bayelsa Queens Technical Adviser, Moses Aduku said. “Three points first, we thank God for the three points. No matter how you look at the game, football is not mathematics, we tried to score in the first half but we could not.’ “In the second half the girls came out and we scored so the important is that we got the three needed points.’
On the performance of opposition, he said, “They (Dream Stars Ladies) have played against two big teams, River’s Angels narrowly escape defeat from them, they played Nasarawa also and Nasarawa could not score them, they are no pushovers and you saw them small but they are no pushovers. The game is for young players, they saw the good pitch and they wanted to exhibit their skills.”
For the assistant manager of dream stars ladies, Ayinla Rasheed it was a fine game.
“The game against Bayelsa Queens here in Yenagoa was a fine game, I love the game from the kick-off to the end, this is what we want to see in Nigeria Women Football if you observe the game from the kick-off to the end, the game was very fair and fine, a fantastic game.’
“To my team, we believe we lost to the better side because we came out to get at least a point but at the end of the game, the winner emerged because we ourselves accept that in the game we played today we still have a lot to do, but we will go back home to prepare ourselves for our next game because a team like this show us that Dream Stars, still have a long way to go to catch-up with the big teams.
The assistant coach also praised the performance of the center referee.
“We appreciate the referee because they blow the game according to the laws of the game, the game was fair and it was fine so that’s exactly what we want in Nigeria women football league, so good luck to the winning team and good luck to the losing side” he concluded.
Bayelsa Queens will next play away against River’s Angels at the Uniport Stadium while dream stars ladies host Confluence Queens FC at the Agege Stadium in the match week 13 of the Nigerian women football league.
