Sunshine Stars’ quest to return to winning ways suffered another setback on matchday 11, following a 1-1 draw against visiting Heartland of Owerri at the Ondo State Sports Complex.
A cagey start to Sunday’s game produced little in terms of chances, but the visitors made the best of a perfectly-weighted corner kick with the captain, Pascal Eze pouncing in the 16th minute.
The Owena Whales responded with renewed urgency, but two rejected penalty appeals and lack of clear cut chances meant they went into the break behind the visitors.
The firepower resumed in the second half and top scorer, Sadeeq Yusuf found space to unleash in the area, but his shot was deflected wide, before seeing another effort repelled at the goal line from the resulting corner kick.
Sunshine Stars’ pressure produced a penalty after Heartland were penalized for a handball in the area and Yusuf made no mistake from the spot with 19 minutes left on the clock.
The coach Gbenga Ogunbote’s charges continued to probe in search of a winner and had another scream for spot-kick fell on deaf ears when Ibrahim Ajani who was lurking to head home went down under what appeared to be a nudge at the goalmouth.
Nevertheless, the Naze Millionaires remained resilient in the closing stages and earned a share of the spoils.
Ogunbote’s Post Match Quotes
Ogunbote: “to us we see it as two points lost; this is a game that we shouldn’t have won under normal situation. It has been played, there is nothing we can do about it; we will go back to work harder ahead of other games.”
“Anywhere we have a level playing ground, am confident this team will get a positive result. You saw the game, report it the way you have seen it.”
Sunshine Stars next visit Kaduna for a matchday 12 meeting with Kano Pillars on Wednesday.
