Lobi Stars Football Club Makurdi yesterday the 16th February 2020 in an NPFL 2019/2020, Match Day 20 and first of the second round lost 4-0 to Wikki Tourists Football Club Bauchi amidst an atmosphere of hostility and intimidation.
Wikki Tourists who were Lobi Stars, last home opponents that barely escaped a similar goal haul, went ahead to lose 3-0 in Aba returned to Bauchi with a message that they were robbed in Makurdi. As a result of the falsehood, and almost filled to capacity ATB Stadium was charged to take a pound of flesh from Lobi Stars rightfully or wrongly.
Though all the goals in all fairness to the officiating officials were good goals despite the fact that some of the decisions were faulty and frustrating to further weaken what was left of Lobi Stars to react.
The game kicked off exactly 4:02 PM off the foot of Wikki Tourists and headed to Lobi Stars defending 3rd, 2 minutes into the game Wikki Tourists got a throw-in on the right side and a long throw was delivered by Hassan Musa an attempt to clear out by Lobi Stars defence was poorly executed and the ball landed on the foot of Manu Garba who returned a ground shot beyond the reach of Goalkeeper Moses Echeje of Lobi Stars to put the home team ahead at the dot of 3 minutes.
Lobi Stars put up a reaction and it almost paid off when the deep right run of Samad Kadiri down the right flank resulted to a good cross that was headed off target by Utibe Achibong Arit.
A 22nd-minute throw-in was extended to Idris Mohammed Guda who dribbled agile John Lazarus and found the far-right angle that beat Moses Echeje for the second goal for Wikki Tourists.
Lobi Stars weak reaction kept the pressure on them but the defence showed some resistance and kept the scoreline on 2-0 in favour of Wikki Tourists as Lobi Stars could not demonstrate strong capacity to pull down the 2 goal deficit, probably as a result of the hostile atmosphere that was charged in a manner that the players and officiating officials were all jittery till Referee Ben Onyeka from Akwa Ibom sounded his whistle for halftime at 41+1 minutes.
3 Minutes into resumption, a corner kick is taken from from the far right was headed into the net by Manu Garba for the 3rd goal for Wikki Tourists. Tamara Ezekiel blew the 52nd-minute opportunity to pull back 1 goal as his rebound shot went far off target.
53 minutes of play, Coach Gbenga Ogunbote in an attempt to strengthen the team introduced Austin Ogunye for Chukwudi Nwaodu and pulled Goalkeeper Moses Echeje out for Faith James for psychological reasons.
The changes did not cause any significant change as the 66th-minute free-kick was headed into the net by Idris Moh’d Guda from Ajala Olushola’s free-kick for the 4th and last goal of the game.
2 minutes later Ezekiel Tamara gave way for Omotayo Adebogun. The change was effective but not good enough to alter the existing result of the game. Lobi Stars pushed up this time with some flashes of business play but the scoreline still stood at 4-0 in favour of the hosts.
Even in defeat Lobi Stars left the stadium arena amidst tight security and were escorted over two kilometres away from the vicinity of the stadium.
Consequent upon the woeful defeat, Lobi Stars have dropped to the 2nd position on the log behind Plateau United who won at home against Dakkada FC Uyo with the one-point deficit.
Lobi Stars will be going back to Makurdi to prepare against Plateau United in the unarguable match of the week to determine the leader on the head to head.
Coach Gbenga Ogunbote charged the players not to be weakened by the result of the game but should take it as a challenge to get back to winning ways. The general coordinator of Lobi Stars Mr Sam Aindigh told the players that the members of the management have stayed back to be part of the coaches address to identify with the players in defeat as we have always enjoyed Victory, he consoled them to accept the defeat as part of the game and assure them that they are still in high contention for the title.
In another remark, The Secretary of the Club Mr Terzungwe Chugh drew an analogy that if Wikki Tourists’ serial loses to Lobi Stars and Enyimba was an impetus to come back as wounded lions and win with such big margin, then Lobi Stars should take advantage of the pains inflicted on them by the defeat and react with Vernon against Plateau United in Makurdi in the all-important Match Day 21.
Other results across the 9 other match centres are as follows:
Nasarawa UTD 1-0 Jigawa
Warri wolve 2-0 Kastina UTD
Heartland fc 5-0 Adamawa UTD
Plateau UTD 2-0 Dakkada
Kwara UTD 1-1 Rivers UTD
Enugu Rangers 1-2 Akwa UTD
Ifeanyi Ubah 3-1 Sunshine stars
Kano Pillars 1-0 MFM
*Abia Warriors vs Enyimba (stalemated by violence) to be played tomorrow morning in Okigwe.
