On Sunday, Ekiti United FC hosted Nnewi United FC from Anambra state in one of the week’s 4 matches of the Nigeria National football league-NNL 2021.
Both teams approached the match with lots of enthusiasm to come to it with impressive results.
The host team tutored by coach Ayodeji Ayeni adopted the 4-1-4-1 formation with Kehinde Olajuyin spearheading the attack while mercurial captain, Babatunde Bello as the captain marshalled the midfield.
All moves by Ekiti United to penetrate Nnewi defence were frustrated through some time-wasting antics of the visiting team thereby dampening the onslaughts of Ekiti United players.
Dayo Owoniyi showed lots of improvement compared to the away loss at Abeokuta against Nilayo fc as he was able to curtail the attacks from the flank while Ridwan Gafar also did a yeoman’s job from the rear.
Ekiti United goalkeeper, Adewale Makanjuola however caused some scare on a couple of occasions as he slightly miscalculated on two occasions but the God of soccer was on the side of the home team asxthe first half ended goalless.
On resumption for the second half, Ekiti United were obviously hungry for goals but they had to wait till the ….54th..minute to celebrate after Onyeka Nwaiwu pounced on the ball following serious attacks on the defence of Nnewi United.
Shortly after Ekiti United went ahead with a goal, Nnewi United punctured the jubilations among the home fans with an equalizer.
The equalizer caused lots of apprehension on the path of Ekiti United technical crew as everyone knew a draw was not good for the team eyeing promotion to the NPFL.
Coach Ayodeji Ayeni made some substitutions but none worked as planned as the visitors were determined to snatch at least a point.
It took extra-deternination from Ekiti United to secure maximum point as Kehinde Olajuyin was brought down inside the box about four minutes to regulation time.
The center referee did not hesitate to award a deserved penalty for Ekiti United which was cleverly converted by Kehinde Olajuyin being his first goal this season and fourth goal for Ekiti United.
Two goals to 1 the match ended as Ekiti United now occupy the fourth position on the NNL group B1 table with 6 points from 4 matches.
Ahead of Ekiti United are Shooting stars of Ibadan with maximum 12 points, Osun United with 8 points and FC Nilayo of Abeokuta with 7 points .
Ekiti United are ahead of 8 other teams.
Their next match is away to Stores of Lagos in a mid-week encounter as they will be having a double away matches this week when they travel from Lagos to Osogbo to face Osun United next weekend
