Road Safety FC draw 1-1 with hosts ABS FC on NNL opening day
NNL
By Olayinka Owolewa
Ilorin, April 28, 2018 (NAN) Road Safety Football Club of Abuja on Saturday forced hosts ABS FC of Ilorin to a 1-1 draw.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the match was an opening game in the 2017/2018 Nigeria National League (NNL).
NAN also reports that the match which was played at the Kwara Stadium Complex saw the hosts in front in the game’s opening 10 minutes through Sunday Damian.
Damian had connected a long ball from Toyin Alege before firing into the roof of the net in the 9th minute.
They then dominated most of the proceedings for the duration of the of the first stanza of the game.
The visitors restarted the game better than their hosts in the second half and were always dangerous moving forward.
Ayamkyegh Gary was always tormenting the ABS midfield through to the defence with his array of passes.
In the 67th minute, Philip Edeh beat the offside trap to connect Gary’s pass for the ABS FC equaliser.
ABS FC coach, Tunde Sanni, had introduced Deemua Best and Tosin Olabode to fortify his defence, but that did not yield any positive result for the Saraki Boys.
In the game’ s closing minutes, the hosts had two appeals for penalty kicks ignored by the centre referee Mohammed Gimba from Niger State.
Speaking after the game, Sanni described the result as unfortunate and could not explain what went wrong with his boys because they did not play in the ABS FC way.
“1 am surprised with our display today. We were comfortable playing badly.
“It is as if we lost this game. The team shouldn’t have survived us.
“Our technical display today was poor. Some of my key players let me down. They didn’t come to the party,” Sanni said.
The ABS FC coach explained that some of his experienced players did not step up before the game.
His Road Safety FC counterpart, Akinade Onigbinde, said it was a tough match because the hosts were a blend of experienced and young players.
“We understand that they can hold on to the ball and possessed well.
“I knew that they won’t be able to do the same thing they did in the first half and in the second half. That is the reason we came out at them” Onigbinde said.
ABS FC will now travel to Kaduna to lock horns with Kada FC for their match day 2 fixture on Saturday.(NAN)
OOH/OLAL
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(Edited by Olawale Alabi)