By AKEEM ABAS

Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) of Ibadan on Sunday in Ibadan defeated Nasarawa United FC of Lafia 2-0 in a Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Match Day 6 game.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Oluyole Warriors won the game after a first half brace from Samuel Ayanrinde.

Ayanrinde made good use of his opportunity, combining very well with team captain Opeoluwa Olufemi, Malomo Taofeek and Joshua Akpan in the 3SC forward line.

Having pressed for an early opener which refused to come, because of the visitors’ frustrating defensive play and poor finishing, the unrelenting hosts finally had their nose in front in the 39th minute.

Five minutes later, Ayanrinde was on song again, heading home a fantastic pullout from Olufemi, to ensure a 2-0 first half lead for the Oluyole Warriors.

All efforts by the Solid Miners to find the back of the net proved abortive, thanks to solid defending and goalkeeper Okechukwu’s reflexes.

The win takes the Ibadan side’s points haul to eight from six matches, ahead of next Sunday’s Match Day 7 tie against table-topping Bendel Insurance of Benin.

Bala Nikyu, Head Coach of Nasarawa United, later said his team would correct all areas of their weaknesses, such as attacking and goalscoring.

He said statistics from all the matches his team lost revealed they always dominated the game at 65 per cent in terms of ball possession.

“In football, there is always the good and bad times. It is not that the players aren’t performing, but the result of the game after that was always questionable.

“If you look at the statistics of all the matches we lost, you will discover we dominated the ball possession at 65 per cent.

“Nevertheless, I will make amends in the areas of our weaknesses observed in today’s (Sunday’s) match and the previous ones. By the grace of God, the result will start coming,” Nikyu said.

Gbenga Ogunbote, the Chief Coach of 3SC, expressed confidence that his players would continue to improve as they perform together

“We are playing our games with new players. The important thing is that they are getting used to each other as they play the matches.

“And with what we have seen today, it will bring some sort of relief to the players. We are praying that we will be able to get a positive result next Sunday,” he said.

Ogunbote however said that the team had lot of challenges in their attack because most of the players were carrying injuries.

“Since we know that football is synonymous with contact, we cannot shy away from it. We have lots of players nursing injury.” (NAN)

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