Lobi Stars go down 2-1 to less fancied Jigawa Golden Stars
The game is the first of the second round and a reverse fixture as Lobi Stars also triumphed over The Golden Stars with the same margin on the 4th April, 2021 in Makurdi in the last game of the first round.
Lobi Stars came in to the game looking very promising as they took the kickoff with fire power an advanced towards the goal of Jigawa Golden Stars. The Coach Kabiru Dogo-tutored lads seem to be under instruction to be cautious and at the same time fiercely offensive at slight openings.
Lobi Stars went close severally as the swift attacking full capacities of newly signed-on Ozor Chinedu on the right and Ebube Duru on the left kept running down the line with fierce crosses but none was converted. Ossy Martins' first half incursions made The Golden Stars look ordinary.
The biggest chance of Lobi Stars to take the lead came in the 35th minute when Monday Akile took advantage of a defensive error midway in Jigawa Golden Stars half. Though he failed to take the daring run in to the box succeeded in crossing over to Austine Ogunye who got his shot at goal deflected for a corner kick by the defending foot of Jigawa's Philip Clement.
Jigawa came close in the 40th minute as a power-packed free kick from Qudri was pick up by the perfect hands of former Wikki Tourist and NPFL 2020/2021 first round best Stanley Wabali. 45+1, Ozor Chinedu's cross from the right resulted in a goal mouth scramble and Austine Ogunye converted in to a goal but it was disallowed. Thereafter a heavy downpour ensued till the referee sounded his whistle for end of first half as the scoreline remained 0-0.
Second half resumed after the rain had subsided with Samuel Stone opening the second half for Jigawa. 5 minutes in to the second half, Coach Kabiru Dogo introduced 2-goal hero of the last game, Chinonso Okonkwo, to replace Monday Akile to add bite to the attack when he realized that The Golden Stars were not threatening as he had anticipated.
Coach Dogo gradually turned the game in to an all attacking flow. Goal keeper Stanley Wabali saved a possible goal from Samuel Stone's header from a corner kick in the 62nd minute.
5 minutes later, Lobi Stars brought in new inclusion Abiodun Kayode and goal scoring midfielder and dead ball specialist Mathias Samuel. The well intended substitution was greeted with a goal as the referee awarded a penalty to Jigawa in 75th minute. The free kick was converted by Samuel Stone and Jigawa took the lead.
Lobi Stars fought back gallantly as pressure was mounted on The Golden Stars with strings of misses as Mathias Samuel, Abiodun Kayode and Ossy Martins were firing from all cylinders. Their efforts paid off when a free kick awarded to Lobi Stars on the right was fiercely curled to the goal and was punched by Goalkeeper Sochi Victor to Mathias Samuel. His second straight rebound got an equalizer for Lobi Stars on the dot of 90 minutes.
Jigawa restarted with a renewed zeal and took the last minute attack towards Lobi Stars goal and got a harmless free kick on the right side. The free kick resulted to a goal mouth melee and Lobi Stars narrowly escaped a second goal from Jigawa as the situation resulted to a corner kick for the host. Jigawa's Abdullahi Lalas headed home the winner for Jigawa Golden Stars 90+2 minutes from the resultant corner kick. The referee brought the game to an end after the restart with a scoreline of 2-1 in favour of Jigawa Golden Stars.
Lobi Stars will be back to Makurdi to take on an energized but lowly placed Ifeanyi Ubah on Sunday 16th May 2021. Despite the loss, Lobi Stars are still placed 9th on the log as other Match Day 20 games are yet to be decided.
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