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It
has been six years since Shooting Stars defeated Enyimba in a Premier
League game. It has also been four years since the Ibadan side earned a
point at home or on the road against the Aba-based outfit, but that is
the least they have to do today at the Enyimba International Stadium if
they don’t want to lose further grounds in the race for this season’s
league championship.

Only last weekend,
Fatai Amoo’s side lost 1-0 in Kano to former champions Kano Pillars. It
was their first loss of the season and saw them drop from the top of
the league table hence, Amoo will want his side to at least emerge with
a draw from today’s encounter against the defending league champions.

Aba has however
never been a favourable haunting ground for Shooting Stars. Over the
past six seasons the best results the Ibadan side have emerged with
from Aba have been back-to-back 1-0 defeats at the hands of the former
two-time CAF Champions League winners, both of which arrived in the
past two seasons following Shooting Stars’ return to the Premier League
after two seasons in the lower division.

“All of that is history,” retorted Amoo when reminded of his side’s poor record at the Enyimba International Stadium.

“There comes a time
when history gets changed. Besides, I wasn’t the coach, most of the
players in the team right now didn’t play those games so what makes you
feel we can’t go there and get a good result.

“Also, they
(Enyimba) haven’t been fantastic this season judging from their results
so far,” added the former Super Eagles assistant coach.

Enyimba, so far
this season, have had a topsy-turvy campaign and only last weekend
suffered a shocking one-nil defeat to newcomers Bukola Babes in Offa.
They had also lost earlier in the season to Sunshine Stars at Ijebu
Ode, but have been invincible when playing in front of their teeming
home fans.

“They are difficult
to beat in Aba but rather than that intimidating us, it is actually
serving as a motivational factor for us as the players would love
nothing better than to be the ones to dent Enyimba’s home record,”
continued Amoo.

“Besides, we don’t
want to lose two games in a row; that will not be good for us even
though the season is still very young,” added the former Sunshine Stars
and Julius Berger coach who has set a top-four finish target for
Shooting Stars come the end of the season.

Wolves set to devour Lobi

Also today, Warri
Wolves, who are yet to taste defeat this season, will welcome Lobi
Stars to the Warri Township Stadium where they hope to continue their
march towards the top of the league table with a win.

However, Lobi
Stars, who only last weekend recorded their first win of the season – a
2-1 home win over Niger Tornadoes – will take solace in the fact that
Wolves are not totally invincible when playing at the Township Stadium
as exemplified by their 2-2 draw against Heartland. The Warri team was
two-nil down to the visitors from Owerri, before scoring two late goals
to end the match in a draw.

Lobi’s fortunes
away from home do not however appear likely to change at the end of
today’s game against Paul Aigbogun’s side even though their previous
losses on the road were marginal losses to Enugu Rangers (3-2) and
Gombe United (1-0).

If the outcome of
Warri Wolves’ last weekend’s 1-0 away win against JUTH in Jos is
anything to go by, then Lobi will do best to sit back and defend deep
and hope to catch the high-flying Wolves on the break the way Heartland
did two weeks ago.

And if they do get
to catch the home side unawares and grab a goal or two, they will hope
the home side doesn’t come out fighting as they did against Heartland,
while they, on their part, don’t capitulate the way they did against
Rangers back in their opening game of the season.

Records show that Lobi Stars have lost on their last two visits to Warri.

Zamfara hoping to shock Rangers

Also today, at the
Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, Zamfara United will be guests of
Rangers who last weekend suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Sunshine
Stars – their second successive away defeat of the season.

Last season, the
team from Gusau (but who have been playing their home games this time
around in Kano) shocked Rangers in Enugu by taking a point back to
their base following a 1-1 draw.

And after coming
from two goals down to pip Plateau United last week in a thrilling
encounter played in Kano, Zamfara’s confidence will be sky-high.

Zamfara’s
aspirations in today’s game will further be boosted by the absence of
Rangers’ duo of Uche Nwofor and Ejike Uzoenyi who have both combined to
score four of the Enugu side’s eight goals thus far in this season’s
campaign.

Fred Okwara, who
has scored three goals this season, will however be available for
Alphonsus Dike’s side and Zamfara will do well to prevent the tricky
forward from getting much of the ball today. Failure to do that will
see them returning home without a point and, probably, a hatful of
goals.

Also today, former
champions, Kano Pillars will be away to steadily improving Crown FC,
while Kaduna United will welcome JUTH to the Kaduna Township Stadium.