Nigeria Content Online

Warri Wolves at the
weekend defeated Lobi Stars 2-1 to stretch its unbeaten start to the
2010/2011 season to five games and shoot to the top of the Nigerian
Premier League table.

The encounter which
took place at the Warri Township Stadium saw the home side, saw
Tochukwu Mbachu shooting them ahead on the stroke of half time only for
Victor Barnabas to cancel out the lead 17 minutes after the restart
from the penalty spot.

Wolves however
sealed their third win of the season courtesy of Efe Yarhere’s 78th
minute winner, putting them in the right frame of mind ahead of this
weekend’s trip to Port Harcourt where they will come up against
erstwhile league leaders Dolphins, who lost 1-0 to Niger Tornadoes in
an ill-tempered game.

Wolves had in the penultimate weekend’s round of matches defeated JUTH 1-0 to end the Jos side’s unbeaten start to the campaign,

Drama in Minna

The league match
which came up at the Bako Kontagora Stadium, Minna, was marred by crowd
trouble. Sections of the home crowd resorted to pelting the match
officials with missiles, one of which hit Dolphins’ goalkeeper Sunday
Rotimi on the head on the 70 minute mark.

Play was halted for
a couple of minutes in order for the former Super Eagles fringe
goalkeeper to receive treatment. Not long after the restart the home
side were awarded a questionable penalty, Tornadoes’ goalkeeper Danlami
Umar stepped up to take the kick. But Rotimi went in the right
direction to keep out Umar’s effort.

With two minutes
left on the clock, a seemingly harmless cross into Dolphins’ penalty
area by Tornadoes’ Chinedu Justice sailed straight into the net with
the referee failing to spot an infringement on Rotimi in the crowded
area.

Dolphins’ manager, Stanley Eguma could not hide his displeasure at the end of the game.

“For me, I will say
we were robbed by the referee who first awarded a penalty against my
team that should not have been a penalty,” said Eguma. “Then he did not
protect my goalkeeper in his area and allowed three players to push him
during that free kick that led to the goal. This is not how football
should be played. It is just sad.”

The loss, Dolphins’
second of the campaign, dropped them to fourth spot on the table,
behind Gombe United and Rangers — both teams won their respective
games; the former a 1-0 win over bottom-of-the-table Ocean Boys, while
the latter recorded an emphatic 5-1 victory over Zamfara United.

Rangers can’t stop scoring

It was the second
game in row at the Nnamdi Azikiwe that Rangers would be scoring five
goals past their opponents after doing likewise in their 5-2 thrashing
of Ocean Boys in Enugu.

The winning margin
might probably had been much more had the trio of Fred Okwara, Uche
Nwofor and Ejike Uzoenyi – who have jointly contributed seven goals to
Rangers’ tally – featured in last weekend’s game.

In their absence, the responsibility of scoring the goals was left to Musa Najire,

Ugonna Uzochukwu, Brendan Ogbu and veteran striker Emeka ‘Ayaya’ Nwanna, who netted a brace.

In Aba, Enyimba
inflicted a second successive away defeat of the season on Shooting
Stars, winning 1-0 courtesy of an 86th minute penalty converted by
goalkeeper Chijioke Ejiogu.

The defeat to the
defending league champions saw Shooting Stars drop to eighth place on
the table just above Crown who defeated Kano Pillars 2-0 courtesy of
two second half goals from Harrison Egbune and Bode Daniel.

In other results, Kwara United defeated Heartland 1-0 in Offa while
Plateau United edged out Bukola Babes by the same score line in Jos to
record their first win of the season. Sharks also defeated Sunshine
Stars 2-1 in Port Harcourt while FA Cup holders Kaduna United and JUTH
ended their encounter 1-1.