Men’s league opener ends in defeat
The Selection
Yakubu Emmanuel retained his spot in goal with his familiar 3-man defense line all available to defend his goal, Seun Ojo, Lekan Ajeyomi, and Sunday Emmanuel.
With an injury to defensive midfielder and last month’s player of the month award winner, Afolabi Adeyina, Adedayo Adeyemi steps in to fill the void at the base of the midfield. Onome Adepoju drops to the reserve as Michael Akpovie is preferred to start at the right wing-back position while Omolade Ibitayo starts from the left.
Melody Terdoo starts in attacking midfield with the trio of Musa Hassan, Chinedu Okorie, and Tobi Dahunsi making up the forward line.
Unlucky Seun
It was a rather slow start made to the game by the Lions as they struggled to keep possession and were made to do more to prevent the opponent from taking an early lead than create chances of their own.
But were unable to do so for so long as the opponent went on to take the lead unfortunately through an own goal by Seun Ojo who could only head the ball into his own net while trying to head the ball away for a corner kick.
They went on to double their lead just 2 minutes after the restart when an attacker broke free and raced through on goal poking the ball past the on-rushing Emmanuel Yakubu in goal to end the first half with the Lions unbelievably trailing by 2-goals.
Little too late
Fresh from the gaffer’s halftime team talk, the Lions stepped up their game with an improved performance and started passing the ball around nicely looking for openings but the opponent’s defense stood firm although not for long as the Lions pulled one back in the 70th minute through a brilliant header by Chinedu Okorie off a corner kick from Omolade Ibitayo.
They continued to press and search for an equalizer but unfortunately, they couldn’t before the clock ran out and the referee sounded his whistle to bring an end to the encounter leaving the Lions to lose out on getting a winning start to the league campaign.
What’s next
The boys are to resume training on Wednesday to prepare for the next group game which comes up on Friday.
Wonderxchange FC (3-4-3): Emmanuel; Lekan, Sunday, Seun; Omolade, Akpovie, Adedayo, Melody (Oloore 88); Musa(Amaechi 60), Chinedu, Oluwatobi( Onome 60)
Scorer: Chinedu 70