Rivers United on Wednesday defeated Enugu Rangers by a lone goal in the last round of the Match Day 1 fixtures of the 2020/21 Nigeria Professional Football League season.
In the game played at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt saw the hosts almost opening the scoring in the first minute after Rivers’ Fortune Omoniwari beat an offside trap to latch onto Kehinde Adedipe’s pass but he fired wide though from a good position.
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Not to be outdone, the visitors also created their chance in the 7th minute when Kenechukwu Agu’s corner was met by Ugochukwu Ugwuoke but he couldn’t direct his header on target.
However, the home team had the first attempt on target when Godwin Aduda aimed at the goal from 25 yards but his effort was calmly collected by Rangers goalkeeper, Nana Bonsu.
Rangers continued to fashion out goal-scoring opportunities and were duly rewarded in the 29th minute when two former Rangers stars, Aguda and Omoniwari combined to give the hosts the only goal of the game.
Aguda’s low cross was met by Omoniwari who got trapped inside the net after scoring.
Rangers had a big chance to equalise the goal when Israel Abia failed to score when he came face to face with the inspiring Theophilus Afelokhai in the 37th minute.
Within five minutes to the end of the first half, both sides created chances. First Bonsu made himself big in between the sticks when he denied Rivers’ Cletus Emotan from increasing the lead.
At the restart of the second half. Salisu Yusuf made some changes as he took off Abia and Ugochukwu Ugwuoke for Ibrahim Olawoyin and Chidiebere Nwobodo while Stanley Eguma took off goalscorer, Omoniwari for Bobby Clement who was making his league debut for Rivers Utd.
In the 70th minute, the ever-dependable Afelokhai almost cost his side the three points when he spilt Agu’s freekick into the path of Eziekwe who, however, ballooned the ball over from close range though through deflection.
In the 89th minute, the home side had another chance to put to bed beyond their visitors but Clement blasted his efforts over from 25 yards as the game ended 1-0.
Before this game, both sides had met nine times with Rivers Utd winning four games while Rangers have triumphed five times.
According to statistics, there has been no draw between the two sides.
Meanwhile, Kwara United tops the table, closely followed by Katsina Utd and MFM FC while Lobi, Sunshine Stars and Plateau Utd are at the base of the table.
