Rivers United Tuesday defeated fierce rivals, Enyimba FC 2-0 in a rescheduled matchday 14 fixture of the 2023/24 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt.
The defending champions, Enyimba have over the years have found Port Harcourt a tough venue for them and Tuesday wasn’t different.
The ‘Pride of Rivers’ got to a good start as Deputy Echeta scored the first goal in the 12th minute following an assist from Sadiq Abubakar.
Stunned by the goal, the visitors seeking to end the losing streak to the hosts mounted pressure but failed as the first half ended 1-0.
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Rivers United went up 2-0 directly from the restart of the second half through Echeta who scored his brace with the assist from Nyima Nwagua.
Following this loss, Enyimba have returned home with defeats on each of their last four visits, conceding six goals while failing to score a goal.
In the same vein, Rivers United have now won seven of the last 11 NPFL meetings between both sides who have now remained unbeaten in 15 home games in all competitions.
As a result of this loss, Enyimba have dropped to 5th on the table on 32 points while Rivers United moved up to 11th on 24 points.
Speaking after the game, Enyimba’s assistant coach, Yemi Olanrewaju said he needs to work on the conversion skills of his players who created chances but failed to score.
“I don’t want to be a bad loser as it was a good game but we had better opportunities to have scored and won this game. They took their chances and scored. Thats what happens in football. We were unlucky as we hit the bar two times. I am happy we created chances but we didnt score. That alone tells me that we need to work on our conversion,” he said.
Meanwhile, the second stanza of the league will kick off this weekend. It will be recalled the league reached the mid-season with fixtures held over the weekend of January 20 to 21.
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