By Wale Mustapha.
A brace by Sunday Stephen and four goals from John Jerome, Olushola Ajala, Eghe Osas and Daniel Frimpong saw Kogi United went rampage as they hammered FC Taraba 6-1 on Wednesday in Lokoja.
The one sided match played at the Confluence Stadium, Lokoja was one of the Matchday Five encounters of the ongoing Bet9ja Nigeria National League, NNL.
United went into the game with more hundred percent focus as they intend to get bald to winning ways following their disappointing defeat to Kada City last Friday.
Coach Tunde Abdulrahman made some tactical changes in the team that faced Taraba and it payed off for the the hosts as reflected on the score line.
Captain Stephen Musa was handed his first start of the season as he combined with in form Kayode Moses in defense.
Abubakar Danlami was drafted to central midfield from right back to be the shield for the back line. Jerome started on the flank ahead of Frimpong and Sunday Stephen was favored to lead the attack ahead of Anthony Jegede.
The hosts took the lead inside eight minutes of the game as Stephen was allowed much space in the box to control a pass from Victor Tale and shoot past keeper Reuben Fred.
John Jerome doubled the lead for United in the 38th minute as he volleyed in a looping cross from Salisu Tanko.
Jerome could have make it three soon after but his low drive from edge of the box hit the cross bar after beating the Fred.
The Confluence state club were undone with scoring at half time as Olushola Ajala converted a spot kick with two minutes to end first stanza after Tanko was upended in the box.
Osas was introduced for injured Idris Muye on resumption and the creative midfielder announced himself with creative finish six minutes into restart as he scored United’s fourth from 40 yards out, taking advantage of Taraba’s disorganized defense.
Osas would then became a provider for Kogi United’s fifth goal seven minutes afterwards as his free kick was tapped home by Stephen from close range.
Ghanaian substitute, Daniel Frimpong also got his name on the scoresheet in the 71st minutes as he combined well with Osas in Taraba’s box to make it six nil for Kogi United.
Frimpong was denied his brace of the game at stoppage time as his half volley came off the bar after Amos Mishal had headed in a consolation for FC Taraba.
Post-Match Reactions
Coach Tunde Abdulrahman of Kogi United:
We are happy to win today, we were able to get the six goals as they are new team coming up so we capitalized on their deficiencies and we get what we wanted. You can observe that we changed our attacking line up today, the changes worked paid off, I’m impressed with what Danlami did (as a defensive midfielder), he really did well, we’ve not get the kind of work rate we needed in that department since our former captain (Ismail Mayaki) left and with what he did today, we will continue to try him in that role. I’m confident we will go to our next game (against Kaduna United) with confidence and we will come back with good result. We want to take it one game at a time but our target is to get promotion in the end.
Coach John Joseph Chindo of FC Taraba:
I’m not too disappointed, because I’m just coming up with the bits, these are complete amateur players that have not played in any league so you should expect them to give this performance, these are boys we are just trying to groom together. We have a lot of reasons for this defeat, part of it is motivation, the government is trying but they still need to do more and more for the team, we didn’t have much time to rest because we traveled all through the night and arrived (Lokoja) this morning, so you could don’t expect the boys to do more than this, but of course our opponent’s were fantastic today, good players and good team.
Kogi United have however garnered 10 points form five games and will return to Kaduna in their next league encounter, this time against Kaduna United while FC Taraba will be hosting Aklosendi FC.
