By Wale Mustapha.
Kogi United suffered their first defeat of the 2017/2018 Nigeria National League, NNL season following a 2-0 loss to Kada City FC in Kaduna on Friday.
The Matchday 4 duel decided at the Pitch A of the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna witnessed by a sizeable crowd saw Kantoma Solomon converted a fourth minute spot kick after Timothy Bello appeared to have been upended in the box.
Obioma Arinze doubled the lead for the hosts with five minutes to end the half time heading Ibrahim Ashiru’s cross past Salisu Ogbe.
United responded well early on resumption as they pressed for a comeback but were fell short of luck to convert their chances.
Olushola Ajala had his curling shot agonizingly hit the upright after beating Kada City’s goalkeeper Daniel Bobai and Anthony Jegede’s rebounded effort was blocked to corner.
Idris Muye forced Bobai to two smart saves soon after, first a low drive from edge of the box and the bicycle kick which was again parried to corner.
The introduction of John Jerome and Francis Okenu added more bite to United’s push for a comeback but the Confluence State club were denied to push again as some calls from match officials didn’t go their ways.
Head Coach of Kogi United, Tunde Abdulrahman who described the defeat as disappointing noted that his side would work on their lapses and build on positives ahead of their next game on Wednesday against FC Taraba in Lokoja”
Abdulrahman however remained optimistic of his chances of picking one of the tickets to the top division.
“I’m disappointed, not because my boys didn’t play well but we were not lucky to have a balanced game, there were tactical support for them (Kada City) by match officials.
“But I still feel it’s one of our bad days if not we would have turned around the scoreline.
“This is just our first defeat, I’m confident we will get back to our winning form against Taraba,” Abdulrahman told Kogi United Media.
His counterpart for the Kada City, Shola Adewuyi said his side’s early chances converted put the game to test against a ‘tactically disciplined’ Kogi United just as he commended his players for holding off their visitors till the end.
“I’m happy with the we approached the match, we intend to get our goals quickly which we did and we knew Kogi United are a very good side, a tactically discipline side and would want to come at us later but the goals helped us,” Adewuyi said.
