By Wale Mustapha.
Basking in the euohoria of their first away league victory in five years, encomiums have started pouring in to commend Kogi United over their remarkable 2-1 away win against NAF Rockets FC in the Matchday 8 of Bet9ja Nigeria National League, NNL clash in Abuja on Wednesday.
Kogi United came from a goal down to claim the victory which has leapfrogged them to the top their group, thanks to second half goals from John Jerome and Daniel Frimpong.
Kogi State Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Prince Sanni Ogu Salisu who described the win as memorable for sports loving Kogi people said his luck has rubbed on the club to break the jinx.
He commended the players and the entire team for making the state proud just as he charged them to improve on their performance to achieve the dream of playing in the apex division in the country.
‘S.O.S’ as Prince Salisu is fondly called however promised that the state government would appreciate the players for achieving the feat.
“Today is a great day for any kogi born sports loving person, kogi united was established in 1995, for about seven years now, Kogi United have never won an away match until I stepped into office as commissioner for sports, so this is historic and I’m very happy and I’m very grateful.
“The result means a lot to me, this is the beginning of our quest to lift the premiership next season, not just promoting to NPFL, the players are living up to achieving it and I commend them, for today’s game, I don’t want to single a particular player as the best but the whole team have done so well, we are going back to Lokoja and I can assure you that by the grace of God the government will show its appreciation to the players,” he said.
In the same vein, Chairman of Kogi United and Confluence Queens, Mallam Abdul Sule expressed delight over the result which he described as important for the club in their quest to gain promotion to the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL at the end of the season.
He said the zeal displayed by his players to turn the result in their favor was commendable just as he called for continued support from the state government and stakeholders.
“It’s a very important result to us, especially ahead of the second round, so we have to be up there for us to get to the premier league, so I’m very happy with the performance of the boys in the second half.
“We told them if we want to win our first away match, we needed to push to get an equalizer and fight for full points because we looked good, though not in the first half but mostly in the second half and I’m really proud of them.”
“I will like to tell the government to continue to motivate us, they’ve been motivating us, giving us financial support and we do hope they will give us more and I’m happy that the Commissioner for Youth and Sports came all the way from Lokoja to see the boys and motivate them, we don’t expect much changes in the team for second round but surely few changes will be made,” Sule said.
