Kazeem Ogunleye’s free-kick from over twenty-five yards at the 59th minute earned the reigning NPFL champions, Rangers the full points on Sunday in the match against Abia Warriors. It was an ‘Oriental Derby’ played inside ‘The Cathedral,’ Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu.
Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu handed starts to the squad that defeated Bayelsa United on Thursday with the exception of the trio of Lucky Abdullahi, Bashir Usman and Nenrot Silas. Their places were taken by Japhet Opubo, Okafor Onyekachi and Isaac Saviour.
Twice in the first period, the visitors had the upright to thank as it ended goalless.
At the start of the second period, coach Ilechukwu pulled out Chinemerem Ugwueze for new kid-on-the-block, Silas Nenrot and switched to a 4-3-3 pattern of play which to a very large extent pushed back the visitors into their defensive shells.
Six minutes into the second stanza, the home fans and bench went into celebration after Chiedozie Okorie connected with a diving header an Evans Ogbonda’ cross after some neat interchange of passes saw Nenrot release the left-back but the celebrations was cut shot as the effort was chopped off for a possible offside play.
Eight minutes later, there was no stopping the fans from going on wild jubilations as Kazeem Ogunleye exquisitely fired an unstoppable free kick past the hands of Ali Ishaku from over 25 yards after goal bound Effimi Nsi was fouled.
Efforts by the home side to get more goals or for the visitors to draw level failed to yield more goals as the goalkeepers on each end showed quality to ensure the match failed to record more goals.
Ilechukwu said after the match, “It was a big game and our performance today shows that our team has started coming up. I know that Abia Warriors prepared very well for this game and I am happy we won the match. Coach Imama Amapakabo is a top coach with good mentality and this we saw today in his team’s play but we had our game play and it worked very well though we could have scored a couple of more goals. We need to build on this win going forward.”
Rangers with the win now have ten points from five matches and will next play Sunshine Stars in a match day 6 fixture at the Dipo Dina International Stadium, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.
Extrasportnigeria 
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