Nasarawa United Defeat Rangers To Move Out Of Relegation
By Eche Amos
Nasarawa United Football Club of Lafia confirmed their one hundred percent superiority at home this season over oriental teams following their 2-1 victory against seven times’ league winners, Rangers of Enugu in a rescheduled matchday 14 clash to move out of the drop zone, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report
After home wins against Eastern teams including Heartland FC (Imo), Ifeanyi Ubah FC (Anambra), Abia Warriors FC (Abia) and Enyimba International FC (Abia), Nasarawa United went into Thursday’s game against Rangers (Enugu) condemned to fulfill Barrister Isaac Danladi’s promise upon his return to the Club as Chairman to move the team out of the murky waters.
Rangers’ striker, Israel Abia, had put them in front through a 4th minute freekick from close range. Three minutes later, Chinedu Ohanachom was hurled down in the box, and Abubakar Lawal who was making his return to the squad for the first time in two matches converted the spot kick to draw United level, his sixth goal for the Solid Miners this season.
United doubled the lead in the 52nd minute as defender, Abubakar Abdullahi’s solo effort earned him his first goal of the season.
The result stood at 2-1 until regulation time as Nasarawa United won their third consecutive home games to catapult them to the 13th position on the league log with 25 points which they share with their next opponents, Wikki Tourists of Bauchi from 21 matches.
In his post-match presser, Abubakar Lawal said he was happy with the result and intends to score more goals for Nasarawa United in subsequent games.
“I feel very excited to score my sixth goal in the league. The most important thing is the three points we got today. It is good we are out of the relegation zone and I hope we keep the momentum on.
“My aim is to score up to fifteen goals for my team before the end of this season”, he told Nasarawa United Media
However, Chairman of Nasarawa United, Barrister Isaac Danladi, said the result shouldn’t call for any celebration yet as the team has more hurdles ahead.
“There is a lot to be done. We are temporarily out of the relegation zone, but by the grace of God, we shall be completely out of it in the next two weeks.
“We were very conscious because Rangers play good football and we had to psyche ourselves and bring strategies that worked in our favour today.
“We intend to approach our next match against Wikki Tourists with great expectations, because if you recall, we lost our league opener against them at home and we want to take our own pound of flesh from them in Bauchi on Sunday and consolidate that result with the game against Katsina United at home a week later”, he pointed out.