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Wikki Tourist of Bauchi held Abia Warriors of Umuahia to a draw in the week 10 league tie played on Sunday.

The match which was played at the adopted home of the elephants – Pantami Stadium ended 1-1 after an intensed ninety minutes of action.

Abia Warriors Head Coach Emmanuel Deutsch altered five names in Abia Warriors matchday squad that beat Jigawa Golden Stars in the previous matchday.

Goalkeeper Uche Okafor was rested for Charles Tambe while Ozor Chinedu, Bell Sylvester, Shedrack Asiegbu, and Philip Auta started ahead of Isaac Emeka, Adekunle Adeleke, Fatai Abdullahi, and Ugwuka Emmanuel respectively.

The Umuahia based team were majorly involved in most of the action in the opening moment with good game play from both flanks as forwards Bello Lukman and Jimoh Oni impressed.

Bello was responsible for two dangerous attempts while Oni also tried his luck a few times with goalkeeper Yusuf Mohammed doing well to deny both strikers from scoring.

In the thirty fiftteen minute, the duo of Jimoh Oni and Bello Lukman once more combined beautifully to put the Warriors ahead after Bello Lukman got the better of Wikki centre-back Peter Ambrose to send a brilliant low cross beyond Franklin Anthony and goalkeeper Yusuf Muhammed for Jimoh Oni to easily tap home what turned to be the team’s vital goal take his season goal tally to five.

After going behind, the hosts were pressing hard to find an equalizer but they failed to recorded any serious attacking threat against Abia Warriors debutant goalkeeper Charles Tambe in the first half.

Early in the second half, Wikki Tourists were lucky enough not to have conceded another when Christopher Waziri was in a position to block a goal-bound strike by Philip Auta who latched onto a rebound on the edge of the box in the 57 minutes.

Two quick substitutions for Wilki Tourist in the 60th minute added some life into the home side as they s mounted pressures on Abia Warriors.

One of their pressures, however, yielded positive results five minutes later when Williams Ukeme pulling a brilliant freekick to the far post for full-back Hassan Musa to turn home for the equalizer through a powerful header.

Abia Warriors Coach Emmanuel Deutsch brought in Egwuka Emmanuel to replace injured Philip Auta who had a head collision with a coming defender in an area contest.

A follow-up replacement saw Oghenetegha Ebetomame replacing Shedrack Asiegbu who quickly added some sparks to the attacking movement of the Umuahia based club.

Abia Warriors held firm amidst last moment pressure but would have taken the lead in the closing stages of the match if Oghenetega Ebetomame had converted a last minute opportunity that saw his effort narrowly miss the target.

After exhausting a four minutes added time given, center referee Haruna Shuaibu brought the proceeding to an end.

The result leaves the Umuahia based club ninth on the log on fourteen points while Wikki Tourist is eighth on fifteen points after playing 10 matches respectively.

The Warriors will now play Table-toppers Plateau United next weekend at the Umuahia Township Stadium.

LineUp11: Charles Tambe 30, Austin Obaroakpo 16, Parfait Jean 6, Innocent Gabriel 29, Ozor Chinedu 5, Bell Sylvester 27, Shedrack Asiegbu 10, Yakub Hammed 13, Auta Philip 11, Bello Lukman 28, Oni Jimoh 9.

Substitute List: Uche Okafor 33, Anozie Ugochukwu 22, Adeleye Adekunle 15, Oghenetega Ebetomame 26, Nonso Paul 21, Paul Samson 20, Ugwuka Emmanuel 14