In what was our penultimate home game of the NNL, we were held to a frustrating stalemate at home.

Team News

We lined up in our familiar home game 4-3-3 formation with Clinton keeping his spot in goal. A back four of Babatunde Akomolede, Abraham Idakwo, Aliu Salawudeen and Solomon Uloko had Jacob Adeede, Gavi Thompson, Abdulraheem Suleiman in front of them to make up the midfield trio. Alabi Lasisi, Abdullahi Usman and Kelvin Unenge led the attack.

Substitutes were Taiwo Alao, Aliyu Baba, Abolade Akorede, Joseph Nanjul and Kingsley Godday

Frustrating First Half

The first half started with us having the larger percentage of the ball. Gavi, Jacob and Abdulraheem combined well to keep the ball and push us forward. The first chance of the game fell to Gavi in the box, who had his shot cleared after good work by Alabi to win his aerial duel. Kelvin also saw his attempt hit the crossbar midway through the half.

Alabi however, had the biggest chance of the half, set up by Gavi and with only the goalkeeper to beat. His attempted bottom-corner curler couldn’t beat the goalkeeper, who saved comfortably.

A nerve-inducing second half

The second-half substitutes, Aliyu Baba, Taiwo Alao, and Abolade Akorede, immediately injected energy into the game.

Aliyu Baba troubled the Kun Khalifat defence, quickly creating two promising chances for Solomon and Gavi near the edge of the box, the latter forcing an excellent save from the Kun Khalifat goalkeeper.

Taiwo had a late opportunity but was unable to keep his shot on target, wrapping up a frustrating evening for us in front of goal.

What it means...

The result drops us to third place in our group, two points behind Osun United and seven points behind Kun Khalifat, having played one more game than both teams.

Post-game notes:

• Solid Abraham Idakwo: Won all his duels and sped the game up where necessary.

• Midfield Maestro Abdulraheem: Was ever present in midfield and made the right decisions where necessary.

• Senior man Gavi: Was always ready to get the ball, created a number of chances that couldn’t be buried.

• Reliable Babatunde: Did not give the winger on his side the light of day, intercepted many passes to him and also created chances for us with his long throw-ins.

What's next?

We travel to face Gateway, who are 10th in the standings, in Ijebu-Ode next week. A win in all of our last three games is paramount in standing a chance to make playoffs.