Upsets Galore At Fed Cup

The upsets in this year’s edition of the Federation Cup have continued as Nigeria Premier League leaders Rangers of Enugu and several other NPL clubs have been stunned by ‘smaller’ clubs from lower divisions.

Nigeria Premier League leaders, Rangers, started their campaign in the group stage of the Federation Cup off on a poor start as they lost by a lone goal to Nigeria National League, NNL, side, Prime FC of Ogbomosho.

In the other Group C game played at the Ibadan centre, Sharks FC of Port-Harcourt were held to a 1-1 draw by non-league side Dynamite FC, who paraded retired NPL veteran like Charles Omokaro and John Ofomba.

In the first match of Group B played at the Agege Stadium in Lagos, Kwara United lost by 1-0 to El Kanemi Warriors.

The ‘Afonja Warriors’ missed the services of the likes of Barnabas Imenger, Kabiru Sanusi and Daniel Solomon who have travelled abroad for trials. Their plight was worsened when Vincent Ogar got the red card for deliberately stamping on Desire Wassono.

Ezekiel Thompson, who got the lone goal for El Kanemi was the highest goal scorer for his club as he scored 7 goals in the NNL to secure promotion for his club; he has so far scored 3 goals in the ongoing Federation Cup.

In the second game from the Lagos Centre, Crown FC came from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Kano Pillars. Rabiu Ali had given Pillars the lead through a free-kick in the 43rd minute, but Bode Daniel pulled a goal back for Crown in the 65th minute.

In Port-Harcourt, a late goal from Brendan Ogbu was enough to help Heartland FC ease past Plateau United and begin their Group D campaign on a positive note. The second game of the day between Nasarawa United and Gombe United ended goalless.

The Nigeria Football Federation has postponed the kick-off for Group A games scheduled to hold in Bauchi today in order to give another opportunity to teams like Warri Wolves FC who were yet to report to the venue.