Good morning Guys,
The blog was mute in the buildup to the game and that’s appearing normal nowadays. Well, we won but I’ll like to ask – why in the world do we have neither of Onuwa, Ibenegbu nor Jean Marie staring our home games? How do we have decent creative midfielders who never see any action? Does this even make any sense?
Today’s blog is written by Chidozie Adiukwu. It’s a fan’s perspective from the game.
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I got to the stadium about 15mins late and the talk on everyone’s mouth was about Bashir rattling the crossbar about 5mins before. The first real action I saw was the penalty call that had fans in the stadium screaming at the referee after Farouk’s shot hit the hand of a River’s player. I think the referee was right and fair not to award the call, but alongside everyone else I did scream at the referee, don’t blame me, it’s the Enyimba spirit.
The first half was almost eventless as both teams took all the time they had to move the ball around in the midfield till Osadiaye hit a freekick few centimeters wide. Shortly afterwards, Enyimba’s dominance in the game resurfaced and eager fans where rewarded with a beauty of a goal in the 37th minute.
Bashir, after a beautiful short run in the box linked up with fellow strike partner, Mustapha who returned the pass to him excellently. Our number 7 then slot it behind the goalkeeper into the goalpost. You would think that would liven things up, naaa. We weren’t in the mood. What followed was another period of slow or should I say, boring play as both teams tried to be careful not to make mistakes.
The second half started with an electrifying atmosphere as the “Columbian fans” made their presence felt in the stadium. Osadiaye would soon get limping and he was replaced by Jean-marie. The midfielder rekindled the game and made his mark in the 50th minute when he made a great pass to Mustapha in the box.
The striker hit a powerful strike but it was straight at the goalkeeper. In the 70th minute Alalade replaced Mustapha in the attack and we continued our dominance. We came close to a second when a beautiful cross flew past Rivers United goalkeeper but Zenke found it too difficult to head into the empty net.
Around the 80th minute or so the stadium was into a unanimous cheering when new “Mr fans’ favourite” Onuwa was spotted in the sidelines alongside the fourth official ready to enter the fray. He soaked up the ovation when he replaced the goalscorer Bashir.
He did perform a hazard on the Rivers defence around the 87th minute of the game, drilling the ball from the left flank and made a brilliant pass into the box. Wasiu gratefully received it and calmly curled it low into the far post beating the full length of the goalkeeper.
I might have forgotten to add that Rivers United managed to force a couple of saves off Theophilus Afelokhai in our goal and they had some decent chances as well, but who cares? As at the time of writing this, I can’t even recall when they had any of those those chances, all I can remember are the beautiful saves from Theo. But I do recall their time wasting antics too.
Don’t blame me, I didn’t pay to watch them play us, I was there to watch us play them which we did!
‘EnyimbaEnyi
ThatEnyimbaFan 