Match Report: Niger Tornadoes late goal sunk Wikk Tourist at home
Idris Seidu and David Okoromi scored both goals to claimed first win for Niger Tornadoes in the season opener against Wikki Tourists as the Nigeria Premier Football League matchday one ended across match venue, making it the second time Niger Tornadoes to win first season opener away from home. The last time they did it was in 2017/2018 season against Kwara United in Ilorin.
Niger Tornadoes had to wait to celebrate in the 74th minutes of the afternoon with a slick counter-attack which forced Wikki Tourists Abel Chinonso to hack down Jonas 300 yards to the goalmouth, which gave Niger Tornadoes Idris Seidu to bury the ball to the top right corner beating the wall and Galadima on the firing line.
Two minutes after the Ikon Allah boys first stunner, Wikki Tourist paid dearly after they failed to clear the danger, David Okoromi doubled the advantage, latching onto Jonas’s pass inside the box and finishing powerfully past Galadima.
The much anticipated encounter between the two teams have been expected before the season kick off, with both played four warmup games between themselves.
The Ikon Allah boys were fortunate not to be behind on just few minutes of the first half. The Yankari Elephants’ pacing pass and counterattack carved open the Niger Tornadoes’ defence as Abubakar Aliyu and Desire Oginni combined from the flight flank carried the ball half the length of the pitch and found Prince John behind the defenders on the right. His cross found Fuad Ekelojuoti alone at the far post, but he somehow put the ball over when just letting it carom off of him would have resulted in a goal
Niger Tornadoes were hanging on, but it wasn’t until the 18th minute that Jonas was called into action. A free kick pinballed in the Wikki Tourists area and fell to the foot of Fuad Ekelojuoti just 8 yards out. His snapshot was on-target, but Muhammed Galadima did exceptionally well to turn it wide of the post. The Wikki Tourists forward had another chance moments later. Prine John delivered a cross into the other side of the post,Niger Tornadoes talisman Sunday Akinmoladun came to the rescue, gathering at Abubakar Aliyu’s feet before he could get his shot away.
Again Wikki Tourist spurned a golden chance to take the lead against the run of play on the half-hour mark. Desire Oginni somehow dribbled through the entire left side of the Niger Tornadoes defence. He curled the ball to Prince John who had only keeper Lucky Abduallhi to beat. It was a tough angle, but you’d have expected him to blast it towards goal. Instead, he tried to pick out Fuad Ekelojuoti the far post and only found Shola Abdulrahaman who mamanged to blast the ball off the bar.
The rest of the half was pretty much one-way traffic, with the hosts pinging the ball through the left side of the Niger Tornadoes defence and Okoro Onyeka finding himself in 2-on-1 situations with Abubakar Aliyu and Prince John. That worked about as well for us as you’d imagine, but Lucky Abdullahi was able to deflect the few shots that were on-target and see us through to halftime at nil-nil.
The second half started almost eerily like the first, with Wikki Tourists nearly taking the lead on just 45 seconds. Prince John found himself in acres of space on the Niger Tornadoes left right. He cut inside Sunday Akinmoladun and shaped to shoot. Shola Abdulrahaman got back just in time to get a toe to it, but it still needed Lucky Abdullahi to turn it onto the near post and out for a corner.
The host made their first substitution with aim of adding more bite to their attack, Fuad Ekelojuoti cane off for Manu Garba, his impact was quickly fell by Niger Tornadoes from the close range, Lucky Abdullahi was on hand to tips Manu safety, leaving home fans on the edge of their seats in the 51th minutes of the encounter.
After seeing chance after chance spurned or saved, Niger Tornadoes took the lead in truly daft fashion. Closed down on the wing, Jonas attempted to play the ball off a Wikki Touriats player which resulted in a foul against Abel James Chinonso. Idris Seidu got the angle right beating Muhammed Galadima on the Firring line making it the first opening goal of the encounter.
Just after two minute Niger Tornadoes grabbed a quick loose ball against run of play as Wikki Tourists defenders failed to clear off the ball out of their box, David Okoromi stoked the ball and wipe it past helpless Muhammed Galadima to make it 2-0
Kabiru Dogo made his second changes on the 80th minutes, withdrawing Prince John and Saleh Ibrahim in favour of Idris Mohammed Guda and Abdulsalam Abdulsalam. It didn’t do anything change the run of play, as the Ikon Allah Boys put everything on yheir backline to defence their lead.This time, it was a throw-in in midfield that undid the Yankari Elephants. Guda received the long throw and just slid it into the path of Sunday Akinmoladu who outraced another Niger Tornadoes defendrr, buy Lucky Abduallahi was on his feet to tip the ball to safety
Wikki Touriats should have reduced the goal deficit back almost immediately. A glorious ball over the top into the right found Abubakar Aliyu’s run. The former Akwa United forward striker slid it to the unmarked Manu in the centre. With the entire goal to aim at and ages to do it, he slid the ball wide. He spurned another chance just 30 seconds later as he put the ball just inches wide from a tight angle.
Sadly, on 87’, that was it for Wikki’s chances to get back into the match. It’s not that Niget Tornadoes turned the screws, as it was an end to ens action at both half, Niger Tornadoes Jonas tried one of his signature long-range efforts, but it didn’t quite come off. It was just a third of an hour playing out the match with Wikki Tourists at home.
WIKKI TOURISTS IX
1. Galadima Mohammed (GK)
16 Ogini Olatubosun
3. Sunday Haruna
10 Sale Ibrahim
11 Fuad Ekelojuoti
5 Abel James
24. Shola Abdulraheem
27 Prince John
28 Nelson Abiam
8. Abubakar Aliyu
17.Victor Okoro
RSV:
22 Emeka Anyia (GK)
2 Ogene Elijah
12 Abdulsalam Abdulsalam
26 John Taiwo
23 Ismaila Maiyaki
34 Mubarak Hamza
15 Amiru A. Maidawa
9. Manu Garba
7. Idris Muhammed Guda
TA: Kabiru Dogo
CC: Abdullahi Adamu
AC: Bolaji Abdulkadir
GT1: Haruna Abubakar
GT2: Bala Muhammed
MO: Nasiru A.Kobi
Wikki Tourists Niger Tornadoes
STARTING X1
Lucky Abdullahi (30)
Abba Khalid (39)
Idris Saidu (12)
Uche Ezeala (4)
Sunday Akinmoladun (5)
Charles Okafor (26)
Waheed Adebayo (32)
Jonas Emmanuel (18)
David Okoromi (9)
Musa Wakili (33)
Shamsudeen Hashim (7)
RESERVES
George Michael (1)
Babatunde Solomon (6)
Hamza Mohammed (10)
Abdulkadir Zango (3)
Dennis Mse (22)
Munir Idris (15)
Ifeanyi Okoye (14)
Peter Momoh (20)
Eric Frimpong (11)
TA: Abubakar Bala Mohammed
