NPFL

Doma United suffers defeat in Awka

By Olaleye Oluwadamilola

Posted on February 12, 2023

Doma United suffered thier second defeat of the season against Rangers International on Sunday at the Awka Stadium.

Following last weekend’s impressive 2-1 home victory over defending champions, Rivers United, Doma United lost with the same scoreline against the Flying Antelopes, the second defeat in their maiden Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) campaign.

Chidera Eze scored from the spot to clinch victory for Rangers International and condemn Doma United to their second league defeat in the ongoing campaign.

The Defender scored from the spot seven minutes after the hour mark to give the Enugu side a home win but for Doma United it was a frustrating game where a lot of chances went begging.

This means that the team’s four game unbeaten run came to an end while we continue to search for our first away win in the league.

The first 45 minutes saw less action in terms of goalscoring despite both teams enjoying a fair share of the ball possession with efforts from Samuel Enefiok and Usman Musa both going wide and gave Emeka Nwabulu less trouble.

However, Rangers grew in confidence while enjoying the larger share of the possession in the last 15minutes of the first half.

They did carved out the best chance earlier when Kingdom released Enefiok with a long passed from behind but Enefiok couldn’t control the ball well as his long range effort went wide.

The home side started enjoying the larger share of the ball and created some descent chances with Innocent Gabriel sending in a long range effort which was parried away by Kingdom with his two hands to keep the home side at bay.

Rangers International effort was rewarded in the 37th minutes after Saifullahi Yusuf tried to clear the ball and he made contact with an opponent player and the referee pointed at the spot.

Chidera Eze didn’t make mistake as he sent Kingdom the wrong way to put the host ahead.

It was more of the same in the second half with Bidemi, Junior and Saifullahi connecting well from the right hand side.

Bidemi saw his low cross cleared before reaching Chibuke who replaced Enefiok right after the restart. In quick succession, Bidemi collected the ball from Junior to release Usman Musa but his Volleyball went closed but goes wide again.

In a game that witnessed two water break sessions due to a high temperature, Nassy Isaac, Saifullahi and Chibuke were booked for Doma United with Chibuke, Hillary and Clement Ogwu coming on for Nassy, Enefiok and Bidemi but their introduction couldn’t change the result of the game.

In his post match interview, United’s Technical Advicer, Akinade Onigbinde hailed his team’s performance and expressed optimism that the team will bounce back in the next game.

“We played well and the boys were good, just that there were one or two lapses that we’ll work on.”

“It’s a game of football, sometimes we win, we lose or even draw. We’ll take home this result with the intention to work on all the lapses and trust me, we’ll bounce back in our subsequent games.”

Doma United have played seven games, they’ve gathered nine points via two home wins, one home draw, two away draws and two away lost.

United’s next assignment will be a home clash against Abia Warriors on Wednesday 15th February 2023 at the Pantami Township Stadium.