The Savannah Tigers

DOMA UNITED BOUNCE BACK WITH WIN OVER ABIA WARRIORS

Doma United returned to winning ways as they defeated Abia Warrior 1-0 in the matchday seven encounter of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) on Wednesday evening at the Pantami Stadium in Gombe State.

Usman Musa (Lolo) broke the deadlock for the home side in the 50th minutes after he headed in Majalisa’s flicked header from a freekick, as they held on despite a late surge from the away side to set up United’s 3rd league wins of the season.

Akinade Onigbinde made some changes to the side beaten by Ranger during the weekend, but was forced to watch the game in a standing position as he sees his team struggled to cope with the pace of Abia Warriors’ earlier in the game.

The Warriors would have gone ahead in the early stages but Kingdom was right on time to make a brilliant safe from-he tipped the ball over for a cornerkick to the visitors.

Haruna Aliyu’s shot was spilled by Warriors’ keeper and it met and onrushing Chibuke whose rebounce went over the post to keep the scores at goalless going into the break.

Five minutes into the second half, It was one of the players that returned to the starting line-up that almost gave United the lead in the 24th minutes with Chibuke’s decent foot work beating two defenders from the left side, he cut back and pass to Usman who laid it to Majalisa but Majalisa couldn’t connect well with the shot and he was fouled.

United went into the match looking to bounce back from their weekend defeat against Rangers International in Awka and it was Usman Musa who extended his goal tally to three in some style as he heads in Majalisa’s flicked header to put the home side ahead in the 50th minutes to send the relentless Pantami Stadium fans into a wild celebration.

Doma United’s increased tempo soon made it impossible for the visitors to push for an equalisers with beautiful interchanging display between Majalisa and Usman releasing free Junior whose shot goes through the legs of Abia defenders and gathered by the keeper.

Chibuke Charles almost made it two in as many minutes when his tab in from a flicked pass from Hillary met him unmarked but it was well gathered by the keeper.

The visitors pushed for an equalizer but Kingdom who was outstanding throughout the game ensured that Doma United bounced back to winning ways.

Speaking in post match interview, Doma United’s Technical Adviser Akinade Onigbinde said “It was a very tough game but thank God for the victory. We worked hard for it, the players worked for it. The first half was very tough. We didn’t come out, we sat at home and waited for them to attack. But I talked to the boys. I told them if we need to win this game then we must come out and play. We said we need to put the ball at the back of the net in the first 15 minutes, and as you can see we did that immediately after the break.”

He expressed his happiness with the result but said the team is not getting carried away with it “We are very happy with the result but we are not getting carried away as we will continue to work hard towards our target.”

This result now put United 5th on the log of group B with 12points, on the same points with 4th place Sunshine Stars separated by goal difference and three points above 6th place Niger Tornadoes.

Doma United will play their final game of the first round of the abridge league away in Jos against Group B leaders Lobi Stars on Sunday 19th February, 2023.

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