Kwara State Special Adviser on Sports, Alhaji Attahiru Ibrahim Sunday night, surprised the state owned football club, Kwara United players and officials with a two hundred thousand naira morale boosting reward after a hard fought victory in a Nigeria Professional Football League match played in the state capital.
The match, played at the Kwara state stadium complex in Ilorin city, witnessed a keenly contested match between Kwara United FC and Heartland football club of Owerri which ended 2-1 in favour of the host in the NPFL match-day 18 clash.
The visitors from Owerri were impressive in the first half against Kwara United as they had their game plans properly executed, frustrating the host and audaciously creating 3 brilliant goal scoring moments in the 1st half, while playing beautiful football, to the admiration of the home fans.
The game however, despite all the prompting from the away side, turned on its’ head in the 2nd half the moment the Kwara United coach, Abdullahi Biffo decided to make a double substitution in the 51st minute, introducing Ayobami Junior and Samad Kadiri for Chinedu Udeagha and Junior Lokosa respectively.
Samad Kadiri and Ayobami Junior changed the game for Kwara United and the effort paid off in the 57th minute, moments after the substitutions, as Deji Bamidele got the breakthrough for Kwara United with a thunderous shot in the 55th minute from 30 yards before Alao Danbani doubled the lead eight minutes later with a well worked team goal which resulted in a defence split, exposing the goal keeper, Femi Thomas to a desperate attacker who rounded off the goalie before slotting home into a begging net.
Chukwudi Nwaordu pulled one back for Heartland in the 80th minute, but Kwara United held on for their first win over the Naze Millionaires in Ilorin since 2012.
Attahiru Ibrahim who watched from the stands expressed happiness with the display of the Kwara United players and reiterated the government readiness at all times to support the team to the next level with a N200,000 winning bonus for the team.
“I am impressed with today’s win against Heartland and I want to enjoin Kwara United players to maintain this momentum as I wish them all the best in subsequent games”.
“My Principal who is a Sports loving Governor is also impressed with this win and wants the team to keep shinning this season and make Kwarans proud,” Attahiru Ibrahim revealed, excitedly.
Meanwhile, Kwara United are now occupying the 4th position on the NPFL log, with Biffo and his wards travelling to Ikenne to play Remo Stars in a week in an NPFL match-day 19 clash.
