Sammy Wejinya
OVOKE STRIKES AS RIVERS UNITED BEAT AKWA 1 – 0
Nigeria, May 18, 2016 – Bernard Ovoke struck his fifth goal of the season as Rivers United beat Akwa United 1-0 in a Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) contest on Wednesday.
Ovoke’s strike, in the fifth minute of the game, took a wicked deflection off Harrison Ibukun to hoodwink the Akwa United goal keeper, Bassey Akpan. Clear cut opportunities were few and far between in the contest but the hosts almost doubled their lead on the stroke of half time.
Ovoke’s teasing ball, following exceptional work by Obomate Frederick found Godbless Asamoah on the left but the Ghanaian skied his volley wide to the anguish of the home faithful. Rivers United had the first real goal scoring opportunity after the break, on the hour with Obomate shockingly firing over from 14 yards with just Bassey at his mercy.
Akwa’s best chance arrived eight minutes before the restart when Ukaeme Davies headed over from close range after Friday Ubong expertly set him up with a cross. Daboere Dokubo, the Akwa United manager expressed satisfaction with the performance of his wards despite the defeat in Port Harcourt.
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“We were not able to (take) the chances that came our way but they were able to take that early chance that they had. That was the difference today. Apart from that, I am happy with my boys even though we lost,” Dokubo told Rivers United Media after the game.
Technical manager of Rivers United, Stanley Eguma said his team did not play well despite claiming all three points.
“We lost a lot of balls in midfield today and that allowed our opponents to put us under a lot pressure. The reason for this was that our players still have not recovered from the exertions of our previous game against Abia Warriors (in Umuahia on Sunday) which a very difficult game. However, it is important to win games like this and I am pleased we did it,” he said.
The win lifts Rivers United up to second on the NPFL standings with 31 points from 18 matches while Akwa drop to seventh with 27 points from 18 matches.
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