NPFL Oriental Derby: Rangers Hold Heartland In Awka

Rangers International F.C maintained their dominance over neighbours, Heartland F.C at the weekend courtesy of a goal in each half of a highly entertaining match day 7 of the NPFL 2023/2024 fixture played in front of a massive crowd at the Awka City Stadium, Anambra State on Sunday.

Coach Ilechukwu of Rangers kept faith with the starting squad that lost narrowly to Lobi Stars but for the duo of Philip Clement and Kenechukwu Agu as Kazeem Ogunleye shot the ‘Flying Antelopes’ into an early lead with an unstoppable free kick from about 25 meters that the goalkeeper for the visiting side, Chisom Chiaha had no answer to on three minutes.

Stunned as they were, the boys of the ‘Naze Millionaires’ side under coach Christian Obi swooped on the rear of Rangers with ceaseless attacks led by Samuel Stone, Patrick Nwaogbaga, and Chijioke Opara pulling the strings but met very stiff resistance from the backline fielded by coach Fidelis Ilechukwu.

While there were opportunities to increase the tally for the Enugu side through Isaac Saviour on 43 minutes, Chukwudi Nwaodu on 18 minutes, and Chidiebere Nwobodo on 35 minutes, the visitors also created some that could not be buried, especially a late first-half rally the saw one opportunity crash against the upright and another against the crossbar as the seven-time league champions retired to the dressing room on the driver’s seat.

On resumption of play, both sides upped their game with the Owerri side pushing for an early equalizer. Still, it was the host that increased their tally in 57 minutes when Kenneth Igboke reacted the quickest to bundle home a Chisom Chiaha’s saved penalty kick taken by Godwin Obaje after a handball incident that occurred after an earlier awarded penalty for a foul on a goal-bound Obaje had been pushed out by the goalkeeper. Still, Peters Afolayan stopped the ball with his hand.

Ifeanyi Ogba blazed his effort wide off target after he was set up by Joel Okoro on 75 minutes while Chiaha produced another spectacular save to deny Kazeem his second of the day on 85 minutes from another dead-ball situation as the arbiter whistled to end proceedings to send fans of the Enugu side into wild jubilations.

With the win, Rangers bounce back into the top spot on the log with thirteen points from seven matches and will be travelling to Akure for a date with Sunshine Stars in a match day 8 fixture on November 12, 2023.

Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu in a chat after the win, said, “It was a good game. Heartland did very well as a team as it was a derby match. We tried our best and did not concede that is the most important thing because I told the boys that we must play without conceding a goal so that we can come up on the table and we thank God we won the game today.”

Kazeem Ogunleye was full of joy as he said, “I feel very happy about the result because we have been playing games and conceding but today, we did not concede and won. On my goal, I am very elated as I have been practising it and I am happy it went in.”

Coach Christian Obi in his post-match chat, said: “In the game of football three outcomes are expected and today we lost not for want of trying but we were unlucky against our opponents, Rangers. We made some careless mistakes, especially in conceding the first goal which jolted my boys into action but could not convert our chances when created but hit the woodwork twice. It was an unfortunate loss.”