The Nasarawa United Football Club were held to a 1:1 draw by the visiting Shooting Stars Football Club of Ibadan in the opening of the 2024 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season.
The match which was played at Lafia Township Sunday, September 8, was watched by a capacity crowd as the newly promoted Nasarawa United played. their first home match this season.
Anas Yusuf, Jessey number 14, captain of Nasarawa Utd, converted a penalty in 59 minutes to give an advantage to the home team, but their hope of winning the game was dashed when Daddy Abdul-Rahman equalized for the visiting team during the added time after the regulation time
The visiting team scored the equalizing goal in 93 minutes, after the regulation time of 90 minutes.
Speaking with the journalists after the match, Kabiru Togo, Technical Adviser of Nasarawa Utd FC, said that Shooting Stars was just lucky to have drawn the game given the chances his team could not utilise.
The Technical Adviser said that his team would prepare well for the next game because this is just the first game out of 38 games in the season.
Dogo added that he would work more on his players for better results in subsequent games and believed that the club would do great in the current season.
On his part, Gbenga Ogungbote,
The coach of Shooting Stars FC said that one point was better than losing the game.
He added that his team tried to sock the pressure and stabilise the game when the home team was mounting pressure in the first half, and their strategy paid off.