Kwara United Football Club defeated Heartland FC 4-0 in their last match of the 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season today, Sunday June 23, 2024, in a match decided at the Main-Bowl of the State Stadium Complex, to end the season on a high.
It was a victory that was heavily celebrated, not because it gives the team total clearance to sustain its Premier League status, but the celebration of the presence of Nottingham Forest star, Taiwo Awoniyi.
Awoniyi, who was celebrated by fans and supporters at the Stadium had pledged to reward each goal scored by Kwara United Football Club with half a million naira each, ahead of the all-important encounter which the club won by four unreplied goals.
Wasiu Alalade opened scores as early as four minutes, benefitting from a well delivered pull-out by the Captain of the day, Afeez Musa. Emmanuel Ogbole added the second in the 24th minute, with Heartland FC struggling to pick the bits and pieces of their poor show in the game.
Kwara United replaced Dehinde Ibrahim with Garba Abubakar as the second half resumed, and Garba contributed in the efforts at scoring the third goal, which was scored by Alao Mohammed.
Shola Abdulraheem and Abbey Benson were introduced in place of Emmanuel Ogbole and Rahman Olarewaju, and much later, Omaka Anthony and Oshagbemi Godwin were brought in for Alao Muhammed and Issa Gata respectively, as the hosts upped their search for more goals.
Oshagbemi justified his introduction, as he delivered a masterclass of a goal in the 89th minute, as the team earned Taiwo Awoniyi ‘s N2million.
Coach Christian Obi of Heartland FC, who said that his efforts were sabotaged during the season due to the accusation of taking bribes averred that his fate with the team will be decided by the owners of the team, as the season comes to an end.
He said that the result of the match makes no difference, because, even if his team wins, they are already relegated.
For Coach Kabir Sulaiman Dogo, credit should be given to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and Kwarans for the sustainance of the club in the NPFL.
While he described the victory as victory for Kwarans, he said events of the last two seasons were challenging, and Kwara United must learn lessons from those challenges, going forward.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Kwara United Football Club, Kumbi Titiloye has said that preparations for next season’s NPFL will commence immediately, going by the lessons learnt from the just concluded season.
He said that the team started preparations relatively late this season, coupled with the fact that the players are just adjusting to playing on grass pitch, as they are used to synthetic pitch, even as he also added that current economic realities also affected the team in the just concluded season.
