ABS Football Club of Ilorin on Saturday defeated visiting FC Taraba of Jalingo 4-0 in a Match Day 3 fixture of the 2017/2018 Nigeria National League (NNL) season.
The match was played at the Kwara Stadium Complex in Ilorin.
ABS FC began the rout two minutes into the game when Tosin Olabode’s cross found an unmarked Sunday Damian and the winger made no mistake with a header.
The hosts were pegged to their half after their visitors who arrived for the match few hours to the game and were dominating possession for most part of the first half.
Four minutes later, Abubakar Chindo would have doubled the lead for ABS FC but his solo effort hit the post.
In the 27th minute, the centre referee, Michael Uba from Kaduna State, awarded a penalty kick, when a FC Taraba defender was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box.
Abdulrahman Abdullahi converted the penalty kick, even though Reuben almost saved it in the 29th minute.
Deemua Best made it 3-0 in the 32rd minute when his free-kick was deflected into the FC Taraba net.
Damian was close to scoring his second of the game in the 42nd minute but FC Taraba defenders reacted well to deny him.
The visitors restarted the game better in the second half and they were threatened on a few occasions.
But the duo of Deemua Best and Sunday Damian would not stop entertaining the crowd with their mesmerising displays.
Four minutes into resumption, Yusuf Abubakar’s perfect cross into the FC Taraba penalty box met an unmarked Best.
But he was not composed enough to utilise the opportunity, and he instead nodded wide.
Midway into the second half, ABS FC regained their dominance and kept the duo of Sunday Mannassey and Yusuf Yakubu very busy in the heart of the defence of FC Taraba.
Yusuf Abubakar completed ABS FC rampage in the 76th minute, when he dribbled past a FC Taraba defender and curled the ball into the top corner of the Taraba’s net 4-0.
Speaking after the match, the coach of ABS FC, Tunde Sanni, said he was sure everyone was satisfied because of the margin.
But he said he would have preferred more goals because his wards wasted too many chances.
“The numbers of goals we wasted was disturbing. We must go back and work on how to convert the opportunities we threw away today. We were serious today, the fact that we scored early in our first home game got into our heads and we threw away the lead and drew 1-1.
“We must work on how to defend our early lead, when you score first does not mean you have won the game but you must defend it,” Sanni said.
His FC Taraba counterpart, Weso Mathew, a Cameroonian, had said the bad travelling plans destabilised them and his boys could not even move well.
“We left Jalingo yesterday (Friday) at 3 p.m. and we arrived around 2 p.m. today (Saturday). The boys didn’t do any shake-up. We ate late and the players were not able to move. I couldn’t believe it was my team I was watching,” Mathew said.
ABS FC now have four points from three games and will travel to Kaduna to face Kaduna United for a Match Day 4 fixture on Saturday. (NAN)
