Violence mars Lobi Stars away victory in Akure

• FC Ifeanyiubah, Enyimba also record road wins

PANDEMONIUM broke out at the match day 20 Nigerian Professional League (NPFL) game between Sunshine Stars of Akure and Lobi Stars at the Ondo State Sports Complex when the home fans attacked match officials for disallowing an offside goal scored by the home team. Lobi Stars’ striker, Kingsley Eduwo, a former Sunshine Stars’ player had given the visitors the lead in the 15th minute of the first half of the game in which the hosts wasted many scorable chances. Trouble started two minutes into the five minutes extra time given by the referee when a Sunshine Stars striker scored what the fans thought was the equalizing goal only for the referee to disallow it for offside. Irked by the decision, the fans descended on the match officials, but they were rebuffed by men of the Nigerian Police Force and Nigerian Army.

The confusion that attended the end of the game made it impossible for the teams to hold the usual post match press conference. The match officials had to be guarded out of the stadium to ensure their safety. Elsewhere, former champions, Enyimba defeated Remo Stars by a lone goal in Sagamu on a day FC Ifeanyiubah thrashed Shooting Stars 3-0 in Ibadan. Yesterday’s away wins add an exciting glint to the race for the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) title as leaders, Plateau United and MFM could only manage 1-1 and 00 draws against Kaduna United and Akwa United respectively.

Enyimba shrugged off the sending off of their coach, Gbenga Ogunbote to beat homeboys, Remo Stars through a 38th minute goal scored by Ugochukwu Leonard in the 38th minute. But the shock result of the evening was FC Ifeanyiubah’s 3-0 bashing of 3SC with Adebayo Abayomi missing a penalty for the Ibadan side.