Abuja, Nov. 22, 2014 (NAN) Medical Strikers Football Club on Saturday defeated Rock Football Club 1-0 in the knockout stage of the ongoing 2014 FCT League.
In the match played at the Area 3 Sports Complex in Abuja, both teams displayed robustness at the onset of the game and tried to win.
Rock FC dominated proceedings in the first half with an offensive game which kept the Premier League side on the back foot for most moments of the first half.
Medical strikers’ FC fought back but could not convert their chances to goals.
At the start of the second half, Rock FC again took control of the game with Madagi Japhet, Obinna Kalu and Dele Sunday, making a go for goals but to no avail.
The trios were the architects of all moves upfront but erratic shooting and poor conversion rate were the bane of the Rock FC.
Abdulsalam Salami of Medical Strikers broke the deadlock for his team through a penalty kick which was the only goal of the match in the 82nd minute which made them controlled the game.
The best chance for the Supreme fell to Paul Samsom in the 94th minute; after beating Andrew Ekawem in a one-on-one encounter, he narrowly missed target to the relief of Rock.
Rock struggled until the end of the match but could not convert their chances to goals.
Coach Ibrahim Bako of Medical Strikers said he was happy that his team won, adding that they hoped to perform better in their stage.
“I am happy that we won, it was a though game I thank God we came out successful, my players played to instruction.
“I am going back to my drawing board and work on my players because the next game might be tougher than this,’’ he said.
Rock FC Coach Victor Fadare said that he was not disappointed with his team’s loss.
“In football there is always a winner and a loser, we were unfortunate that luck was against us this time.
“We are out of the State League, we will go back to drawing board put our boys together, so that we will perform better next time,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the second match of the day saw NYSC defeat Castle Football Club 6-2.
The first two winners from each group will qualify for the semi final, third place and the final.
Eight out of the 16 teams will qualify from the knockout stage (NAN).
