Pillars good 'home-cooking' continues

Football | Nigeria

 

 

 

Mannir Ubale came off the bench to score the winner for Kano Pillars in the big clash of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) against Enyimba on Tuesday.
It was a game of two halves as Enyimba dominated the opening half but could not make it count.
The first half had one interesting battle between Enyimba attacking winger, Andrew Abalogu and Kano Pillars right-back, Promise James.
Inside the quarter of an hour, Victor Ezeji peeled off his marker to poke home from a dead-ball but the goal was rightly cancelled for offside.

Five minutes later, Abalogu was through on goal and instead opted to go for glory when he could have squared for a well-positioned Ifeanyi Ede to score.
Abalogu's double effort at goal was equally stopped by Theophilus Afelokhai's double save in Kano Pillars goal.
Kano Pillars, on the other hand, were limited to route-one football as they could not find the right mix in a midfield where they had to contend with Rasheed Olabiyi and Rasaq Aliyu.
On 41 minutes, Ezeji popped up again to plant a header at goal off Ede's cross but Afelokhai once again kept Pillars in the game.
Inside added time, Kabiru Umar got a clean sight on goal for the first time but his shot was smothered away by Enyimba goalkeeper, Femi Thomas, as both teams ended the break in a stalemate.
In the restart, Enyimba head coach, Salisu Yusuf, sent on Chimezie Amanfor while his Kano Pillars counterpart, Mohammed Baba Ganaru, brought on Bello Kofar Mata.
Kofar Mata proved to be an instant spark for Pillars with his darting runs.
Gradually the champions started to assert themselves in the game and Yusuf was forced to bring on Bishop Onyeudo for Abalogu and Kingsley Sokari for Ezeji.
But Kano Pillars kept knocking on the door and Kabiru Umar's 87th minute goal was correctly adjudged offside.
However, a minute into added time, Ubale who came on as a substitute for Gambo Muhammad, nodded away the winner from close range to break Enyimba's resistance at the back.
Kano Pillars are now top of the NPFL standings on 60 points with just three rounds of matches to end the season.
The Kano club also extend their unbeaten run at home in league matches of 10 years, three months and 17 days.