New comers Go Round FC put up a brave fight to see off hard fighting Nasarawa United 2-1 in a keenly contested Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) encounter at the Krisdera Hotel Stadium on Thursday.
Adeseun Adelani opened scoring in the 50th minute when he reacted quickest to score from a rebound as Nasarawa United goalkeeper, Suraj Ayeleso found it difficult to deal with Azu Chile’s fierce free kick from the edge of the box to give Go Round the lead.
It took Nasarawa United only three minutes to find the equalizer when the Go Round defence line paid dearly for loss of concentration and ball watching when a free kick was sent into their box. Two defenders and goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali failed to clear their line giving opportunity to Saheed Opeyemi to steal the ball and slot it beyond the goalkeeper to even things.
Substitute Shedrack Oghali who had earlier come on for Go Round’s goalscorer then showed brilliance in the 76th minute when he received the ball from Morice Chukwu on the edge of the box after a quick team build up.
With his back to post and under pressure from two opposing players, Oghali bamboozled them, danced his way between them before firing a cracking effort beyond the goalkeeper for the winner.
Nasarawa United started the better in the opening exchanges and almost took the lead in the 13th minute but Nwabali produced a double save to keep his team in the game. They continued to press and pressured the hosts to make mistakes in their vital areas but the could not it count.
The ‘Dare The Lion’ slowly got their groove and started creating opportunities of their own but they wasted all their efforts. Azu forced Suraj to a save with a fierce free kick in the 19th minute while Adelani hit the upright seven minutes later. Nelson Okwa then set up Adelani after a brilliant run but the latter failed to shoot instead he clattered into a teammate. The first hand ended goalless.
The second half started with the home team raising their game while Nasarawa United changed their game plan to slowing down the game with every available opportunity.
After Oghali’s winning goal, goalkeeper of Go Round Nwabali collapsed from his wild celebration and was replaced by Godwin Ameh. Checks by npfl.ng later showed Nwabali had recovered and joined up with his teammates at their camp after he was examined by the medical team.
Go Round held on to win 2-1 and moved up four places to 15th on the league table and next hit the road on Sunday to square up against Rivers United in their first ever Rivers derby in the elite league