Kwara United Football Club of Ilorin on Sunday walloped visiting Heartland FC of Owerri 4-0 in their last match of the 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season.
News reports that the match was played at the main bowl of the Kwara State Stadium in Ilorin, and the victory was warmly celebrated.
But this celebration was not because it confirmed the hosts’ continued stay in the NPFL, but because the home fans had the benefit of the presence of Nottingham Forest star Taiwo Awoniyi.
He had earlier pledged to reward each goal scored by Kwara United with 500,000 Naira.
Wasiu Alalade opened scores as early as the fourth minute, benefitting from a well-delivered pullout by team captain Afeez Musa.
Emmanuel Ogbole added the second goal in the 24th minute, with Heartland FC struggling to pick up the bits and pieces of their unimpressive display in the game.
Garba Abubakar, who replaced Dehinde Ibrahim at the resumption of the second half, contributed in the build-up to the third goal scored by Alao Mohammed.
The introduction of Shola Abdulraheem and Abbey Benson in place of Ogbole and Rahman Olarewaju respectively, added more impetus to the hosts’ dominance.
Much later, Omaka Anthony and Godwin Oshagbemi, brought in for Alao Muhammed and Issa Gata respectively, further increased the hosts’ appetite for more goals.
Oshagbemi justified his introduction when he delivered a masterclass of a goal in the 89th minute for his team to earn Awoniyi’s N2 million cash reward for the four goals.
Speaking later, Christian Obi, Heartland FC’s Head Coach who claimed his efforts were sabotaged during the season with the allegation of bribe-taking against him, said he was leaving everything to fate.
He said his future with the team would be decided by the owners of the team with the season having come to an end.
Obi said the match result made no difference, as they were already relegated even if they had won.
Kabir Dogo, the Chief Coach of Kwara United, on his part said all credit for their performance should go to their state governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and the people of the state.
While he described the outcome of the match as “a victory for the people”, he however said events of the last two seasons were challenging for the club.
“The club must learn lessons from those challenges, going forward.” Dogo said.
