By Amaechi Agbo
The Solid Miners’ hopes of picking their first win of the 2024/25 Nigeria Premier Football League Season were scuttled as they were forced to a goalless draw by hosts, Niger Tornadoes FC, at the Bako Kontagora Memorial Stadium, Minna, on Sunday evening.
Coming from their 1-1 home draw against Shooting Stars in Lafia a week ago, Nasarawa United were poised to spoil the homecoming party for the Ikon Allah Boys who had won 2-1 away at Kwara United last weekend.
Both sides sized each other up in the early stages of the first-half with United’s Moyi Hassan’s dangerous free-kick getting deflected into corner kick.
Emeka Onyema was at his athletic best to prevent the hosts from scoring after blocking a goal-bound shot.
New acquisition, Uchenna Odeh swiftly responded twice to a diagonal cross into the United danger zone to avert disaster, before Umar Ada’s aplomb got staggerly dealt with by Tornadoes’ goalkeeper, Joshua Enaholo.
The first-half ended with no favourable result for either sides.
After effecting some tactical changes, the Coach Kabiru Dogo-tutored Solid Miners took the game to their hosts. Substitute, Terdoo Shimagande’s 57th minute strike was saved by the home side’s goalkeeper.
In the 61st minute, United thought they had won a penalty when Sabo Gambo was muscled down, but the centre referee, Abubakar Zubairu, awarded it as a free-kick on the edge of the box, with Habibu Alakija striking the resultant kick against the wall.
Ameh Godwin was called into a couple of difficult saves moments later.
The North Central derby grew in intensity and physicality as the game approached the climax.
Terdoo Shimagande was flagged offside in an apparent disbelief to the United’s bench in the 84th minute.
But the talking point of the game came in the 89th minute when Adamu Hassan’s left footed legitimate goal after benefitting from a goal area scramble was disallowed by the referee in a contentious manner.
The late goal appeared to secure a dramatic win for Nasarawa United on the road, but the infamous decision by the referee who claimed he perceived a foul in the build-up dashed any hopes of a first win for the Solid Miners since their return to the elite domestic football league, forcing the game to end with the points shared.
The team will return to Lafia ahead of their match-day three clash against visiting El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri at the Lafia City Stadium on Sunday, 22nd september, 2024, by 4pm.
In his post match media briefing, Nasarawa United Coach, Kabiru Dogo blamed the referee for their failure to pick the maximum points from Minna
“Congratulations to both teams, at least we shared the points, even though right inside me, I won the game.
“However, we take it in good faith. Only the referee can explain why he cancelled that goal. He was closer to the ball than me, so, he has the final decision in this circumstance.
“Generally, both sides played good football this evening.
“I have a promising side. I believe so much in them, and with time, we will do better.”
