Rivers Angels fell 4 -1 to South-South neighbour Edo Queens in a matchday 10 fixture of the Nigeria Women Football League Premiership played at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The home team took an early lead in the 7th minute through Goodness Osigwe who beat the goalkeeper Morufa Ademola to score.
While the Jewels of Rivers were trying to settle down, Goodness Osigwe doubled the host’s lead courtesy of a defensive blunder.
However, Peace Effiong pulled one back from Sefiat Idris’s cross before the break in the 23rd minute. The Jewel Of Rivers went into the break 2 – 1 down.
At the resumption of the second half, Peace Effiong had a chance in the 49th minute, but Edo Queens goalkeeper Ijeoma Uzoma was on alert to save her shot.
There was a moment of controversy in the 56th minute after the referee adjudged Ifeoma Ikenokwalu’s foul on Miracle Joseph at the edge of the box to have happened inside the box and awarded a penalty to the home team.
Goodness Osigwe made no mistake in converting the penalty and giving the host a 3 – 1 lead.
A rejuvenated Rivers Angels came all out seeking goals after the penalty, but, Edo Queens goalkeeper Ijeoma Uzoma stood tall to deny the Jewels of Rivers numerous chances.
Amarachukwu Onuorah increased Edo Queens’ lead via a counterattack to give the host a 4 – 1 win.
Wednesday’s result got the head coach of Rivers Angels, Whyte Ogbonda pouring out his disappointment on the inability of his players to convert their numerous chances in the match.
“I think in the first five minutes of the match, my players lost concentration in the game, and the goalkeeper gave them a free goal.
” It wasn’t up to a minute again, the defenders made a blunder which made the Edo team score the second goal”. Generally, I would say what went wrong is that we were unable to utilize all the chances we had.”
Coach Whyte Ogbonda refuted the claim that he missed his key players in Ghana for the African games who were instrumental in the reverse fixture in Port Harcourt. He insisted that all the players in his team are important
“Well we have 30 players in the team, every player in the team is important because they all receive salaries”.
“With due respect to my players in Ghana, I wouldn’t say I missed them in this match because we have a lot of players to execute this match”.
“We created a lot of chances, if we had utilised all our chances in this match, we would have won this match six nil”.
Coach Whyte Ogbonda also stated that as the team heads back to Port Harcourt, they will work hard and prepare for Delta Queens.
“It’s just for us to go back home and work on the ability of the players creating chances and utilising it because its not good in a team to create chances without utilising it”.
Rivers Angels will host Delta Queens in Port Harcourt in Match Week 11.
