Peace Effiong’s 42nd-minute goal was all Rivers Angels needed to deny Sunshine Queens a point in a Matchday 12 encounter of the Nigeria Women Football League Premiership played at the Akure Township Stadium on Wednesday.
Youngster Effiong Peace scored her third goal for Rivers Angels from Polinus Ifeoma’s free-kick to hand the former champions the lead in a well-contested first half.
At the resumption of the second half, Precious Edwor of Sunshine Queens came close to scoring for the home side in the 52nd minute, but goalkeeper Morufat Ademola calmly saved the ball.
Rivers Angels thought they had gotten a second goal in the 60th minute but the center referee ruled out Ifeoma Ikenokwalu’s goal for an infringement in the box.
Chiamaka Okwuchukwu’s introduction in the 70th minute caused more havoc for Sunshine Queens as her interchange with Peace Effiong almost led to a goal in the 77th minute.
Head Coach, Whyte Ogbonda was happy with the performance of his girls after putting up a good fight against Sunshine Queens.
Ogbonda specially thanked the Rivers State government for the huge motivation given to the team before the match, he says the motivation went a long way to make the girls fight till the end and secure the victory.
“It was a very difficult match for us, bearing in mind that we lost to Edo Queens two weeks ago which was a bad result and we came back to beat Delta Queens, there was a lot of pressure for us to win this match and we have won.”
“The team was well motivated before we left Port Harcourt for this match and the motivation went a long way to ensure we got the three points at stake today”.
Coach Ogbonda insisted that the next match is a must-win for his team, as he promised the team wouldn’t take the remaining two matches for granted.
“For now it’s a done deal for us that we are in Super Six but that does not mean we are going to relax, we have to go back home and ensure we get our 3 points against Bayelsa Queens”.
Rivers Angels’ next game is against Bayelsa Queens in Port Harcourt on the 17th of April after the Eld – -el- -Fitr break.
