BY Kingsley Uzowuru
Heartland Fc of Owerri yesterday at the Dan Anyiam Stadium defeated Gateway Fc of Abeokuta by 3-0 in match day 16 of the Nigeria National League.
The match which kicked off by 3:00pm saw the home team having the first feel of the ball as they took the kickoff of the encounter.
The Naze millionaires took charge of the game as they went straight into business, dominating play as the visitors were kept in their own half.
Moments later and in the 6th minute of play, Charles Emmanuel finished clinically for the curtain raiser for the home boys.
The Lads from Abeokuta came out from their shell after conceding the goal to mount the required pressure against the home team, but the water tight defense of Heartland Fc truncated every move made in their vital area to cause any damage.
In the 38th minute of the half , Udochukwu Anumudu via a pass from the left flank scored the second goal in favour of the home team as the goal tender of the visitors was caught napping in his area.
All efforts made by Gateway Fc to reduce the tally proved abortive until the blast of the whistle by the referee for the end of proceedings in the first half.
Gateway Fc kicked off the match for the second half and were more business like as they made several attempts with promising attacks against Heartland Fc but that didn’t yield much for the Abeokuta boys as they continued to struggle to break into the Naze Millionaires defense line up that stood their grounds and maintained status quo.
The match became even more dicey as it started to rain cats and dogs with heavy wind, but the two teams were equal to the task as they displayed amazing skills, soccer artistry, quality ball distribution and possession.
Much later in the half
Heartland Fc with another effort made it 3 goals off a goal mouth melee to put the game beyond the visitors.
Gateway Fc threw in all in their arsenal to reduce the tally but the superior displays by the home team denied them the opportunity to do añy damage until the referee signaled for the end of the interesting and entertaining encounter.
Heartland Fc quest to gain promotion to the NPFL at the end of the season largely depends on their 3 last matches in the league.
The team will play away to Edel Fc and InterLagos respectively with a home match against Crown Fc.
