Results: Globacom Premier League Week 3

FC Taraba         0 Lobi Stars      0
Heartland          5 Nasarawa Utd  2
Enyimba           1 Bayelsa Utd      0
Gabros            1 Rangers            0
El-Kanemi       3 Abia Warriors  1
Giwa FC         1 Sunshine Stars  0
Wikki Tourists 1 Kwara Utd       1
Sharks            1 Akwa Utd        0

Globacom Premier League Week 2 results

Shooting Stars     1  Heartland     2
Kwara Utd         2   El-Kanemi    1
Nasarawa Utd     2  Wikki           0
Akwa United      0   FC Taraba   1
Sunshine             2   Gabros         1
Rangers              2   Sharks         1
Kano Pillars       2    Bayelsa Utd  0

Globacom Premier League update

Globacom Premier League Week one results

March 7 and 8

Dolphins               0 Kwara United    0
Kano Pillars          p Heartland           p          -
Sharks                 0 Sunshine Stars    0
Bayelsa Utd         1 Lobi Stars          1
El-Kanemi           1 Nasarawa Utd   0   
Enyimba FC        0 Akwa Utd         0
Gabros FC         2 Warri Wolves     0
Giwa FC             0 Abia Warriors    0
Taraba FC          3 Rangers             2
Wikki Tourists    2 Shooting Stars    0

Globacom Premier League Week 2 fixtures

‎           Saturday‬, March 14, 2015

Shooting Stars vs Heartland --4pm

Kano Pillars vs Bayelsa United--4pm

‪        ‎Sunday‬, March 15, 2015

Kwara United vs Elkanemi Warriors--4pm

Nasarawa United vs Wikki Tourists--4pm

Akwa United vs FC Taraba--4pm

Enugu Rangers vs Sharks FC--4pm

Sunshine Stars vs Gabros Int'l--4pm

‪          ‎Wednesday‬, March 18, 2015.

Warri Wolves vs Giwa FC--4pm

Lobi Stars vs Enyimba --4pm

          Thursday‬, March 19, 2015

Abia Warriors vs Dolphins FC--4pm

Nigeria Premier League 2015 season kicks off

THE 2014/15 Globacom Premier League season kicks off on Saturday, March 7 with a double header in the Garden City where Sharks will take on Sunshine Stars at 2pm, while Dolphins will entertain returnee Kwara United at 4pm also at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt.

The other week one matches except that of the one involving Heartland and Kano Pillars will hold

on Sunday.

As a result of the armed robbery attack on Pillars on their way to Owerri, for the much advertised season's curtain raiser at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, the League Management Company (LMC), had to suspend the games involving the reigning league champions as five of their players sustained injuries during the unfortunate attack which occurred along Abaji-Lokoja highway.

 Meanwhile, the association of the Nigeria Premier League Club Chairmen and Managers (club Owners) in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja and jointly signed by the Acting Chairman, Barrister Isaac Danladi and the acting Secretary, Alloy Chukwuemeka sympathised with the management, coaches and players of Kano Pillars over the sad incident.
 
The association specifically thanked God that no life was lost and prayed for the quick recovery of the injured players who sustained various degrees of injuries from the gun shots ‎of the hoodlums.
 
Club owners urged the LMC to urgently activate the insurance policy that covers the players in the league in order to ensure that the affected players get the maximum benefits‎.
 
It stated further that the next meeting of the club owners would discuss the general travel arrangements of clubs and seek ways of encouraging clubs partnership with airline operators for long distant trips, as part of the club owners peer review mechanism amongst clubs in the league.
 
The body called on security agencies to rise up to the challenges posed by armed bandits along our major highways and ensure that those attackers of the Kano Pillars bus are apprehended as quickly as possible

The association has also planned to dispatch a special delegation to Lokoja to visit the injured players who are on admission at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja. 

Caption: Gambo Mohammed, one of the injured Kano Pillars players during the robbery attack.

Week one fixtures:  March 7 and 8, 2015

Heartland         vs. Kano Pillars (pp)
Wikki Tourist    vs. Shooting Stars
Giwa FC          vs. Abia Warriors
Sharks FC        vs. Sunshine Stars
Dolphins FC     vs. Kwara United
El Kanemi         vs. Nasarawa United FC
Bayelsa Utd      vs. Lobi Stars
Gabros Intl       vs. Warri Wolves
FC Taraba        vs. Rangers FC
Enyimba           vs. Akwa United FC

African U-17 Championship: NFF praises Eaglets despite semi-final loss

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has commended the national U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, for earning a place at the FIFA U-17 World Cup finals taking place in Chile later in the year.

 
NFF president, Amaju Pinnick declared on Wednesday night that the 0-1 semi-final loss to the Amajimbos of South Africa at the ongoing African U-17 Championship in Niger Republic has not diminished the value of the Eaglets’ accomplishment.

“Certainly, every Nigerian yearned for the Eaglets to win the African championship trophy in Niger Republic after the boys reached the semi-final. They lost by a lone goal but we cannot accuse the players of lack of effort.

“The present NFF administration has continued to harp on the fact that it is not only concerned with winning trophies. We want to win trophies, but more than that, we want to build a sustainable football culture.”
Pinnick assured that the boys will not be treated like outcasts following the failure to reach the Championship final.

“The NFF will send a jet to pick the players after the third place match on Sunday. The technical crew remains intact and the NFF will give support to them to plug the necessary holes in the team so that we will have a squad capable of doing the nation proud in Chile.”

He also noted that Cup holders Cote d’Ivoire were eliminated in the group phase of the championship in Niger Republic.

The loser of the match between the young Syli Nationale of Guinea and the young Eagles of Mali in Thursday's semi-final duel will face the Golden Eaglets in a third place match prior to the final billed for Sunday in Niamey..

Meanwhile, Khanyiso Mayo, the son of former Bafana Bafana player Patrick Mayo, scored the only goal for the young South Africans in the 26th minute

Caption: Captain Kelechi Nwakali (left) and coach Emmanuel Amuneke during the post-match conference after the game against South Africa.

West Brom coach hails Ideye

MANAGER Tony Pulis was full of praises for the super substitute Brown Ideye as his superlative performance gave West Bromwich a deserved 2-2 draw at Burnley.
 
The embattled Nigerian striker has been struggling to find the back of the net since his £10m record signing move to the Baggies in the last summer.
 
He was only on target in a English Premier League game in his team's 1-3 loss to Manchester City at Etihad on December 26 before Sunday's all important goal which saw his team come from behind to pick a point.
 
"We've hoping Browny (Ideye) can keep scoring. We have Saido, Brownie and Victor -
they're our strikers, so we hope they can help us. Brownie hasn't played badly, he's just missed opportunities and with goalscorers - especially when you pay that much money - you expect to score, so hopefully that will help his confidence because he's a good lad." said Pulis on the club's website.
 
Ideye, who came on to replace Chris Baird in the 67th minute of the game produced a stunning header to deny the homers of victory after a two-goal lead after just over half an hour through Ashley Barnes and Danny Ings.
Chris Brunt had pulled a goal back for West Brom in first-half stoppage time with a header before Ideye secured the leveller also through a header.
 

The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winner while expressing joy at the result at Turf Moore through his twitter handle ideye Brown MON@officialideye said: "Difficult game today but thank God we came back strong, great job from all the lads. hard work continues, Great God".
 
The former Spartak Moscow forward in all has scored three goals for The Midlands with the League Cup strike in September last year as the first in his team's victory over Hull City.

Caption: Ideye.

Super 6: Flying Eagles finish tops unbeaten

NIGERIA'S Flying Eagles on Sunday at the National Stadium, Abuja, finished the Super 6 pre-season tournament organised by the Nigeria Premier League unbeaten in five games.

The U-20 side had prior to the match won the tournament with 12 points having won all its previous four games.

The Manu Garba-piloted side however, on Sunday forced the Dream Team to a 3-3 draw to end the competition in grand style with 13 points.

Prince Aggreh ignited the six-goal thriller as he put the Flying Eagles ahead in the 28th minute when he clinically connected a cross from Taiwo Awoniyi.

Four minutes later, substitute Peter Onyekachi fired home a left-footer off Godwin Saviour's effort for the equaliser, while Oghenekaro Etebor converted a spot kick before half time to shoot the Dream Team ahead.

The Flying Eagles on resumption drew level in the 54th minute through Bernard Bulbwa with a half volley, but Etebo put the Dream Team back on course when he scored his second goal in the 66th minute.

Chidera Eze saved what would have been the Flying Eagles' first defeat in the competition as his glancing header in the 74th minute off Musa Muhammed's cross completed the six-goal thriller.

The Dream Team with the result finished second on the table with nine points as Kano Pillars who also on Sunday defeated Enyimba 1-0 placed third with seven points.

The reigning Nigeria Premier League champions had Christian Obiozor to thank after he headed home Tony Edjomariegwe's cross in the 40th minute.

Enyimba finished with six points as well as Warri Wolves who also secured a 2-1 win over Dolphins FC.

The Garden city side coached by Stanley Eguma lost all its games in the competition, a development the tactician attributed to the exit of some of the key players from his camp..

"We lost some key players at the end of last season and Christian (Pyagbara) is one of those that we brought in," Eguma said.

The former Heartland coach however, said he is not losing sleep over the performance of his team in the pre-season tourney.

"I'm not excessively worried by our performances. We are using this tournament as a test-run and we were not at full strength," he said.
 
Dolphins will represent Nigeria in this year's CAF Confederation Cup.

Caption: Chidera Eze, his goal saved the Flying Eagles from defeat.