NPFL: Rangers shift focus to Ahmed Musa and Kano Pillars after losing to Sunshine Stars

Rangers international of Enugu assistant coach, Godwin Nosike is confident his team can bounce back against Kano Pillars who they play next after losing their match day six game to Sunshine Stars at the Dipo Dina stadium in Ijebu-Ode.

The ‘Flying Antelopes’ were pegged back a bit in its quest to successfully retain the trophy they won last June as a late first half goal by Stephen Chukwude ensured that Sunshine Stars carted away the maximum points at stake.

Nosike had a full complement of the players that dispatched Abia Warriors in an ‘Oriental Derby’ at the weekend except for the duo of Japhet Opubo and Chinemerem Ugwueze whose places were taken up by Lucky Abdullahi and Hillary Ekawu.

The host created chances early in the encounter, but Lucky Abdullahi stood his ground between the sticks to deny them while on the other end, Isaac Saviour and Evans Ogbonda saw their efforts miss targets by few inches as the encounter crept past the half-hour mark.

With few minutes for the first stanza to come to a close, former Rangers man, Chukwude, benefited from a break in communication from the visitors’ backline to flash the ball past Abdullahi for what turned out to be the only goal of the match on 43 minutes.

Coach Nosike says there is no point crying over split milk and says his side must correct mistakes made and return to winning ways.

‘We had a very bad first half and gave our opponents too much space to operate which led to the goal we conceded. But we came back in the second half and did better and could have ended the game on even note had we converted the chance we got towards the end of the match.

‘We go back and work seriously on the noticed lapses today and get back to winning ways,’ Nosike said after the match.

With the result, Rangers now occupy the 5th spot from six matches with 10 points and will next trade tackles with Kano Pillars F.C in a match day 7 fixtures at ‘The Cathedral’, Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, on Wednesday, October 16, 2024.