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By: Abiodun Adewale
Enugu Rangers coach, Fidelis Ilechukwu, has stressed the need for his players to be ruthless in front of goal if they hoped to hold on to their lead at the top of the 2023/24 Nigeria Premier Football League table and win their eighth title, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The seven-time champions ran 3-2 winners over Abia Warriors in an Oriental Derby on Tuesday in Enugu, as they lead the NPFL with 54 points after 30 games and three points above reigning champions Enyimba with eight matches remaining.
After Saviour Issac gave the Flying Antelopes the lead with a free-kick inside six minutes, the club’s top scorer Godwin Obaje missed a penalty to double the advantage six minutes later, allowing the visitors to level up before halftime through a header from Sunday Megwo.
Kazeem Ogunleye and Okorie Chiedozie added two more goals to take the game beyond Abia Warriors, who still managed to pull one back through Pascal Nwabueze.
Ilechukwu was delighted with the win but believes they must grow into a free-scoring side, beginning from their next fixture against Rivers United in Port Harcourt, in order to stand a good chance of winning their eighth NPFL title and first since 2016.
“It was a good game going by the result as the three points matter a lot at this time, but we made a lot of errors and could have buried the game in the first half,” Ilechukwu said.
“We shall keep working on the noticed lapses to make corrections before our next fixture.”
Despite starting the season slowly, Ilechukwu’s side have gradually found their way to the top of the table.
They recently went 10 games without a loss, winning eight of those fixtures (three on the road) and also drew two.
That run was halted by Katsina United on match-day 29 in a frenetic game which ended 4-3 in favour of the northwest side.
