Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) of Ibadan head coach, Gbenga Ogunbote, has declared that the Nigeria Premier Football League title for the 2024-25 season has not been won yet following his side’s draw with Plateau United on Sunday, www.aclsports.com reports.
The Ibadan side were in Jos to face the Peace Boys in one of the match day 22 games played on Sunday. Tijani Kabir handed Ogunbote’s side the lead in the 76th minute before Albert Hilary equalized two minutes later for a share of the spoils at the New Jos Stadium.
Speaking to pressmen after the game, Ogunbote expressed his disappointment over the failure of his team to win, but took solace in the fact that a point was secured on the road.
“It is quite unfortunate that we couldn’t manage the goal. It was as a result of loss of concentration. It was an error on our part,” Ogunbote stated.
Despite his side being eight points adrift of leaders Remo Stars – with a game in hand, the veteran NPFL coach believes the title race is still open.
“I think we have 17 games to determine that, so nobody has won it, nobody has lost it. Every team in the premiership league has equal chance of winning it”, Ogunbote declared.
The Oracle, as the tactician is fondly called, continued.” If we had taken the advantage today, maybe it would have been a different ball game, but be it as it may, one point on the road by this time is something.”
“It was a big setback for us becuase we had such opportunity against a big club like Plateau United, but sometimes, it’s like that, all we need to do is go back to the drawing board and make corrections.”
“It would have been suicidal if we had conceded the second goal. They (Plateau United) showed a killer distinct, you saw the way they came on us, we were careless they scored, and they fought to get the second goal,” Ogunbote concluded.
Shooting Stars will host Bendel Insurance in their next league outing at the Lekan Salami Stadium in Ibadan next weekend.
