Remo Stars defeated Shooting Stars 2-0 in the South-West derby in the Nigeria Premier Football League on Wednesday.
An own-goal and a quality finish from Godwin Odibo in the second half handed the Sky Blue Stars a third consecutive win of the season, condemning their opponents to a first defeat of the season.
It was a drab first half at the Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne, with both teams failing to put the ball past the goalkeepers.
Remo Stars’ forwards especially Samuel Anakwe missed a couple of chances in the opening half, while Andy Okpe failed to react quickly when a ball fell into his path midway through the contest.
However, Shooting Stars found the back of the net through Malomo Taofeek’s header, but the referee disallowed the goal for an infringement on a Remo Stars player in the box.
Remo Stars came out in the second half with more purpose and bite, playing the opening minutes of the half in the Oluyole Warriors’ half.
Halftime substitute Godwin was sent through on goal by Akanni Qudus and with only the keeper to beat, but the winger was caught in two minds and his attempted pass to Andy Okpe went out of play.
Moments later, Dayo Ojo sent a long ball past Shooting’s backline to Okpe and his attempted cutback resulted in an own goal by Alex Aghahowa as the hosts grabbed the lead.
In the final half-hour of the game, Odibo collected a fine pass from Lekan Adedayo, raced through on goal before placing it finely past onrushing goalkeeper Bamidele Adeniyi to score his first top-flight goal and also secure the win for the Sky Blue Stars.
With the victory, Remo Stars zoomed to the top of Group A, with three wins from three matches, while Shooting Stars dropped to the bottom of the group with only two points from same amount of games.
With the win, Daniel Ogunmodede’s side have now won six of their last seven South-West derby matches since the start of last season.
On match day four, Remo Stars will be guests of Bendel Insurance on Saturday, while Shooting Stars will host Elkanemi Warriors in Ibadan on Sunday.
