Striker Sikiru Alimi scored a brace to lead Remo Stars to a comfortable 3-0 win over Niger Tornadoes in the opening fixture of match day 32 in the Nigeria Premier Football League on Friday, www.aclsports.com reports.
Remo Stars, who returned to their home ground in Ikenne after spending days on the road due to their league games against Doma United and Plateau United, needed to return to winning ways to remain in the title race and it was their talisman – Alimi – who got them going with his 13th and 14th strikes of the season.
Daniel Ogunmodede welcomed back goalkeeper Kayode Bankole in goal, while Haruna Hadi was handed a rare home start as super substitute in previous home games Olamilekan Adams missed out due to personal reasons. For Niger Tornadoes, man in form Clinton Jephta got the nod to start in attack alongside Bashir Usman and former Sunshine Stars forward Ikechukwu Nwani.
The home side were quite purposeful in the early exchanges and looked more like the side that will get the opening goal in a game of small margins in the opening exchanges. Just minutes before the half-hour mark, a Tornadoes defender handled the ball in the box and the referee did not hesitate to give the spot-kick. Alimi stepped up and sent goalkeeper Joshua Enaholo the wrong way for the game’s opening goal.
Just three minutes later, the hosts doubled their lead. The home side broke free in attack, Ahmed Akinyele sent a through ball into the final third for Hadi to latch on before the latter put it on the plate for Alimi to complete his first-half brace for Remo Stars. Tornadoes never got going in that half as the Ikenne side remained in control at the interval.
Despite going two goals down at the break, the Ikon Allah Boys showed some efforts upon resumption of play as Jephta saw his curling effort come off the woodwork, while Ahmed also had to block a goalbound effort after Bankole was caught napping from a set-piece situation to prevent the visitors from scoring. With 15 minutes left to play, Ahmed latched onto a loose ball in Tornadoes’ box to wrap the game up for Remo Stars.
With their 16th win of the season, Remo Stars moved to second place – one point behind leaders Rangers – with 53 points from 31 games played, while Tornadoes stay in 10th with 42 points.
Matchday 32 will continue with games across nine other venues on Saturday and Sunday. However, the league will go on a mini-break to sort out the outstanding games of Rivers United.
