NPFL : Insurance suffers slim defeat, as Heartland records first victory

Bendel Insurance Football Club of Benin on Wednesday, suffered their first defeat to struggling Heartland FC of Owerri after a 1-0 loss at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri in one of the Match Day 12 fixtures of the Nigeria Premier Football League.
Austin Osayande scored the only goal of the match in the 51st minute of play to give Heartland FC their first victory in the league after playing 12 matches.
Heartland did not look good enough to get the three maximum points against Insurance FC,as the Kennedy Boboye’s team struggled to keep with the pace of the game within the first 15 minutes with a couple of mistakes in their rear. Chisom Okereke went close to scoring for Insurance in the 8th and 10th minutes of play but Chisom Chiaha was good in the goal post for the Naze Millionaires.
Coach Monday Odigie in his search for an equalizer made five substitutions bringing in Chukwudi Meze and Osaghae Jr. for Chisom Okereke and Haruna Abubakar in the 62nd minute of play. He completed the changes with Raymond Ikhenoba ,Akpos Godbless and Evans Ogbonda for Sarki Ismael, Stephen Sodje and Paul Obata in the 83rd minute of the game but the hosts remained determined to keep their first three maximum points.
The Naze Millionaires defended the 1-0 lead and eventually gave their fans something good to cheer, winning their first game of the season.
In a post match interview, Coach Monday Odigie blamed Bendel Insurance loss on indiscipline in his defence area.
” We lost concentration at that moment and we paid for it. But am sure we’ll get it right in subsequent matches.
On the other hand, Heartland FC coach Kennedy Boboye whose team recorded their first victory in the league said he was pleased with the result.
” Let me give kudos to my boys because they fought for it. We are happy and we will continue to work on goal scoring so that we can be sure of winning and get out of where we are”, he stressed.