Fans who thronged the Jos New Stadium, venue of the 2025 NLO League, we’re treated to the best of grassroots football as clubs displayed lots of soccer artistry. The games witnessed many exciting moments, sad moments for some, joy & excitement for others and touchline show by coaches.
Speaking exclusively to ssimedia247.com.ng, the Chairman of the Plateau Football Association, Hon Dr(Prince) Suleiman Yahaya Kwande, expressed his delight, having ensured that the matches were played in jos, instead of travelling to another venue. He said, it has also afforded the teams to save and improve their wellbeing.
Prince Dr Suleiman Kwande, enthused “its a thing of joy seeing jos teams doing their own things here, before their fans and in a familiar terrain. We’ve seen excellent display of football artistry, exceptional talents and coaches displaying their technical acumen that we also can judge”.
The FA chairman further stated that the aim of the league here to to ensure monies to be spent by clubs in other venues will be spent here; “we want to ensure there was no capital flight , the reason we approached the NLO board and they agreed with us. It has also afforded us as an FA, the opportunity to watch these teams that will eventually go to represent the state in the National play-offs”.
Reacting after the MD7 match between his team, Maichibi Utd and Mighty Jets Feeders, which Maichibi lost by 2goals to one, Coach Ayuba Jonathan, said “its a challenge for us to go back, re-strategise and know how we’ll come back stronger to win the other matches”. On his own, an elated Coach of Mighty Jets Feeders, Garba Bombers Musa, gave credit to his team for rising up to the occasion, snatching the maximum points and the synergy between the technical crew and the coach as the reason for their excellent performance so far.
Coach Bombers, who also commended his opponents, for the show of great work, as he confessed it was a difficult one. He said “we know it will be a difficult game but we were also ready, there was no opportunity given to our opponents for any goal scoring, you can see, the goal we conceded was an own-goal.We’ll keep pushing to hold on to our leadership of the log”.
In what looked like Global Peace was crussing home with Cyracus Ubah’s 68min goal, the excitement was cut short in the 85min, when Nonso Nnamdi of Mafeng jumped high to head the ball down which the Goalkeeper could not hold on to and sailed into the net.
Commenting, coach Abdullahi Lukman, who could not hide his disappointment, praised his boys for the excellent display that couldn’t get them the maximum points; “the boys tried their best from the blast of the whitle, when we scored in the 2nd half, we.tried getting another one but none came until the goalkeeper with earlier excellent saves made a mistake, that’s part of the game. Hopefully, our next 3 matches will be good outings for us”.
Coach Bright Toma of Mafeng Fc, also had positive words for his boys, who despite their young age were able to withstand the heat from their opponents and pushed till they got a late equaliser, earning them a point.
The last match of the day, witnessed lots of dramatic events as Jos Dream Big, as early as the 6min stunned AC Midlands with a beautiful curler by Nansel Joseph but their joy was cut short when Ac Midlands replied with 3 quick goals from Donaldson Hananiya,15min; Paul Lanko, 17min & Markus Wakai, 30min.
It was in the dying minutes, that Jos Dream Big, bringing in more energy into the game and were rewarded in the 91st min, when Ibrahim Isa, hanged the ball in the too corner of the net, to make it 3-2. Thereafter, it was Dream Big that kept the fans on the edge of their seats and AC Midlands at the defence line ensuring there was no goal. Jos Dream Big were not lucky as they were denied by the woodwork on several occasions, coupled with the attackers wastefulness.
Expressing both excitement and disappointment, coach of Jos Dream Big, Benjamin Edeh, praised his boys for the excellent display of football but condemned some inappropriate calls by the referee which denied them clear penalties; “it was a good game, I give kudos to my boys, despite not converting begging chances, we were denied almost 3 clear penalties; all the same we’ll keep working hard”. However, AC Midlands gaffer, Sunday Moses, said the match between the teams was a rivalry, ‘ we have played had lots of games against each other, thus no team wants to loss, the reason for the high intensity, you can see how it went.
We’ll keep working harder to finish the league in a respectable position, it’s a wake up call to do more’.
MD7 Results
-Plateau Jets (0) Vs (1) Vom Vet Rovers
-Mighty Jets Feeders (2) Vs (1) Maichibi Utd
-Mafeng Fc (1) Vs (1) Global Peace
-AC Midlands (3) Vs (2) Jos Dream Big.
Matches continue next week.
Credit: Nathaniel Mobolade, 2025 NLO, Jos Centre.
