Relegation-haunted Stars head to East for points

As the Nigerian Premier League enters its Week 11, perennial strugglers, Shooting Stars go hunting in Calabar where they face stronger Enyimba now being handled by Gbenga Ogunbote, the coach who steered the Ibadan side out of relegation waters last season.

Shooting Stars, former continental strong side are noted to be bad travellers and hardly pick points away from home. They are 19^th on the log of 20 teams.

For Enyimba, noted for its ruggedness, it is a tie looked up to for ascendancy to the summit of the table where they are currently ninth.

Over the seasons, this fixture has always been huge on paper, generating so many talking points thus; this season’s first instalment will not be different.

Shooting Stars’ coach, Fatai Amoo will be looking to get a positive result from the neutral ground owing from the recent of not-so-good results the team has been getting from its home and away fixtures.   According to the club’s media officer, Jubril Arowolo, Amoo said it will be ‘inexcusable’ not to take this game seriously.

“The team is in top spirit ahead of the game and will have a full complements of the players available for selection” remarked Fatai Amoo.

He stressed that the team knew the importance of getting points from away games and this should not be an exception.

“We are in Calabar for a good game and hopefully get a positive result from here. The players know the important of this match and thus would be ready for the task. We have corrected some of our lapses from Saturday and we should hope for a better performance versus Enyimba.”

Interesting point to note is that Enyimba’s Head Coach, Gbenga Ogunbote was with Shooting Stars last season. As in the past, he had always left the Ibadan side at the close of seasons.

According to Arowolo, “this in its usual nature will also afford some sorts of reunion for the coach and some of our former players that crossed from Shooting Stars to Enyimba at the beginning of the season”.

Tayo Adebogun, David Ojukwu and Ibrahim Salau if listed, will be facing their former team in this important fixture.

“With all the excitements and flair that this game portends to offer, we expect a good match and a good result for the Oluyole Warriors as well” remarked Arowolo.