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Nigerian Football

Maikaba to Unleash New Players on MFM

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BY MFON PATRICK

 

Four of Akwa United’s five new players that were unveiled on Wednesday are part of the 18 man squad that travelled on Friday to Lagos to engage MFM on match day 20 fixture of the Nigeria Professional Football League NPFL this weekend.

Coach Abdu Maikaba may be eager to throw his mid season signings into the fray to justify their inclusion in the team.

Coach Maikaba has named a compact squad of 18 players including four of his latest signings for the return leg encounter with MFM at the Agege stadium in Lagos.

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The four players selected are; goalkeeper Ojo Olorunleke, midfielder Christopher Lolo and two strikers Gabriel Okechukwu and Harmony Ikande.

The coach said no stone will be left unturned when his team will file out against their opponents on Sunday

The players had unanimously agreed to give their best to the team’s quest of winning the league title this season and also playing in the continent next season.

Meanwhile, Captain Otobong Effiong and winger Moses Ebiye who recently returned to full fitness and have also been included in the match day squad.

The match on Sunday will be the fourth meeting between the two teams since MFM got promoted last season.

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Akwa United have the upper hand having won two and lost one to the Olukoya boys.

This fixture has never ended in a draw and with the Promise Keepers playing tiki-taka brand of attacking football, they will fancy their chances of getting a positive result against their host having won their last three matches.

 

The match at the Agege stadium will see two top scorers in the league Stephen Odey and Alhassan Ibrahim facing each other in the race for who will emerge highest goal scorer at the end of the season.

MFM have had a good first stanza of the season and their second position after match day 19 is a testament to that fact.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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