Ibadan darling soccer club, Shooting Stars Sports Club, 3SC, had to wait till injury time to get a deserved penalty to defeat hard-fighting youthful team of Ilaji football club, in one of the semi-final matches of the Seyi Makinde pre-season tournament.
Though largely protested as dubious and questionable by spectators and Ilaji FC, the Oluyole Warriors, who just got promoted to the elite league, went on to send out the Dotun Sanusi-financed side of the competition with 4-2 penalty shoot-out.
Described as tricky, scary, tension soaked, the Ilaji FC boys stretched 3SC to its limit, giving them a good test as the Ibadan soccer lords step up its preparations for the 2021/22 NPFL season.
Ilaji FC’s Adewale Abiodun had shocked 3SC, who are familiar with the Lekan Salami Sports Complex, putting his side in front in the 11th minute of the encounter. Gafar Olafimihan restored parity just five minutes after, scoring from the spot.
Ilaji FC took a 2-1 lead into the half time break through Ogungbayi Boluwatife who converted a spot kick, before Adeyemi Salem added the third in the 58th minutes.
3SC bounced back as Akilu Mohammed’s brace in the 66th minutes and the last minutes of the additional time, forced the game into penalty shout out.
In the ensuing penalties, Ebenezer Odeyemi, Akilu Mohammed, Isiaka Mutiu and Dare Olatunji scored while Ilaji FC had one of their kicks saved by goalkeeper Laide Okanlawon while they played one over the bar to give us a 4-2 win and a place in the final.
Speaking to OyoSportsNews after the match, Kabir Alausa said: “Right from the beginning we said we’re playing pre-season, we are testing our players and we want to know how they feel and their condition. Today, we played against a young, energetic, mobile and a football academy side. They played very well. We were not there yet, I can only say we are presently at 60 to 70 percent.”
