NAN-S-19
Flickers
By Dorcas Jonah
Abuja, July 13, 2017 (NAN) Two-times champions Niger Flickers of Minna on Thursday continued their winning streak at the ongoing Hockey Super League in Abuja with a 3-0 win over Union Bank of Lagos.
Benard Wilson opened scores through a penalty shot in the 57th minute, after both teams had put up a brilliant performance.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that an argument had however broken out after the umpire called for the penalty shot.
After about 20 minutes of this, the match continued with Union Bank refusing to take on their opponents.
This allowed Wilson to double their lead when he freely added another goal in the 58th minute, while Chiroma Ibrahim scored the third goal barely a minute later.
Coach Mohammed Isah of Niger Flickers described the action of Union Bank team as bad and called on the Nigeria Hockey Federation (NHF) to impose sanctions on the club.
“A player who knows his onions must behave as a player. For every sports man, you either win or you lose.
“Whatever happens, you take it. What the Union Bank team did was very wrong. But I think they are reacting because they have lost their matches,” he said.
Isah said if Union Bank wanted to challenge his team, they could have prepared adequately.
He called on he federation to put in place a disciplinary committee to ensure that teams with unruly behaviour are adequately sanctioned.
Okwudili Menyei, a player with Union Bank, however said the officiating of the game was not fair.
He said in hockey, the rule of the game was fair play and justice.
“This was not applied in this game. It was never fair from the beginning. Every match we played, we played against 13 players. 11 players and the umpires.
” The ball went outside the line and the umpire said the play should continue. That was unfair,” the player said.
He called for a further development of umpires if the game of hockey must be played as a professional game in Nigeria.(NAN)
DE/OLAL
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(Edited by Olawale Alabi)