Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Akombo, Tenger Win February Monthly Award

Kwara United head coach and striker, Justin Tenger and Ukeyimah Akombo, have emerged winners of the Naija Premier League Online Monthly Award for the month of February.
The monthly award organized monthly by Naijaligue.blogspot.com and Naijapremierleague.com started in January 2010.
After carefully scrutinizing the statistics for matches played in the month of February, the panel of judges from the two web portals for the Nigerian league decided to pick the duo from Kwara United.
However, Tenger clearly emerged the Coach for the Month of February by virtue of Kwara United’s performance.
In the month of February, Tenger guided the Afonja Warriors as Kwara United is nicknamed to three wins in four games and lost just once to Warri Wolves by 1 – 3 on February 21.
Kwara United bagged nine points from four games and thereby ensured that its coach, Tenger, beat coaches of title rivals in the order of Kano Pillars, Enugu Rangers, Niger Tornadoes and Enyimba.
Another side, whose coach missed the opportunity of being assessed in its fourth league game in February, is Warri Wolves that garnered six points but had its league match against Zamfara United shifted to March 4 due to its CAF Confederation Cup tie against Atletico Olympic of Burundi last weekend.
In essence, the panel for the online monthly award decided to leave out the rescheduled game since it was no longer played in the month of February.
Nevertheless, it was a difficult task for the panel picking the Player of the Month for February since its criteria for doing so was met by three players.
Last month, the trio of Ahmad Musa, Akombo and Dele Olorundare scored three times for Kano Pillars, Kwara United and Sunshine Stars respectively.
Kano Pillars’ striker, Musa, was close to winning a second straight monthly award but had his goal in Ibadan against Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) cancelled by the match officials last Saturday.
But Naijaligue.blogspot.com and Naijapremierleague.com decided to use the performance of how the three players’ goals affected the position of their teams on the Premier League log to pick the winner for the player for last month.
Since Kwara United is in second place ahead of Kano Pillars and Sunshine Stars in third and sixth positions accordingly, Akombo was picked as winner for the month of February ahead of Musa and Olorundare.
Other players who came close to competing for the award but fell short by a goal each are Jaiyeola Yusuf (Kwara United), Fuad Salami (Sunshine Stars), Ehiosun Ekigho (Warri Wolves), Bright Ejike (Sharks), Victor Namo (Kano Pillars), Michael Okoyoh (Warri Wolves) and Damien Udeh (Enugu Rangers).
The maiden edition of the Online Monthly Award for Player and Manager was won by Kano Pillars’ duo of Musa and Salisu Yusuf.
CEO of Naijapremierleague.com, Aikhoje Ojeikere, explained that the award would get better as it goes and has called on corporate bodies to identify with the monthly award in order to make it bigger.
“Our plan is to make this award bigger and better. But we hope to secure a sponsorship deal for it so that players in the league would be properly recognized for their contributions in the game,” Ojeikere said.

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