How Kwara Utd Goalie’s Errors Handed Pillars Easy Win

Reserve goalkeeper of Kwara United, Saliu Mustapha, must be cursing ill-luck for his schoolboy performance in last Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash against Kano Pillars at the Sani Abacha Stadium for his side’s loss.

Double howlers from Mustapha in the first half ensured that Kano Pillars was on its way to an easy victory just over the half hour mark.

Though Kano Pillars had shot into the lead just in the quarter of an hour through Josephh Atang Thompson, it was goalkeeper Mustapha that grabbed for the headlines for the wrong reasons after he was sent off for a second bookable offence in Kano.

Mustapha caught the attention of the centre referee, Paul Umoago from Delta State, in the space of 13 minutes and got sent off in the ensuing incident.

First, it was shocking that Mustapha resorted to time-wasting on 32 minutes when his side, Kwara United, was trailing Kano Pillars by Thompson’s lone strike on 15 minutes.

The antics of the Kwara United shotstopper earned him a deserved yellow card from the match official.

But things went from bad to worse for Mustapha and Kwara United just on the stroke of half-time when the goalkeeper ran out of his area to stop Kano Pillars’ striker, Victor Namo, who was put through on goal.

Mustapha sensing that he was beaten to the ball by Namo committed the error of handling the ball outside the 18-yard box and referee Umoago did not hesitate to book him for the second time and subsequently gave him the marching order.

It was Mustapha’s sending that Kano Pillars capitalized on in the restart and Ahmad Musa, Musa Musa, Namo, Sheriff Isa and Thompson combined well to pile pressure on the visiting side, which paid off with one goal each from Thompson and Ahmad Musa to give the home a three-nil win.

Kwara United head coach, Justin Tenger, has refused to lay the blame on his young goalkeeper, as he feels that Kano Pillars did enough to win the game last Saturday.

He told Naijaligue.blogspot.com that Pillars deserved the win, as his side has learnt a few lessons on how to approach a top-of-the-table clash in future.

“I must say that Kano Pillars deserved to win. It was a bad day for our keeper but we tried to play ourselves back into this game but with one man down it was difficult against a very good side like Kano Pillars,” he told Naijaligue.blogspot.com.