NPFL : Dolphins Lose At Heartland

 

Dolphins lost 3-1 to Heartland at the Rojenny Stadium on Sunday in the Nigeria Professional Football League.

 

Heartland, playing at their adopted home ground went ahead as early as the 4th minute when Collins Nwaneri latched in on a rebound from a freekick.

 

The Dolphins wall and back line had left keeper Ayalogu exposed after he punched the freekick down.

 

The first half ended 1-0 in favour of the home side.

 

Ghanaian, Godbless Asamoah drew Dolphins level in the 53rd minute and at this time, it seemed the visitors would get a result.

 

Bright Ejike, who had a relatively quiet game, put the homers 2-1 up in the 78th minute.

 

A throw in from the flanks was not cleared out of danger by the Dolphins defence and the ball fell to the feet of Ejike, who took his time to curl the ball beyond the reach of the goalkeeper.

 

Three minutes later, Godbless Asamoah was sent off for a second bookable offence as he raised his leg too high for a challenge.

 

With two minutes of added time to play, Emeka Ogbuh buried a cross from the left to round up a miserable day for Dolphins.

 

Heartland’s coach, Berthel Orji said after the game that he started Bright Ejike deep in midfield but after Dolphins equalized he rang some changes.

 

“I had to push Ejike forward after I made two changes. I brought in a striker and an offensive midfielder. It was from his (Ejike’s) position upfront that he scored the second goal of the game,” Orji said.

 

Dolphins coach, Stanley Eguma blamed loss of concentration and the red card for the loss.

 

“We started well, but I must say the red card caused our problems and again my players lost concentration,” Eguma said.

 

Dolphins now return home to play against Shooting Stars on Wednesday at the Port Harcourt Liberation Stadium