John Jerome's brace keeps Kogi United in the NNL

Two goals in each half from John Jerome assisted Kogi United claim an important 2-1 win over Jigawa Golden Stars in the last game of the Nigeria National League, NNL season on Sunday.

The match played at the Confluence Stadium, Lokoja on Sunday saw the visiting Jigawa Stars coming out with a game of a spoiler knowing that Kogi United needs the three match points to keep their status in the league.

And they displayed that as they almost took the lead midway through the first half when Rahaku Adamu snatched a weak headed back pass from Tenimu Abubakar in front of goal but goalkeeper Ogundare Detan rushed out to deny him the glaring chance to score.

The Confluence State club sensed the danger posed from that and stepped up their game which resulted to their first goal in the 21st minutes.

Mayaki Ismail collected a loose ball down the left flank, laid a good pass to John Jerome who wasted no time in placing the ball in the net far from Jigawa's keeper Savior Atoba's reach.

All effort for the Wada Boys to increase the tally proved abortive as the Dutse based side defended with almost everyone on the pitch.

Jigawa made two quick changes in the restart of the second stanza and that paid off for them as one of the substitutes, Joshua Abah capitalized on defensive lapses for the home side to level the game within four minutes in resumption.

The boys of coach Tijani Shama would have been in front had their striker not missed his target.

But Kogi United rose to the occasion again to get the needed winning goal in the 78th minutes through Jerome who was at the best place to collect a fine pass from Ashadi Destiny and sprinted down into the box before blasting a shot into the far corner.