Shooting Stars have emerged winners of the NPFL-Dozy Mmobuosi Super Cup after securing a 3-2 comeback defeat against Enyimba at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan in Lagos on Friday.
Earlier on Thursday, newly promoted Bendel Insurance claimed the third place spot in the Dozy Mmobuosi Foundation sponsored tournament after they came from a goal down to beat Enugu Rangers 2-1.
To reach the final phase, the Ibadan based outfit had enjoyed an fine run in from previous matches, following a 3-0 win over Bendel Insurance, 1-1 draw against Enugu Rangers and 0-0 draw against Enyimba in the round-robin stage .
As expected, the record eighth Nigerian league stormed to an early lead when Fatai Abdullahi's free kick skimmed the wall of 3SC to hand the Peoples' Elephants the lead as early as six minutes into the match.
Enyimba, however saw their lead shortlived when Taofeek Malomo level matters for 3SC but the Aba based side recovered their lead 15 minutes heading into the half time break thanks to Eze Ekwutoziam's strike.
At the restart, Shooting Stars came out a different side as Anthony Okachi and Malomo caused ripples in Enyimba's defense problems, with Kelly Kester producing an individual brilliance to level for 3SC on the hour mark.
Having got back on level terms, Gbenga Ogunbote's side left it late to steal the show as Okachi struck in the 87th minute to seal the matchwinner. Following his late winner, Okachi claimed the tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP) while Enyimba's Chijioke Mbaoma notched the Golden Boot award worth ₦1m each for the two players.
The tournament finals was watched by the hierarchy of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) which included the President, Ibrahim Gusau, first Vice President, Felix Anyansi Agwu and General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi. Also present at the finals were the MD/CEO of Tingo Media Group, Martin Ebuwa Agbonwaneten, Head of Human Resources, Busayo Ayenimo and COO Tingo Media Group, Peter Owoloko. It had a total prize of ₦100m
In a reaction, Sunday Dare, Minister of youth and sports development, congratulated the Shooting Stars of Ibadan for winning the NPFL pre-season tournament tagged the Dozy Mmobuosi Cup.
In a statement, the minister said: “I congratulate the organisers for putting up a quality tournament where the winner is taking home N100 million, second placed team N75 million and the third-placed N50 million. That’s quite remarkable and commendable and I am glad that we are beginning to get it right as far as the league is concerned.
“This Super Four signifies what is expected in the league. I want to charge the Interim Management Committee to do more, so that we can have a better league in terms of TV coverage and competition among the clubs.”
