Coaches Gbenga Ogunbote and Daniel Ogunmodede provided the biggest part of Sunday’s spectacle as the former’s Shooting Stars Football Club (3SC) of Ibadan whipped Remo Stars FC of Ikenne 2-0.
In this Match Day 26 fixture of the 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) tagged the “South-West Derby”, the two coaches unwittingly stole the show, even from their players.
Christian Pyagbara’s brace, scored in the 16th and 80th minutes, was a delight for the forward, and for 3SC who needed a win for their pound of flesh and an encore.
The hosts won away on their last match, and needed to have one on their guests who pounded them 3-0 in the first round.
And the NPFL never helped matters with their “game advisory”, issued to warn both teams and their supporters, who were calm and organised.
This game, in spite of a bright start, was by the 10th minute already growing into a physical one as both sides warmed into it in search of early dominance.
Murtala Taiye then weaved into the Remo Stars’ half to side-step a defender and unleash a low shot which veered to the left side after 16 minutes.
Pyagbara broke free ahead of the away defenceline to jab past a retreating goalkeeper Charles Tambe.
But Remo Stars, in spite of dangerous offensive moves through the left flank spearheaded by former 3SC forward, Sikiru Alimi, allowed their physical game to get out of hand.
They disappointedly got too aggressive to build the necessary rhythm that could have helped to retrieve the game dominance.
The 3SC side capitalised on this to gain free-kicks and rebuild play to hold dominance, while Ogunbote amd Ogunmodede kept on engaging the match officials from the sidelines.
While Ogunbote was asking for punishment for the visiting side’s players, Ogunmodede was on his part admonishing the officials for stopping play for some infringements.
Both kept on distracting play with their antics, with their fellow team officials on the bench joining in and the players on the pitch taking a cue from the sidelines action to turn the game ugly.
For a derby, this was not too bad, but it did deny the spectators the quality game they expected and could have got if the two teams had settled down to just football which they seemed capable of.
By the time they returned for the second half, the theatrics never abated, with the 3SC side led by their bench asking for Remo Stars’ Boniface Nwaeze to be sent off.
They claimed the defender’s 47th minute yellow card was his second of the game.
With no Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in existence and the match officials unconvinced by the documents 3SC were brandishing, the steam from the game was being allowed to vanish.
Soon, Remo Stars had Alimi sent off, in the 66th minute, and they were then reduced to feeble attacking for the home side to hold sway.
It was no surprise then that when 3SC broke a Remo Stars’ counter-attack through Gbolagade Adelowo, a high pass sent Pyagbara on to lift over an advancing Tambe into the net.
But it was not the end of the day, with youngster Lawal Abdullahi who came on as a substitute and was obviously the fans’ favourite bringing on some beauty into the game through his passes and moves.
It all ended well though, with Ogunbote and Ogunmodede going on to hug themselves and pat each other’s back at the end of the game.
At least for giving us something to behold both on and off the pitch, even though it was still something that could have turned the day ugly on another day.
