By Victor Okoye
Abuja, Feb. 2, 2025 Mahanaim FC kicked-off year 2025 with a victory over Greenlock FC on Saturday, at the Bwari Township Stadium. Goals from Aliyu Imran and Nambou Roman were enough to secure victory for the boys in our first match of the year.
Both teams hadn’t met since 2023 when we cruised to a 2-nil win over them.
That result set the tone for our match on Saturday, with our opponents hoping to get one over us this time.
Our Coaches, Saheed Jimoh and Jackson Mbuk had set up a line up which had a blend of young players and the experienced ones, including Haruna Abdullahi, who also got a goal the last time we played GreenLock.
After the opening exchange in first few minutes, Haruna bursted through the middle into the opponents 18-yards, dribbling his way past three players before setting up Aliyu Imran who finished the move with a goal from close range.
The game became very close from that point onwards with only the goal separating the teams.
After the break, the match became more open as we pushed forward searching for the second goal.
GreenLock FC came close a couple of times before finding an equaliser through a low free- kick from Samuel Daniel, that went past our Goal-Keeper, David Adolphus.
Barely two minutes after the equaliser, Haruna Abdullahi once again conjured a magical pass that found Nambou Roman who had replaced Aliyu Imran in the attack.
Roman’s well timed run was complemented by Haruna’s defence spliting pass.
Roman lobbed the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper into the net, to restore our lead.
GreenLock FC fought fiercely to find an equaliser but our defence line which had Nura Yahaya, Jesse Mokele, Salisu Hamisu and Marcus Haruna stood firm with the help of the midfielders, Daniel Egwuatu and Ikoh Danjuma, as we gained another victory over GreenLock FC in our first match of 2025.
