By Godwin Wambebe, Lokoja.
The Nigeria Women Football League Match day 13 between Confluence Queens Fc of Lokoja and fellow North Central Neighbours Nasarawa Amazons Of Lafia played on Wednesday at the Confluence Stadium Lokoja has ended in a stalemate.
The New Direction ladies, Confluence Queens had came into the Week 13 encounter on the back of a 2-1 away win over Abia Angel in Umuahia needing a win or draw to seal their Nigeria women football League Super 6 Slot.
Their Opponents who were drawn bye in the previous week also desperately needs an outright win to keep their quest to the Season ending Super 6 alive.
Both sides started out the afternoon a bit slow but picked up almost immediately when it became obvious that they needed to step up their game of they want to make a difference. But despite the different tricks employed aimed at making the difference, nothing spectacular happened until the break.
Both side picked up from where they left off immediately the centre referee signalled the commencement of hostilities in the second half with the home side getting quite an appreciable percentage of chances to go ahead but no matter how hard they tried, their effort and quest to score just failed to yield anything meaningful.
The Visitors were also gifted many scoring opportunities but Jennifer Oliver was always in the heart of the Confluence Queens Fc defence to deny them passage with Nigeria Women U-17 goalkeeper to the last U-17 Women’s World Cup in India Linda Jiwauku standing solidly in-between the sticks to make sure no heartbreak comes to her team.
Coach Whyte Ogbomda hurriedly made some changes to add more firepower which proved to be absolutely effective as the introduction of Osigwe who Combined well upfront with Merit Offor piled more pressure on Their North-Central Neighbors.
At the end of an interesting and keenly contested game, both side left the Confluence Stadium complex sharing the spoils which automatically takes Confluence Queens Fc of Lokoja straight to the season ending Nigeria Women Football League Super 6.
Assistant Coach of Confluence Queens, Coach Esther Micheal who Spoke to Sport Writers after the game thanked God Almighty for the Super 6 ticket and also showered encomium on the players whom she said played their hearts out because of what’s at stake.She however promised their teeming fans and supporters that their presence in Delta State for the Super 6 is not to add to the numbers but to compete favourably and competitively.
Captain of the side Amarachi Okoronkwo who Incidentally joined the team from Nasarawa Amazons mid-season while fielding questions after the match said it has been God almighty all through because nobody gave the team the chance to come this far after starting the season poorly but they picked up their pieces and gave the contest their all which gave them what they are celebrating today.
Despite having one last match to round up the 2022/2023 Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Confluence Queens have secured their passage to NWFL super 6 which is slated for Delta State later in the year.
