For the second time in the league, stand in Captain, Somairi Alalibo’s strike earned victory for the People’s Elephant at the Enyimba Int’l Stadium, Aba.
A late minute effort from the centre back who profited from a throw-in as he forayed upfront to give the defending champions all three points to truncate the league leaders, Lobi Stars away win plan.
The goal which is his second in the league ensured that the 9 time Champions moved away from the drop zone on the log to 16th position with 10 points from 7 games out of 9.
Reacting after the very tough encounter, Somairi said he told his centre back pair, Paschal Eze he was going to score and that he believed.
“Am glad the victory fell on me, it was a very difficult game for us but I thank God we won the match.
“Before the throw-in as we joined the attack, I told Paschal that I was going to score and he said that he believed, so the moment the player threw the ball and I saw the flight I knew I was going to score from it.
“For our outstanding games, we will just take each game as they come and am confident we will get the desired results.
In his assessment, Coach Yemi Olarewaju said they actually expected to get a tough game from the league leaders but that he was optimistic of getting a positive result at the end.
“Yeah, we already prepared for this, you know Lobi are on top of the log, their confidence is high and they are a decent side. We knew initially it was going to be a tough game but like I said, we are Enyimba, we don’t give up and i told the guys we need maximum points.
“I really commend the guys, we travelled for 5 days on the road coming back to play a very tough side and fought till the very end.
“We know we are struggling to score goals but that’s the problem generally in the league, everyone is struggling to score goals. Although we are not happy with the missed chances but we have to continue working on these chances and as you can see, we dominate most of our game especially at home and I believe the goals will come soon, the captain scored for us today.
“The position we are on the log is comes with it’s pressure but we haven’t played badly considering this is a new team with young players so I have to appeal with the fans to be patience with us cause we are confident the team will certainly emerge as a strong force.
“For Insurance on Wednesday, we equally expect same tough opposition as we saw against Lobi and we will continue to take these games as they come with confidence of earning the vital points.