NPFL: Three horse-shoe race ends the season

With two matches to be played and a couple of rescheduled games before the 2015/16 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season ends, a three horse-shoe race is heating up, while relegation threatened teams battle to escape drop.

Between Rivers United, currently on top the table with 56 points, Enugu Rangers with 54 points and IfeanyiUbah with 53 points, a winner is expected to emerge.

Defending champions, Enyimba, and relegation threatened Heartland are involved in one of the rescheduled matches from mid-week.

The Aba Elephants will be at bottom club Ikorodu United tomorrow, while the match between El Kanemi Warriors and Heartland in Maiduguri will be staged on Thursday.

The El Kanemi vs Heartland fixture was originally slated for last weekend, but a mix-up in the flight booking for Heartland to fly to Maiduguri meant it was shifted to today.

However, the Sallah holidays yesterday and today have now moved this fixture to Thursday.

Heartland are seriously battling against relegation for the first time in their history.

The Naze Millionaires are 18th on the table with 37 points from 32 matches.

Meanwhile, despite losing their last two matches, Wikki Tourists have not given up on winning the Nigeria league according to midfielder Charles Henlon.

Wikki lost to Enyimba 2-1 in a rescheduled game last midweek, before they lost by the same scoreline to Nasarawa United last Saturday. They are fourth on the table with 51 points, five points behind new leaders Rivers United.

“All hopes are not lost as we still have three matches to go, hopefully we can get positive results from these matches. Personally, the league is still open to five clubs,” maintained Henlon, who is on loan from Giwa FC.

“We didn’t deserve to lose any of the two games, at least a point against Enyimba and in the match against Nasarawa United, we ought to have picked up the three points as at 82 minutes, we are still leading by lone goal they came from behind and won the match.

“We lost concentration at the tail end of the match.”

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