By Ayo Bada
Remo Stars Football Club were knocked out of the 2016 Ogun State Football Association Cup by Almar FC via penalties.
The Ogun State Champions won’t be defending their title this year as the quarterfinal tie witnessed a goalless draw after 90 minutes and needed penalty shootout to decide the tie.
Couple of missed chances from the Sky Blue Stars saw Almar FC hold on to a barren first 45 minutes as they were setup not to concede and defend strongly.
The Amateur one side adopted the same pattern in the second half and had Sikiru Dauda to thank after he made a goal-line clearance from a goal bound strike from Ewelike Edozie. This kept them in the game and gave them the momentum to keep the scores at level terms by the end of 90 minutes.
The penalty shootout witnessed a twist, Ndukwe Chizoba made the first save of the shootout but Adekola Mahruf couldn’t capitalize as Almar FC goalie Ali Seun responded saving his penalty while Shiju Oshobe lost his spot kick afterwards to give Almar FC the opportunity to convert their kick and win the tie.
Captain Abiodun Awoyemi in a depressing tone expressed his disappointment with the team’s failure to progress describing it is as a bitter pill to swallow.
“It’s difficult to accept that we are out of the competition after the first game, we won this competition last year and we wanted to defend it once again and knowing this won’t make us play in the Federation Cup just makes everything hard to accept.
“We just have to let go, focus and prepare well for the only task ahead in the Nigeria National League and we have to reward ourselves with a better outing in the League.”
This defeat means Remo Stars Football Club will not be participating in the 2016 Federations Cup as the two finalists in the State Football Association Cup will be representing the state in the Federation Cup.
