Akwa Starlets Defeat Adamawa United To Emerge 2019 NNL Champions

Akwa Starlets Defeat Adamawa United To Emerge 2019 NNL Champions

…dedicate NNL title to Governor Udom Emmanuel

By Edidiong STEPHEN, Enugu

A slick Akwa Starlets side rounded off a historic season by crushing Adamawa United in the final of 2019 Nigeria National League Super-4 tournament played at Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, BSNSportscom.ng can report.

Starlets showed verve and extreme enthusiasm to dispatch their opponents in a 2-0 win to become the first Akwa Ibom State-owned football team to be crowned National Champions of Nigeria’s second division football.

The Dakkada Boys took the initiative in the thirtieth minute when a hapless United defender, Daniel Nawushi, turned a ruthless Adewale Mathias’ cross into his own net.

Starlets then reaffirmed their status as this season’s dominant force in the NNL with sumptuously irresistible football which kept the baying crowd on their feet throughout the lifespan of the memorable match.

Adamawa United were brutally punished in the seventieth minute when Utibe Arit rose highest to connect a header at the end of Moses Effiong’s pinpoint corner to head home the game’s second and his fifth of the season.

The comprehensive triumph was sealed at the blast of the referee’s whistle to signal full time and usher in Akwa Starlets into Nigeria’s football folklore.

Speaking shortly after the medals presentation, the Chairman of Akwa Starlets, Coach Aniedi Dickson, said “this maiden national trophy won by my team is dedicated to our dear Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel who has broken the football jinx of Akwa Ibom State”.

The NNL top prize brings to three, the number of national football trophies won by Akwa Ibom State teams during the tenure of Mr. Udom Emmanuel as Governor following Akwa United’s double Federation Cup successes in 2015 and 2017.

Starlets who won eight and lost two of ten matches in the regular NNL season before a 3-0 dispatch of Shooting Stars in the promotion play-off will be campaigning in the elite NPFL this season as one of four newly promoted teams alongside Adamawa United, Jigawa Golden Stars and Warri Wolves.