Joint table toppers Plateau United and Lobi Stars have tough home ties to negotiate on Sunday as the 2019/20 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season enters MatchDay 14.
It will be a meeting of two former club bosses when first placed side Plateau United host Akwa United at the New Jos Stadium with Abdu Maikaba and Kennedy Boboye coming face-to-face. Both coaches were at opposite ends when Plateau won the league in 2017 with Boboye masterminding the Tin City side’s first ever league title.
Maikaba also won a piece of silverware that same season with Akwa United, leading them to a second Cup title in three years. Both coaches are doing pretty well in the opposite dugouts this season with Boboye having won all five matches since he replaced John Obuh at helms in Uyo.
Maikaba will be hoping that former Akwa United stars Michael Ibeh and Gabriel Wassa team up well with striker Ibrahim Mustapha to end Boboye’s 100% record with the Promise Keepers.
Lobi Stars moved joint top with Plateau after an away win at Adamawa United on Wednesday and will face MFM FC at the Aper Aku Stadium in Makurdi on Sunday. Lobi Stars are the only remaining side with 100% home record in the league this term and they face a side they have always beaten in Makurdi.
Rivers United are third on the log (though on same points with Plateau and Lobi), they face a tricky Southern derby at giant killers Dakkada FC in Uyo on Sunday. The Nest of Champions, venue of the game is where Rivers United suffered an excruciating defeat in the hands of Dakkada’s local rivals, Akwa United and Stanley Eguma’s men will be out to avoid a repeat.
There is the small matter of the baby Oriental Derby on Sunday too with Heartland hosting bogey side Abia Warriors at the Okigwe Stadium.
Heartland have never beaten Abia Warriors in the NPFL with the Naze Millionaires losing six out of their nine previous meetings including their last meeting in Okigwe last term. Fidelis Ilechukwu and his much changed squad will be hoping to rewrite history on Sunday.