A sudden splash of rain that lasted for an hour and was jocularly tagged ‘Showers of Blessing’ on Sunday night welcomed competing clubs and stakeholders to this year’s Super-4 competition of the second-tier Nigerian National League (NNL) taking place in Ikenne, Ogun State.
Sports247 reports that the mild downpour, which started around 7pm, appeared to delay itself until the right moment, as it came just after Doma United of Gombe’s training session, with darkness already taking over the sky.
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Incidentally, Doma United’s training session was ‘spied on’ by some officials of Ranchers Bees of Kaduna, who decided to peep on their northern neighbours through the wired fence a few minutes after completing pre-match formalities for the start of action on Monday.
The Bees’ officials, though, were not early enough to catch the training session of their MatchDay 1 opponents, Sporting Lagos, who were the first of the four competing teams to turn up for training – which one of their fans said indicates they will finish top of the log.
Ironically, Inter Lagos FC did not turn up at Ikenne on Sunday, as they travelled past and went straight to the more expansive Ijebu-Ode for their lodgings – which means they will need to make a trip of over 30 minutes drive to Ikenne on each match day, starting against Doma United on Monday.
Dramatically, Inter Lagos and Doma United inadvertently set up their camps at the same hotel in Ijebu-Ode, which an official of the south-west outfit described as ‘a rare union of coincidence made possible through the spirit of sportsmanship.’
It’s left to be seen if that spirit will be exhibited on the field of play when Inter Lagos face Doma United in Monday’s second game, after Sporting Lagos settle scores in the competition’s opening encounter at 1pm.
Sports247 gathered further that another coincidence of this year’s NNL Super-4 will see the competition end with two derbies on Friday, as the two northern outfits – Ranchers Bees and Doma United – will first lock horns, following which Sporting face Inter in a mouth-watering all-Lagos cracker.
Before then, heading into Monday’s kick-off – and for each of the three match days – there will be so much to play for, as N10 is waiting in the NNL’s account and will be handed over to the winning team on Friday.
