By Daily Sports Nigeria on June 3, 2023

At the beginning of every season in the Nigeria Professional Football League, there are usually favourites for the revered continental positions and the title, and there are also picks for relegation to the second division.

But the abridged 2022/23 season, which has just snowballed into the Super 6 playoffs — that begin on Saturday (today) — which will determine the ultimate winners, has come with some surprises, packages that no one would have expected during the protracted wait for the start of the season.

These surprise packages were boxed in two newly promoted teams Bendel Insurance of Benin and Doma United of Gombe, who defied the odds and took the league by storm to record unprecedented feats in the topflight as well as in their histories. The Benin Arsenal ended the 18-game regular season unbeaten and top of the table from start to finish, while the Savannah Tigers came within points of picking a Super 6 ticket, until their chances were blown by a match-day 18 defeat to Abia Warriors.

Bendel Insurance the ‘Invincibles’ 

As much as government clubs are naturally expected to thrive in the NPFL, that is also determined by how financially buoyant the state is, and that is one of the secrets of Bendel Insurance’s unbeaten run in the regular season.

As an NNL club, Insurance had set a standard by securing a partnership with a new generation bank and also capped the wages of  their players in tandem with their counterparts in the NPFL. With that in place, it was not surprising to see them gain promotion to the NPFL, winning the  second-tier title as well, last season.

Having featured in the abridged league in 2019, when they were relegated back to the NNL, Insurance’s fate was perfectly poised for struggle, as they found themselves in a tough Group A, which had the likes of Enyimba, Akwa United, Remo Stars, 3SC who won the pre-season tournament, Plateau United and even Kwara United.

To the surprise of everyone, their first game was a 2-0 away win over Akwa United in Uyo — a shock opening week result and that wasn’t the end of their surprise package in the league.

Five months after the win, the Benin Arsenal have proved doubters wrong by finishing the regular season unbeaten, an unprecedented achievement in the NPFL.

Also, they didn’t relinquish the top position in the group from match-day one to 18. They finished with 34 points from eight wins and 10 draws. The Benin Arsenal also conceded the least number of goals — 11 — while their long-serving goalkeeper and vice-captain, Amas Obasogie, kept eight clean sheets – the joint highest in the campaign.

“It wasn’t an easy season but we pulled through as a bunch. We have a wonderful coach and excellent backroom staff. The management was always there for us as well and the hard work everyone put in has paid off,” Obasogie told our correspondent.

“I believe our first game helped us so much, so we gained momentum instantly and kept the belief until the end.”

Aside from Obasogie, striker, Osarenkhoe Imade, a graduate of Petroleum Engineering from the University of Benin, emerged as one of the breakout stars of the season. At the end of the regular season, he was third on the scorers chart with eight goals and could add more during the Super 6.

Beyond the players, the technical crew headed by Monday Odigie did enough to sustain the intensity of the team. In every of their games watched by our correspondent, their tactics were characterised by picking their moments.

Even when their Super 6 spot was looking certain, Odigie wasn’t carried away.

“We will take every game as they come,” was his response anytime he was quizzed about their excellent run.

“The management most definitely is the foundation on which the players are building on. Also, the coaching crew have been awesome, they give the right tactical formation, they imbibe discipline in the team and make it like a family for everyone to feel at home. These are what we the players rode on to this stage,” defender Benjamin Tanimu told our correspondent.

From the onset, Insurance didn’t lack anything and even frequently made away trips by air – something most clubs have found difficult to start or sustain.

“When we started the season, the Edo Deputy Governor (Philip Shaibu) gave us a charge of getting a continental ticket. He didn’t only task the team, he also ensured that every necessary motivation, including salaries, bonuses and even kits were in place. Any away match that is over five hours, we travel by air and that helps to preserve the players,” former Senior Special Assistant to the Edo State Governor on Sports, Sixtus Omokhagbo, said.

In a league where most clubs care less about landmarks, Insurance didn’t take their foot off the gas, not even when they had qualified for the Super 6 with two games to spare. Their ambition continues in the Super 6 where the continental tickets and title is up for grabs. Perhaps, the Benin Arsenal can replicate the 2003/04 ‘Invincibles’ feat of English club, Arsenal, but they will have to battle it out against champions Rivers United, two-time African champions Enyimba, fierce rivals Remo Stars, Lobi Stars and Sunshine Stars in Lagos.

They battle Lobi in their Super 6 opener on Saturday (today) as they hope to end the season on a high note.

Doma United the trailblazers

For a league that 90 per cent of the clubs are owned by various state governments, the terrain is usually perceived unfavourable for private clubs to thrive, especially one like Doma, who are tasting Nigerian topflight football for the first time.

Established in 1994 as AS Monaco (named after the French club), the club featured prominently in the Gombe State league and other local competitions for years before metamorphosing into Doma in 2007. After many years in the third tier, they finally got a shot in the Nigeria National League in 2022, and in their first attempt in the second division, they gained promotion to the NPFL, despite still being a relatively unknown club with their little-known players.

Before the start of the season, there were rumours that the northeastern club was going to sell their NPFL slot to either Kano Pillars or Katsina United, who were both relegated in the previous season, suggesting that they weren’t prepared for life in the topflight.

“The week we got promotion from the NNL, some people started spreading rumours that we had entered negotiations with Pillars to sell our slot to them,” the club’s chairman, Sulaiman Umar, told our correspondent.

“In fact, most of our fans believed, so, I had to come out and calm them down by debunking the rumour. Before the start of the season too, when we were preparing for the NNL Super 4, we bought our new bus and another rumour came out that it was from the advance payment from Katsina United for our slot that we used to buy the bus.”

However, nothing about the rumours saw the light of the day as Pillars and Katsina embraced life in the lower division, while Doma also braced for life in the NPFL, being the second team from Gombe in the same season.

Their first game in the league was at home against Sunshine Stars at the Pantami Stadium, a perfect opportunity for their teeming fans to savour the feeling of the topflight, but the result wasn’t perfect. Striker, Charles Chibuike; whose striking semblance with Napoli and Super Eagles talisman, Victor Osimhen, had created a buzz going into the season, scored their first ever goal in the NPFL, but it was cancelled out by a late equaliser from Sunshine Stars’ Ibrahim Yusuf, ending the game 1-1.

“It was an exciting feeling to hold that record as the first player to score for Doma United in the NPFL. But it didn’t occur to me in that game because all we were after was the three points to mark our first ever game in the league,” Chibuike told our correspondent.

“Eventually the game ended 1-1 and it dawned on me later that I did something historic by scoring the goal. It’s a privilege and no matter where I go, it will always be in my head,” the striker said.

Their second match against Niger Tornadoes ended in a 1-0 defeat, but they held on and took every game as it came and went on to win two of their next four games with two away draws sandwiched between them. One of those victories was a 2-1 win over 2022 league champions, Rivers United, on match-day six.

The second stanza of the league was more significant for them. As at match-day 15, after two consecutive victories, they were already within the top three and needed just few points to solidify their place among the contenders for the continental tickets and the title.

In the heat of the moment, head coach, Akinade Onigbinde, who joined the Savannah Tigers after leading FRSC FC for 10 years, said there was no pressure on them to qualify.

No thanks to a goalless draw at home against Enugu Rangers on match-day 17 and the 2-0 defeat on match-day 18 against Abia Warriors, Doma missed the chance to qualify for the Super 6 playoffs. They ended up in fifth place in Group B with 26 points from 18 games.

But as a modest club, it was only natural to feel satisfied with retaining their NPFL status and also proving doubters wrong.

“Even though we lost the chance of qualifying for the Super 6 on the final day, in all it was a success because no one believed we could finish strongly. I would say there was no pressure, all we did was to take each game at a time and it helped us,” goalkeeper Kingdom Osayi said.

“Nobody gave us any chance. We were able to play and proved a lot of people wrong. I like taking challenges and I am looking forward to more in the next season,” club chairman, Umar, noted.

Umar is also looking forward to more engagements with potential partners of the club, with the hope that their outstanding debut season will pave the way for more opportunities and stability for the club.

Source Punch Ng

Posted June 3, 2023

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