The two Premier League clubs settled for a draw in Wednesday’s practice match at Agege Stadium
Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) clubs, MFM and Enyimba played out a 1-1 draw in a friendly game at Agege Stadium on Wednesday.
Joshua Akpudje scored an own-goal to give the People’s Elephant a 52nd-minute lead before Akanni Elijah cancelled the deficit with his 76th-minute equaliser.
The People’s Elephant in previous visits have always found the Olukoya Boys a hard nut to crack and it was the same in Wednesday’s outing.
The new MFM coach Tony Bolous named a decent side to face Usman Abd’Allah’s men with Kabiru Adeniji leading the attack alongside Clement Ogwu.
The hosts threatened on a number of occasions but failed to find a way through a closely-knitted Enyimba backline.
After failing in all their previous attempts, MFM came close to snatching the lead late in the first half but Ogwu’s free-kick was well dealt with by Enyimba goalkeeper Stanley Nwabili as the first period ended in a barren draw.
Expectedly, both managers made a handful of changes for the second half and it was MFM who started brighter after the break.
The Olukoya Boys almost broke the deadlock three minutes into the second half but Joshua Akpudje’s glancing header was cleared by former MFM FC player Austin Opara.
A few minutes after coming close to giving his side the lead, Akpudje was at the wrong end of the action when he turned the ball into his own net off a cross from another ex-MFM player, Stanley Okorom.
Despite finding themselves on the back foot, MFM continued to pile the pressure on the reigning NPFL champions and their persistence was finally rewarded with the 76th-minute equaliser by Elijah.
There were no more goals for either side as the entertaining tie ended 1-1
Interestingly, the last time Enyimba were at the Soccer Temple, they also settled for a similar scoreline having first taken the lead.
