Mid-season signing Danbani Alao bagged a brace on his Sunshine Stars debut as the Akure side edged new Southwest rivals Ikorodu City 4-3 in a frenetic Nigeria Premier Football League match-day 20 game at Ikenne on Saturday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Shola Adelani was also at the double for Ikorodu City, but it wasn’t enough for the newcomers to upset their hosts.
Under the tutelage of new coach Abubakar Bala, Sunshine Stars got off the blocks as quickly as possible in the game, with new signing Ahmadu Liman scoring the opener with an intended cross inside 16 minutes.
Four minutes later, Promise Awosanmi was in the right place at the right time to poke the second goal home after Ikorodu City’s goalkeeper James Faith parried Elma Arunta’s shot in his direction.
At the other end, Tosin Oyedokun and Toheeb Ajeigbe missed chances to half the deficit for the visitors and two soon became three for the hosts, courtesy of Alao who scored with his first touch in the 34th minute, just a few seconds after coming on for Arunta.
While it looked the the hosts were coasting home after the hour mark, Ikorodu City pulled one back before the break courtesy of Adelani.
Twenty minutes after the restart, Adelani had his brace with another goal to make the scoreline 3-2.
The visitors were still finding their way back into the game when Alao struck again in the 74th minute to restore Sunshine Stars two-goal cushion.
After Alao missed a chance to complete his hat-trick, Emmanuel Solomon pulled one back again for the visitors in stoppage time but there was no more time to complete the comeback as Sunshine Stars ran out the game 4-3.
In another match-day 20 game decided on Saturday, defending champions Rangers International suffered a 2-1 defeat at home against Niger Tornadoes with their striker Chidozie Okorie missing a penalty to level matters for the hosts.
In Umuahia, Sunday Megwo’s fifth minute goal was enough for Abia Warriors to secure a 1-0 win over Bayelsa United.