2024 BOWFT: Fortress Ladies FC Succumbs to Heartland Queens FC in Matchday One
By Towncriernews
NWFL championship side, Fortress Ladies FC of Benin City on Monday at the Western boys High school, Ikpoba hill, Benin City Succumbed to Superior NWFL Premiership team, Heartland Queens FC of Owerri in the matchday one fixture of the group D in the Betsy Obaseki Women football tournament (BOWFT).
The game started with the Owerri girls applying dominant pressure forcing their opponents to concede a corner kick few seconds after kickoff. The kick was well taken but not well defended by Fortress Ladies FC who left Chimebere Opara unmarked, gifting her an easy tapping in opportunity to record the first goal in just the second minute of the game.
Few seconds later, the backline of Fortress Ladies FC still trying to recover from the shock, surrendered to the pressure from the attacking players of Heartland Queens FC, making a wrong pass and allowing Chizoba Johnson at the end of the lose ball. The striker had only the advancing goalkeeper to beat, which she did and then buried the ball into an empty net.
The pressure kept coming on Fortress Ladies but they were largely able to overcome it, soon, they starting creating chances on their own, with Gift Nduka and Favour Enodumwenben creating close chances. in the 37th minute, Becky Okitikpe was substituted by Joy Nwodo to bring some balance to the game.
Both teams continued to pile pressure on themselves until in the 75th minute where the referee erroneously awarded a goal which from all indications was supposed to be from a foul on the goalkeeper who was illegally and forcefully dispossessed off a ball which was already in her control. The final score was a 3-0 win by Heartland FC.
In an interview after the game, Coach Jimmy Aimuagbonrie reacted to the game by hailing his ladies for their performance and ability to overcome the pressure from heartland Queens FC and dominating later on after conceding two very early goals.
“It was a good match, and I’m happy my girls were able to stick to the plan in spite of what happened. This is a preseason tournament, so we’ve decided as a team that we are going to work on a new system of play which we want the team to stick to going forward and we’re happy to play against a strong team like heartland Queens to test the new system.”
“It was unfortunate that we conceded those two early goals as they were the factors that seemingly wrecked our ship. However, I’m happy that even with the mistake they were able to get themselves back and they were largely on top of the game but unfortunately we couldn’t take our chances. There is a big improvement from our previous performance especially that of the president federations cup in Akure.”
Fortress Ladies FC will next trade tackles with Benin Republic based Aigle Royal FC on Tuesday at the university of Benin sports complex by 4pm.
