It’s Independence Day in Nigeria. I know not a lot of people want to hear ‘Happy Independence Day’ but I will say it anyway despite the austere times we face in the country. Well let’s leave that outside our normal Enyimba conversation and get down to brass tacks.

Yesterday (Monday), I woke up pretty knackered. That’s the reason this is coming on a Tuesday, two days after Enyimba’s defeat in Port Harcourt. Oh no! It has nothing to do with Enyimba’s defeat to Rivers United over the weekend actually but when you are 100 per cent, or should I say 110 per cent, involved in a league, working behind the scenes be sure your weekends are almost as good as gone. Now lets talk about Enyimba’s first defeat of the season in all competitions to Rivers United.

I have decided to dig back in time about previous Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) meetings between the two sides especially in Port Harcourt, and then juxtapose it with what happened on Sunday when Rivers United claimed a 2-0 win over the People’s Elephant. First, let’s begin with the question of asking when Enyimba last avoided defeat in Port Harcourt, home of Rivers United. It has been 2,439 calendar days (that is six years, eight months and four days) since Enyimba last avoided defeat in Port Harcourt when they got a 1-1 draw despite finishing that game a man light after Chinonso Okonkwo was sent off eight minutes to the end.

Now to make it worse. People’s Elephant have also not scored against Rivers United in Port Harcourt in six-and-a-half matches (that is 585 minutes of football). The last player to score for Enyimba in Port Harcourt was Stanley Dimgba from the spot in that 1-1 draw on January 28, 2018. It gets interesting with the stats from previous meetings between Rivers United and Enyimba in Port Harcourt. Enyimba is yet to beat Rivers United since the club was merged from Dolphins FC and Sharks FC in 2016. In nine head-to-head NPFL meetings in Port Harcourt, Enyimba managed to earn just a draw (D1 L8). Quite abysmal, you’d say.

However, when Rivers United, previously took part in the NPFL as Dolphins FC, the People’s Elephant had their number. In four seasons on the bounce before Rivers United was carved out of Dolphins FC, Enyimba were unbeaten (W1 D3). In fact between 2003 and 2015 preceding the Rivers United years, Enyimba lost just twice at their opponents’ home ground in 10 matches (W2 D6 L2). When overall results are looked during that period, Enyimba’s dominance over the Rivers club was staggering in their 20 NPFL meetings (W10 D7 L3).

Somehow all of that dominance, pre-Rivers United era has changed. I am sure, Enyimba faithful will find it hard to swallow the fact that their club have now managed just one win in all previous nine NPFL meetings with Rivers United (W1 D2 L6) including Sunday’s defeat. Now this is the reality for Enyimba, as Rivers United have become their bogey side in the NPFL.

Unfortunately, things did not change on Sunday. Yes, there was high hope that Yemi Olanrewaju and his boys would hold their own especially coming up against his former boss, Finidi George in the master versus apprentice rivalry. From the stats of Sunday’s match, it sure looked like a tight contest except that the People’s Elephant had more goal attempts (11) and only managed two on target. I am sure you will wonder how many goal attempts they will need in such big games to score. Anyway I feel it was a bad day in the office for Yema and his boys.

STATS
Rivers United 2-0 Enyimba
Possession 55%-45%
Shots (on target) 5(2)-11(2)
Corners 3-3
Yellow cards 1-1
Red cards 0-0

Two moments of laxity in defence meant Enyimba paid the price. First, there was a lot of ball-watching between the Enyimba midfield and defence for Rivers United’s first goal by Ubong Friday which allowed Taofeek Otaniyi to lob the ball over the top of the defence. Secondly, there was an extremely poor corner paved room for a counter-attack that saw Rivers United schoolboys, Benjamin David and Seiyefa Jackson, using their pace to good effect before the latter scored the Rivers club’s second goal of the game. I am sure schoolboys combining to score against one’s team would leave you with some kind of disorder in the stomach.

Anyway, that loss is not the end of the season for Enyimba as they still have so much to play for this season. It will only give the team a chance to review and make amends especially with another fixture in the offing this midweek in Aba against another South-south club in Akwa United and then another home game against Katsina United on Sunday.