Good morning All,
Toward the final moments of Wednesday’s game, my mind was reaching for the unthinkable. Brown Ideye had stolen the show and he looked like he was about to do something extra special. A brace is something special, dont get me wrong – but I sat there and wondered if we were about to be treated to a hat-trick.
Well, he didn’t. The two goals he had scored decided the encounter and that was it. Infact Kwara United didn’t even seem interested in any kind of fightback. Ideye got his pound of flesh after the nasty gash he got at their place earlier in the season.
Back to my earlier thoughts. How concerning should it be that Enyimba players rarely score hattricks? In the last ten years, I think we have just had 2 hattricks. 1 in the League and 1 in the Champions League. Perhaps we can chat a bit on that today.
Chukwemeka Obioma was our most recent hattrick hero on May 7th 2023- 2 years ago. He fired 3 in the 5-0 pummeling of Gombe United. Of course he had a strong season that year topping proceedings with 15 goals.
Mbaoma was next – Chijioke, my favorite of the brothers. His hattrick however wasn’t while things truly mattered. The NPFL-Dozy Mmobuosi Foundation pre-season tournament. Haha. That counts right? Or no? I’m kidding. But aren’t we grasping at the straws trying to find hattricks for Enyimba?
The most significant and probably most important hattrick in recent past was Mfon Udoh’s against Étoile du Sahel in the Spring of 2016. He scored three goals in a 3-0 first-leg win in the CAF Champions League last 16 at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt. That healthy lead was decimated in the return fixture though, we could only go through via penalties.
Evidently, the League is quite competitive. And once in a blue moon, mother nature blesses us with a phenomenal player that takes the League by storm, otherwise most of the attackers are seemingly at the same level. This is easily typified by the win at home, lose away syndrome.
Enyimba, has a much tougher problem. Strikers bought at the club rarely deliver. I can quickly remember a Sibi Gwar who was signed to the club a year after lighting up the League with goals. He arrived at Enyimba and grew limp. Behind and after him are an array of players with similar diagnosis.
A few weeks ago, as we prepared to face Abia Warriors, someone highlighted how Warriors have 3 players on double digits this season: Enyimba has none. Infact, it would be a miracle to find one with double figures at the end of the season.
Perhaps it is a recruitment problem or an acclimatization thing. But as we can quickly testify, patience wears thin at Enyimba. Once we sent out Abdulrahman Bashir on loan to Nasarawa United as he wasn’t delivering as he ought following a lenghty injury. He arrives Lafia and the spirit of scoring goals possessed him.
Next game for us is against Nasarawa United who have a certain Anas Yusuf who leads the League with 17 goals so far this term. He has also notched up a hattrick this season. At 20, he doesnt look like he will come cheap, assuming we want to go for him- but let’s hope he’s advised rightly.
Even if we can’t get him, perhaps someone can sow a seed into his life, so we can recieve the grace to turn our strikers into goal machines too.
Back tomorrow
‘EnyimbaEnyi
