NPFL: Coach Ikhenoba Believes Bendel Insurance Will Get Better

‎The Head Coach of Bendel Insurance Football club, Greg Ikhenoba, has expressed confidence in the ability of his new look team to compete favourably as the 2025/2026 the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season progresses .

‎The football tactician gave the assurance during the post match media conference, following Bendel Insurance FC 1-1 draw with Shooting Stars in the NPFL Match- day two encounter at the Samuel Ogbermudia stadium.‎

‎The  Benin Arsenals lost their first match of the season 2-0 to Elkanemi Warriors in far away Maiduguri penultimate Sunday.

‎Coach Greg Ikhenoba who appealed to management of the Benin Arsenals and fans to be patient and have faith in the team, assured that his team will definitely work on the deficiency noticed  already in order to get it right.

‎He however rued missed chances as he blamed lack of goals on his strikers he said were too in a hurry to get equalizer and winning.

‎” Every coach has his or her philosophy and game plans but sometimes it doesn’t go as planned and that doesn’t mean the team is bad.

‎We created a lot of scoring chances that our strikers missed. Our strikers were in a hurry to score and ended up throwing away the chances. We will continue to work on the areas we have issues and I am confident we will get it fixed and goals will start coming.

‎” Yes,two matches are gone, we have only one point and one goal out of supposedly six points but that is not enough to right my team off. One point out of six in the first two matches is not the end of the league and will not translate to how we end the league. The league is very fresh,I am confident we will get the job done.

‎The match day two encounter began at the famous Samuel Ogbermudia stadium on Saturday afternoon with the visiting Shooting Stars getting the lead five minutes into the game through Ayodele Ismail.

‎The early goal no doubt put the host under pressure and as well raised the tempo of the game.

‎Alex Oweilayefa scored NPFL debut goal and equalizer for Insurance in the 13th minute of play with a classy header.

‎The second half of the game did not produce any goal despite the changes and tactical switch made by the Benin Arsenals coach as the coach Nurudeen Aweroro led Shooting Stars who lost their first match at home 1-0 to visiting Bayelsa United defended their early goal to  end the game in a 1-1 stalemate.

‎Bendel Insurance FC  will be on the road to Kano to face newcomers Barau FC in the match day three next weekend.

RESULTS 

NPFL

W’Wolves 2-0 Rangers

Bayelsa  2-0 Barau FC

Enyimba 1-0 N’Tornadoes

K’Pillars 1-1 Wikki Tourists

Plateau 1-2 Katsina Utd

Rivers Utd 1-0 Kwara Utd

Nasarawa 1-0 Abia Warriors

Ikorodu City 0-0 El-Kanemi 

B’Insurance 1-1 Shooting

Premier League

Brighton 2-1 Man City

N’Forest 0-3 West Ham

Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal 

Aston Villa 0-3 Cry’Palace 

Serie A

Genoa 0-1 Juventus 

Torino 0-0 Fiorentina 

Lazio 4-0 Verona

Inter 1-2 Udinese