By Femi Atolagbe
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It was harvest of red cards at the Ondo State Sports Complex  Akure as match day 8 duel  between  Sunshine Stars and Katsina United saw the central referee given three matching orders to players for unsportsmanlike behaviour on an opponent.

Owena whales subdued the hard fighting  Nine  man Katsina United by 2- 0 in the tensioned soaked match in Akure.

Sunshine Stars head coach , Kayode Julius  during a post match interview said his team will be approaching their matches one after the other as they come.

According to him, “we thank God and our teaming  fans across the state for winning this match against the Kanji boys , our next game against Insurance of Benin will be approached the way it comes , you know they came from pro league premiership , we are not going to take it easy with them”.

“We want to get our three points from them so that we can  consolidate our position on the league table, we still have two outstanding matches against Lobi Stars and Enugu  Rangers”.

He added further that , “if we could win our match against Insurance, it will serve as a motivation for us ahead of our next two outstanding matches”.

While the assistant coach of Katsina United Bishir Sadauki said, ” we have to go back to the drawing board to address some lapses noticed in the game ,adding that his boys got two red cards in the first half of the encounter due to their aggressiveness and harshness when they were not in the possession of the ball

“We will make sure we  work on them psychologically, if we are able to work on them to be  calm whenever they lost possessions  we won’t have any problem again .

“My  boys were able to held Sunshine for so long before they found the back of the net in the second half  was because we sometimes, during our  training session create this type of situation by giving red to other team and allowing them  to play with two men down or there about so when it happened in a match it won’t be  strange to us”, he said.

The goalless first half of the duel had seen two of the visitors sent off, before the midfield maestro, Dayo Ojo broke the deadlock midway in the second half before the  new season sensation, Fuad Ekelojuoti added the second goal for the home team  in added time.

The visitors were reduced to ten men in the early start of the game ,  following the sending off of Joshua Agboola for second bookable offence, while Tsawanya Samuel also got the marching order for an off field assault on Abe Sunday, few minutes later,

Katsina United however held their nerves for the remainder of the first half, as the game ended in 0-0  draw going  into the break .

On resumption of the second half, coach Kabiru Dogo made  two changes on his team, bringing on Franklin Sasere for Daniel Barnabas while fourteen year old sensation, Ayo Adejubu came on for Chibundu Amah for his NPFL debut.

Six minutes after the second stanza of the encounter  Dayo Ojo broke the deadlock with a thunderous  strike from outside the box , sending the arena into romp by finishing off a tee up by Sasere from an initial attack he was involved in.

The breakthrough sparked more urgency and Abe Sunday almost doubled the advantage, no thanks to the woodwork which denied the captain.

Dayo Ojo was again teed up by Franklin Sasere inside the area but his instep shot missed the target by centimetres.

Sunshine Stars also finished the game with 10 men after Seun Olulayo was given the marching orders in the closing stages of the game for unsportsmanlike  on an opponent.

In stoppage time, the man in the heart of Akure fans, Fuad Ekelojuoti took the game beyond the visitors with a tap home for Sunshine Stars’ second of the game and his forth of the season.

With two games at hand, the Akure based side now have 11 points from six matches, second behind MFM FC who lead with 15 points from seven matches.

Sunshine Stars will again file out on Thursday against newly promoted side, Bendel Insurance of Benin.