Flying Eagles Humble Jamba Academy In Friendly

Kaduna base Jamba Academy fell flat to the Flying Eagles in a friendly played at the Ahmadu Bello stadium in Kaduna.

The Manu Garba led team won the practice match with a 4-1 goal margin but the goal rush didn't start early as series of misses were recorded within the first seven minutes but Wasiu Jimoh's well taken set piece made the difference in the eighth minute.

Israel Emmanuel aka ‘Ronaldo’, Billy Auta, Mustapha Abdullahi and
Ifeanyi Matthew all had chances to score for the Flying Eagles, but they failed to put them away.

And it was not until the 55th minute that they doubled their advantage through ‘Ronaldo’, who fired home from inside the box.

Jamba, who impressed with Peter Bala imposing himself in midfield with his well-measured long balls, deservedly pulled a goal back in the 85th minute through Mathias Kato.

Kato collected a pass from Bala before he fired beyond the diving goalkeeper Dele Alampasu.

Ifeanyi Matthew then put the Flying Eagles 3-1 ahead in the 93rd minute from the penalty spot after Tsafa Terpase Barnabas was brought down inside the box.

Two minutes later, goal scorer Kato turned to zero when he was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on Wasiu Jimoh.

Matthew scored again from the penalty spot in the dying minutes of the encounter when substitute Chisom Eze was brought down inside the box.

Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba said he was satisfied with the many chances his team created against a good Jamba side, but would blame match rustiness with his team’s poor finishing.

“We created many chances to score, but we failed to take most of them,” Manu said.

“Probably the problem may be that we have been on break for over three months and so many of these players are now match rusty.

“But in a proper game we may not create as many such chances and so the more reason why we must take most of our chances now.”

Manu also saluted Jamba Academy, but said some of the new call-ups have to do much more to stay on the squad.

“Jamba are not a bad team from what they showed against us, but all the new players who played today for us have to do much more to get into this team because they are not close to the players we already know,” he said.

Academy owner Jamba Zira said he was proud of his team’s display against a national team.

“My boys gave a good account of themselves and even scored the best goal of the entire match,” he remarked. "We can only learn from this experience.”

The Flying Eagles will play a second test game against Standard FC of Zaria on Saturday morning at the same venue.