Crown 'outKlas' Sporting Lagos to bounce back to winning ways

Lagos-based Sporting Lagos earned a first defeat of the season in the NNL following a bad day at the office on Sunday.

The Tech boys suffered a first loss of the season after going down 2-1 to visitors Crown FC from Ogbomosho at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena.

Sporting Lagos dominated the encounter and created more and better chances but failed to make them count while Crown scored the goals in either half to seal their first win of the NNL season.

After a brilliant away win against Smart City the previous weekend to kick off the 2023 campaign in the best way, Sporting Lagos came into the game vs Crown in a confident mood.

It was their first home game of the NNL season and Sporting was looking to impress their fans who came out in their numbers to cheer them on.

However, while the home side started proceedings on the front foot, it was the visitors Crown FC who broke the deadlock just before the break through a well-struck header by Oke Kayode.

In the second half, the home side came out blazing hot in search of the equaliser, pegging their opponents back in their half.

With 17 minutes left to play, in what was their first real chance in the second half, the Ogbomosho boys doubled their advantage in style to put the game to bed.

A beautiful team move from the right paved the way for a Babatunde Damilare cross into the Sporting Lagos box where it met Stephen Eneji, who made no mistakes with a bicycle kick to make it 2-0.

Sporting Lagos pulled one back a moment later through Vincent, who drilled an outstanding free kick into the top right corner to reduce the deficit.

However, despite Vincent’s second free kick of the season pushing them on to look for the second goal, it remained elusive as Crown held on for the win.

It was the first win of the season for Crown, who opened their campaign with a defeat last time out at home.

For Sporting Lagos, it is back to the drawing board after creating enough chances to score at least two goals on the day but paid the price for their wastefulness.