The curtains were drawn on the Nigerian National League end-of-season Super 8 play-off with Niger Tornadoes defeating 3SC of Ibadan 3-2 in an entertaining final as both teams, as well as Gombe United and Remo Stars, all bagged promotion to the top-flight Nigerian Professional Football League.
Though they lost the final but 3SC players carted away all the individual honours as Gafar Olafimihan won topscorer as well as MVP of the play-off, while Charles Tambe was voted best goalkeeper.
In the final game played at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu on Sunday morning, Tornadoes drew first blood as early as the 9th minute through Shamsudeen Hashim but Gafaar Olafimihan restored parity in the 16th minute and both teams went into the break even.
On resumption, two quick goals by Tornadoes from Ahmadu Liman and Austine Bafan took the game beyond 3SC and though Raheem Quadry pulled one back in the dying minutes of the game, it was too little too late and the Niger state team ran away victors.
Both teams played the final having emerged winners of their respective groups during the play-off and they will be joined in the top-flight by Gombe United and Remo Stars, runners-up from their groups.
NNL SUPER 8 FINAL
- NNL Champions – Niger Tornadoes
- Top scorer – Gafar Olafimihan (3SC)
- Best Keeper – Charles Tambe (3SC)
- MVP- Gafar Olafimihan (3SC)
- NPFL promotion
- – Niger Tornadoes
- – 3SC
- – Remo Stars
- – Gombe Utd
ALL THE RESULTS
FINAL: Tornadoes 3-2 3SC
GROUP GAMES
A
- Tornadoes 0-0 Gombe Utd
- Elkanemi 3-0 DMD
- Elkanemi 0-2 Tornadoes
- Gombe Utd 1-0 DMD
- Gombe Utd 1-1 Elkanemi
- DMD 0-0 Tornadoes
B
- 3SC 6-0 Ekiti United
- Remo Stars 2-2 Insurance
- 3SC 1-1 Remo Stars
- Insurance 1-1 Ekiti United
- Insurance 1-2 3SC
- Remo Stars 3-0 Ekiti United
