By Ekema Njoku M.
Two penalties and an own goal from FUSSA defender John Etongo with an 89-minute strike from Buea United’s defensive midfielder, Laintex Ngole, saw the Mountain Boys of Coach Emmanuel Agbor alias Alabas, and President Valery Kadji, narrowly triumph over the Academicians (FUSSA) of Coach Jacques Marcel Eboumbou, 3-2.
In Pool B’s early fixture of the day that saw Future Soccer Stars Academy (FUSSA) exchange football lessons with Buea United FC alias Mountain Boys at the Ngeme Stadium Annex, there was plenty of drama when as early as the seventh minute, Thomas Njie failed to capitalise on the error of FUSSA shot-stopper, Antoine.
Three minutes later, Bosten Mofa benefited from a well-taken pass from Zebedee Mukete to give the Mountain Boys an early lead. It looked like the Buea Boys were about to repeat the same score in the first leg but squandered so many chances and on 35minutes, FUSSA was awarded a penalty. John L. Etongo carefully converted to give the Limbe academicians an equalizer, this was the score that took both sides to the dressing room.
The Limbe side came into the second half circulating the ball from one angle of the pitch to another at the pleasure of the home supporters and the discomfort of the visiting fans clamouring for a second goal.
Fortunately for BU, Hubert Ewih, FUSSA’s skipper was shown the matching order for his second bookable offense on Thomas, leaving the home side with 10 players to continue running after the round object (ball) for more than 20-minutes of the game.
The visitors were rewarded at the 70th minute when Emerant Motutu’s cross was transformed to a goal by right back for FUSSA John Etongo.
Goalkeeper for Buea United, Oscar Bwese was called to duty at the 78th minute when he made an acrobatic save to keep the score at 2-1, little did he know one of his defenders will commit a bookable offense, handing a second penalty to the home side. Etongo stepped forward to remedy the damage he triggered with the own goal, and did just what was expected of him.
As minutes were dying to seconds, the Mountain boys squandered two clear scoring chances and there came Laintex Ngole with a stoppage-time long-range strike to save the day for Buea United FC.
Following the encounter, Coach Jacques Eboumbou of FUSSA remarked that “The children are very young, that is why you could see some of the errors they made, I am satisfied because the children played our style of football though our objective of grabbing the three points was not obtained. We are preparing a team to be the best in the Southwest in the nearest future.”
Coach Alabas of Buea United FC on his part said, “We met a difficult opponent today, they played so well. We thought it was over until this final minute when we got the winner and we give thanks to God for this victory.”
Results from other matches played in the SWRL
In Limbe
FUSSA 2-3 Buea United FC
ISOSHA 2-0 Ajax FC Likomba
Victoria United FC 1-1 Prisons FC Buea
In Buea
Continental FA 3-2 EEMSA
CUSA 2-0 Mt Cameroon FC
In Tiko
Tiko United FC 0-2 Best Stars Academy
It is worth noting that, Pool B that had been dominated by EEMSA of Tiko for a better part of the season now has a new leader. CUSA now tops the chart after humbling city rivals MT Cameroon FC 2-0.
Also, a total of 18goals were scored during the matches played for Day 9 in Pools A and B, Day 13 for pool C, three home victories, two away victories and a draw between two legendary clubs in the region.