A Spirited Akwa United suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to El-kanemi Warriors in Maiduguri on matchday 32 fixture of the Nigeria Professional Football League on Sunday.
Tchoanfine Pade's header in the 27th minute helped the Dessert Warriors to pick the maximum three points and maintained their unbeaten home record in the league this season.
The encounter began with Akwa United stamping authority and dominating play in the opening minutes of the game.
The Promise Keeper's early dominance seemed to have paid off in the 13th minute when striker Musa Newman put the ball in the back of the net only for his effort to be ruled out for an infringement on El-kanemi's defender.
Another attacking move by Ifeanyi Ifeanyi and Alhassan Ibrahim presented Newman with a one-on-one situation with George Micheal but the striker's shot rolled across the face of goal and went wide.
El-kanemi's first real chance of the match fell to Samuel Mathias whose long range strike was acrobatically tipped over the bar by Ishmaila Shagari in the 24th minute.
Tchoanfine Pade headed in the resultant corner kick from Alhaji Mohammed's cross to put the host in the lead as the North Eastern team ended the first half 1-0.
Akwa United continued their dominance in the second half with Ifeanyi, Alhassan and Aremu Afeez supplying Ubong Friday, Musa Newman and Cyril Olisema with sumptuous passes but the forwards failed to take advantage of the chances after the host were outplayed in greater part of the game.
Coach Maikaba introduced Hassan Babangida and Edem Akakatang to replace Cyril Olisema and Alhassan Ibrahim but the two forwards did little to change the scoreline as the hosts held on to claim victory.
Despite the defeat, Akwa United remained in third place on the log with 51 points from 32 matches while El-kanemi Warriors moved up to 5th position with 47 points from the same number of matches.
The 2015 Federation Cup Champions will continue their quest for a second away win of the season when they embark on a trip this weekend to Akure to face Sunshine Stars on matchday 33.
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