Rangers International of Enugu yesterday regained leadership of the Nigeria Premier League after a 2-0 home win over Kwara United at the Nanmdi Azikwe stadium in Enugu.

‘The Flying Antelopes’ have now recorded 52 points, a point more than second-placed Kano Pillars, who forced a 1-1 draw at Heartland, to regain leadership of the championship with six rounds of matches to be played.

Rangers, who are in quest to end over 28 years without a major piece of silverware, opened scoring in the 40th minute through fullback Haliru Umar, who tucked away a rebound from a penalty taken by skipper James Okwuosa.

Former Rangers hard man Okechukwu Odita was penalised for fouling Emeka Eze inside the vital area, Okwuosa took the resulting spot kick but it came off the cross bar only for the lurking Umar to put away.

Kwara protested the penalty and even walked off the pitch before they returned to the pitch.
Rangers doubled their advantage on 57 minutes when Nnamdi Anyasodo connected a cross by Nigeria international Ejike Uzoenyi.

The first half was played under pouring rain and it witnessed countless stoppages as Kwara players easily fell down to the disappointment of Rangers officials and fans.

Kwara were expected to offer some stiff resistance to Rangers in this encounter after they were paid their full sign-on fees by the club management headed by Bamidele Aluko.

They made some incursions into the Rangers goal area but were denied by both Umar and Okwuosa, while at the end of the pitch, former Nigeria U20 goalkeeper Kazeem Yekeen pulled off a couple of saves to ensure his team did not go down by a bigger score.