By Timothy Nwobodo

The 2023 annual football match between ESUT Administrators (Non-Teaching Staff) and ESUT Academics (Teaching Staff) ended with a 4-0 thrashing of the Academics by the Administrators in a very entertaining match played at the ESUT temporary pitch, Agbani, Enugu State on Wednesday, November 15.

The match started with the Administrators looking hungrier and determined to make a statement. Not long after, their determination and resilience was rewarded as a strike within 18 yards from Onyedika (Raul) ended at the back of the net. All attempt by the Academics to draw level before the break proved abortive as the organization and work rate of the administrators saw them go to the half time break with a 1-0 lead.

Heading into the second half, it took the Administrators only 10 minutes to add to their lead as a well-timed run saw Ogbonna Emmanuel beat the offside trap and put one past the goalkeeper. Shortly after, Ogbonna thought he had scored a brace as he tapped in a cross from the far post but the offside flag was raised against him.

The Academics seemed to be gaining momentum, growing into the game but were hit with another shocker as Ekwunife Uche (Paleychenko) riffled one in from 25 yards making it 3-0.

The 4th goal came as Onyedika (Raul) made a darting run from midfield to beat the offside trap and sat the keeper down before passing the ball to the empty net as he scored a brace.

Speaking to ESUT Monitor, the Captain of the non-teaching staff, Ikechukwu Odu expressed gratitude to his team on the victory, “It is a thing of joy because we worked hard for it and our effort paid off, last year we played better but we lost by a lone goal, courtesy of an error from our goalkeeper, but today we said the mistake of the past will not repeat itself, so we are happy that we are victorious and our efforts paid off.”

He also emphasized how hard they had to work in order to emerge triumphant in the game. “We trained very hard. In fact, during our last training, so many of our players complained about muscle strain because we actually stretched ourselves just to make sure we attained the required fitness and you could see what played out today, there was co-operation, there was team-spirit, there was team-play.”

Mr Ikechukwu also enjoined the University management to pay more attention to the sporting life of the staff of the University, “I want to call on the University Management to improve on the sporting life of the staff in ESUT, so that we can shake-off stress. Everything shouldn’t be civil service routine, once in a while let’s have Inter-Faculty staff competition, this will help us to bond together and also increase our fitness because what reading is to the mind, football is to the body.” he said.

The tournament was part of activities to mark the 19th Convocation Ceremonies of the University which held on Saturday, November 18, 2023