RANGERS, HEARTLAND REKINDLE RIVALRY

Heartland player, Olusesi Temitope in action.
Barely a week after Rangers hosted Enyimba at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, the Oriental derby returns to the Coal city this tomorrow as Heartland and Enugu Rangers rekindle their rivalry in the star match of Week 10 fixtures of the 2011/12 Nigeria Premier League season.

Heartland has yet to garner any point outside its domain in Imo State since the beginning of the current season save for Thursday's slim 1-0 defeat of struggling Kaduna United at the Gabros International Stadium in Nnewi in Anambra State, its newly adopted home ground following the indefinite ban on both Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri and the Sam Okwaraji Stadium in Orlu all in Imo State by the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) board for being television unfriendly.

Playing away from its traditional home ground in Owerri, Heartland has an uphill task against the Okey Emordi-tutored Flying Antelope that looks to extend its dominance of the Oriental derby after beating Enyimba 1-0 last weekend.

League Unlimited gathered that Heartland coach, Lodwijk de Kruif is growing grey hairs over the poor scoring form of his team. The Dutch tactician, we further learnt, has been sweating to address the problem. 'We're really working seriously to find solution to our goal scoring problem. In the past two weeks, the Technical Adviser has been working on the attackers and the entire team to make sure that we improve on that aspect. We want to win more trophies this season and the only way to achieve that is for us to score goals especially at away matches' Captain Chinedu Efugh told League Unlimited in an exclusive interview.

'I believe that in a short time, we would have perfected our goal scoring strategies and the results would start coming in' he added.

Meanwhile, Efugh has put to rest the issue of his alleged move to relinquish his captaincy on the excuse that the band was distracting him from concentrating on his game.

'We have since resolved the matter. I remain the captain of Heartland Football Club' he said.