The pride of Imo, Heartland FC played their best football since the start of the play-off in Asaba to bulldoze their way into the final of the NNL Super 8, against several odds.
Playing against Giant killers and surprise team of the play-off Sporting Lagos, the Naze Millionaires were playing two games in one. They were playing a team on a high in Sporting and they were also playing against another side praying for their downfall in Stormers of Abeokuta who were ready to capitalize on their misfortune to make a stake for the premier.
It couldn’t have gotten any worse with Kalu Chukwuemeka scoring a worldie in the 14th minute. The goal, an unexpected curler from the left side of the edge of the 18 yard box off a seemingly harmless exchange of passes was not only something out of nothing but that which caught the whole stadium completely offguard with even the staunchest of Supporters asking, “the ball enter net”?
Still undefined and unanswered, no one who watched the game was able to offer any reasonable response to the source of energy with which Heartland FC came back from the dead to record a 2-1 victory over Sporting Lagos at the end of 90 minutes.
An epic feat of gigantic proportion, Heartland FC of Owerri found their way into the NNL from the Super 8 play-off. All bets went off, Stormers did everything humanly possible to be in the final 4, a 4-0 hammering from modern luck, but too little, too late.
