Bendel Insurance retains NPFL status after playing 1-1 with Kwara United
With a maximum of 15 points obtainable by teams in the league in the remaining matches this season, the bottom two teams cannot pick more points than the ones already picked by Insurance.
By Olusola Adebayo
Bendel Insurance has become the first team to be guaranteed a place in the Nigeria Premier Football League next season after notching their 27th point of the season with a 1-1 against Kwara United on Saturday.
The match day 13 of the NPFL was played at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Benin saw the home team rally back to play a 1-1 draw as Kwara United took the early in the second half.
Though Benin based are yet to win any of the games since the beginning of the second stanza that has done enough to secure points that will ensure they play in the league next season irrespective of what happens in the remaining five games of the regular season.
Bendel Insurance is on top of Group A with 27 points after winning 7 matches and drawing the remaining six out of the 13 played so far this season.
With a maximum of 15 points obtainable by teams in the league in the remaining matches this season, the bottom two teams cannot pick more points than the ones already picked by Insurance.
Nasarawa FC and Elkanemi Warriors are on 9 and 8 points respectively which means they can only finish with 24 and 23 points respectively if they win all their remaining matches.
Meanwhile, with the first of their target in the bag, Bendel Insurance needed 11 points to be guaranteed a place in the season-ending Super Six irrespective of the outcome of other rival matches in the league.
Bendel Insurance will continue their hunt for points in the league away to Remo Stars on Wednesday as both teams continue the mini rivalry between them.
Revenge will be on the mind of Remo Stars having lost the first leg to Bendel Insurance by 3-0 with the Ikenne-based team conceding their first set of goals of the season and inflicting upon them their first loss of the season having gone unbeaten in the first three matches of the season.
Bendel Insurance is taking the season by storm by staying unbeaten in the 13 games played so far this season, a rare feat from a team that got promoted from the lower division last season.
