By Ime Bassey
A scintillating eighteen-yard shot in the 64th minute by Bode Daniel gave Crown FC of Ogbomosho a deserved equaliser and a point against Kano Pillars in the second encounter of the Round of 16 Group matches of the Federation Cup holding at the Agege Township Stadium in Lagos yesterday.

Kano Pillars had gone ahead in the 43rd minute through Rabiu Ali from a free-kick spot close to the eighteen yard box sending the entire Kano Pillars fans to seventh heaven.

Pillars striker, Gambo Mohammed would have doubled the lead for the title chasing Nigerian Premier League side in the second half when he missed a close range shot allowing the pendulum to swing in favour of Crown FC who dominated the game mid way into the second half and got their equaliser but could not clinch the winner.

Speaking to newsmen at the post match conference, Crown FC goal scorer, Bode Daniel was very elated getting the equalizer for the struggling Oyo team.

“I am happy getting the equaliser today, it shows that we are a team but needs improvement. We played better today because we were committed to getting something for our State, fans and family as well.

“We will give El Kanemi a good fight because we believe we can qualify from the group. I want to thank the Oyo State Sports Commissioner, Dapo Lam Adeshina for his motivation and we promise we will not fail him and the entire State,” Daniel said.

El Kanemi seats on top of Group B (Lagos center) with 3 points, followed by Crown Fc and Kano Pillars with a point each while Kwara United are placed bottom of the log with no point.

Proceeding returns to the Agege Stadium on Wednesday as Kano Pillars entertains Kwara United at 2pm while Crown FC slug it out with El Kanemi Warriors by 4pm.

Results from other centres
Ibadan Centre
Rangers 0 Prime 1,
Dynamite 1 Sharks 1.

Port Harcourt Centre.
Heartland 1 Plateau Utd 0,
Gombe Utd 0 Nasarawa Utd 0.

Wednesday Matches across the various centers

GROUP A (Buachi Centre)
Enyimba vs Samba by 4pm

GROUP B (Lagos Centre)
Kano Pillars vs Kwara Utd by 2pm;
El-Kanemi vs Crown FC by 4pm;

GROUP C (Ibadan centre)
Prime vs Dynamite by 2pm;
Sharks vs Rangers by 4pm.

GROUP D (Port Harcourt Centre)
Heartland vs Nassarawa by 1pm;
Gombe vs Plateau by 3pm;

There are only 3 teams in Group A. First match is between Lobi vs Samba on Tuesday 17th July 2012 by 4pm.