By John Egbokhan

Sunshine Stars will need to dig deep to overcome their poor away form when they travel to play Wikki Tourist in tomorrow’s week 25 game at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium in Bauchi.

Despite their status as the mid-term champions and being on top of the table for most part of the season, Sunshine Stars’ major undoing has been their poor away form, which has seen them concede their leadership position to Enyimba, who have 48 points, as against 46 for the Akure Gunners, who however have a better goals advantage of +21 as against Enyimba’s +13.

Sunshine are by far the best attacking side in the 25-week old 2015 Glo league season, netting 41 goals, five more than their closest rivals in terms of goals scored, Warri Wolves, and a further seven goals more than their fiercest rivals for the league shield, Enyimba.

Coach Kennedy Boboye’s Sunshine Stars have simply gone goals crazy, lately, scoring nine amazing goals in three matches, to signal their resolution to give the title chase all their striking might, should they be tied with Enyimba on the final day of the season, leaving goals difference to decide the winners and losers.

Just last weekend, they took their imperious to an all-time high, demolishing El Kanemi Warriors 5-0. This came a week after they roasted Giwa FC 4-0 at their Akure Township stadium.

Despite these eye-popping results, Sunshine Stars have been very far from convincing when playing away from their comfort zone, losing to relatively weaker oppositions, which their tough rivals Enyimba have gotten results from.

The evidence of things in the last one month is that Sunshine lost 1-0 at Taraba on August 8, were held to a barren draw by Ifeanyi Uba on August 10 and followed that with a 1-0 away loss to Dolphins on August 19.

And as they travel to Bauchi to face one of the form teams this season, Wikki Tourist, fans of the Akure Gunners are fearing that their poor away form that has accounted for their seven losses this season may well be their undoing.

Wikki Tourist have 41 points to stay in the fourth spot on the table, seven points adrift of

“Our away form has been to say the least very poor. We have been solid at home but sorry away, which makes one to think that we may not be able to win the league is the trend continues”, said Shamsideen Taiwo, who touts himself as one of Sunshine Stars’ patriotic fan.
Indeed, Wikki have been one of the stand-out teams this term, winning 11 games, drawing eight and losing six times to stay in touch with the top three, Enyimba, Sunshine Stars and Warri Wolves.

With a shoe-string budget to work with, Coach Abdul Maikaba has been working wonders at Wikki, who have been within the top-five bracket for more than three months now, thereby increasing their chances of getting one over Sunshine Stars at the 25,000 capacity Tafawa Balewa Stadium in Bauchi.