By John Egbokhan

After unceremoniously falling off the top four on the table, Sunshine Stars of Akure are back in the top two and now seriously contending for the title against leaders Enyimba.

The Coach Kennedy Boboye-tinkered Sunshine side had for the most part of the season looked like the runway champions of the league, having been on top for most part of the ongoing season. Despite enjoying a sizeable lead over Enyimba, Sunshine started showing signs of lethargy when te fixtures piled up, with teams having to play two matches in a week, an occurrence which saw teams with lean squad suffering from the long trip and dropping points. Sunshine, with their lean squad, were major casualties of the fixtures pile-up, losing away matches at will, and allowing Enyimba to upstage them to the top position.

And their woes were compounded by the invitation of their key players to the national U-23 team for the All Africa Games in Brazzaville. It even got worse for them when some of their players were invited by Coach Sunday Oliseh for the camping for the 2017 AFCON qualifier with Tanzania last month.

Of the five teams in the top five bracket, Sunshine Stars are incredibly the only ones to have lost 10 of their 31 matches, followed by third—placed Warri Wolves, who have been beaten nine times, Wikki Tourist, who lost on eight occasions and Giwa, who have seven losses recorded against them.

Remarkably, Enyimba have shown why they remain the team for the title, courtesy of their five losses in a season that has seen home teams lose on their previously hallowed grounds.

And as the title race enters its business stage this weekend, Sunshine Stars will hope their poor away run does not catch up with them when they enter the wolves den to battle Warri Wolves at the Warri City Stadium tomorrow.

Coach Paul Aigbogun, with eyes primed on a Champions League ticket is aware that a victory over Sunshine Stars is the only way for them to have their destiny in their hands but his stars must come to the party as the race to the title gets testy and messy.