Plateau United has been locked with Rivers United in what is turning a two-horse race for the 2021/2022 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL). 
The Jos based team have had a near perfect run in the ongoing season and have been a close challenger for to Rivers United after Remo Stars run of good form fizzled.
For a team with a new coach and relatively new players going into new season, one would expect them to struggle and find it hard to settle into new approach. 
But such was not the case of Plateau United under Fidelis Ilechukwu as Technical Adviser and new import of players to beef up the team. 
The Tin City club have been one of the best attacking teams in current campaign scoring goals and garnering points home and away. They also hold a record of 100 percent home wins in the season. 
Vice captain of the team, Andrew Ikefe spoke of the reasons behind their success to www.npfl.ng in Ilorin on Monday shortly after his side picked another valuable point against Kwara United.

Ikefe, who had a difficult start to the ongoing campaign due to ankle injury said the winning mentality and team believe have been a strong motivation for the second placed team.

“It’s a good thing to pick a point in Ilorin because honestly, we came here with nothing but victory in our mind, and we approached it like that but as you know they are one of the best sides in the league, so we are happy to get this point.

“What is helping us is team spirit and believe. We all have individual targets; the goalkeeper wants to keep a clean sheet, the defenders wouldn’t want to let anyone past them while the midfielders are willing to provide cover for our area and supports for attackers and strikers want to score goals. So we pull these target together as one in our team, helping out for one another and it has been good for us.

“The coach even told us as it is now, no team can stand us in the Nigeria league, and we’ve taken that mindset into all games, both home or away, and we are grateful it’s been working for us. 

Asked how it feels to be back from a career threatening injury and be an integral part of the team, the former Niger Tornadoes’ defender said “As a player, it’s never easy to be injured and be out of the game for a period of time and to tell you that from the outset we’ve really prepared for this season because if you noticed, while I was out my colleagues were doing well, and I came back to strengthen the team. Luckily ever since I returned I’ve lost just a game and I want to thank the team medical staff for support and my quick return and give God the glory for the successes so far.”

Ikefe called for more support from the fans and thanked the management for the motivation the players have been enjoying so far. 
“The support from the fans and supporters have been awesome so far, they are always behind us, both home and away because many of them follow us to away games with their massive turnouts at our home games and that has been pushing us on. We will only urge them to keep the faith and believe in us.

  Andrew Ikefe, Fidelis Ilechukwu, LMC, NPFL, Plateau United, Rivers United