So close, yet so far. Their highest-ever TCC League finish, a podium place, may be properly enhanced by the simple fact that they stopped Real Sapphire from going unbeaten. Broad is the way, narrow indeed is the gate.

One huge factor that worked in Broad City’s favour this season was their fast start. They went unbeaten in their first 8 league matches, going band for band with Real Sapphire. When they won, they won big. A 4-1 win at Gbagada, a 4-2 demolition of Sporting Lagos, a 4-0 annihilation of Iganmu, and a 6-2 trashing of Dannaz. Those wins sandwiched in between by a nervy 1-0 success vs Imperial and draws against Real Sapphire and VOE. A 3-2 loss to Atlantic Business on matchday 9 led to a 3-game winless streak, which culminated in a 0-0 draw with Valiant away on the final weekend of the first half of the season.

It had a real impact on confidence, and while they got their lick back with a 3-0 thumping of the Warriors at the start of the second half of the season, they served Jekyll and Hyde performances, winning 2 of their first 4 matches, before drawing 1-1 with Sporting Lagos. They were losing ground in the title race, and their woes were further compounded by a 1-2 loss to VOE. It meant they had won 1 game in 4. That risk of falling off a cliff awoke them, and they would string a run of 4 straight wins, the biggest, a scalp of the champions in waiting in week 19. Imperial, Dannaz, and Iganmu were all victims, losing by a combined 11-3 scoreline. A title challenge that petered out early ended with a 1-1 draw at Dino, but the consolation would be a team that boasted the 3rd-best attack and the 3rd-best defence. Scoring half a century, but shipping in more than half and almost 7-tenths of their scoring tally.

They would only wish their good league start was replicated in the Cup, where three early losses condemned them to playing catch-up. They never recovered. They needed to win the last two games to stand a chance at progression, provided results elsewhere went their way. One happened, the other didn’t. Those losses to Sporting Lagos, Real Sapphire, and Atlantic Business did them in. It is progress, some way off perfection.