Iganmu FC entered the 2022/2023 TCC League season as their third in a row. Having finished in eighth the previous season, Coach Kabiru Alade and his boys had their work cut out for them – to find a way out best the nine remaining sides and lift the league title.

Or at least lift the TCC Cup if the league was too much of a stretch.

Their campaign started with a trip to the defending champions. A 3-0 defeat to Beyond Limits further shed more light on the amount of work to be done. It was also a continued reflection of Iganmu Tiger’s poor away form in the league – they only managed one win away from home in the 2021/2022 season.

In their first home game of the season, the Tigers played host to the Blue Eagles of Gbagada. Both teams could only settle for a draw as Iganmu scored their first goal of the season. Finding rhythm, Iganmu finally won their first game of the season in Matchweek 4 when they defeated BroadCity 2-1.

The four Matchweeks that followed was a rollercoaster ride for Iganmu Tigers fans. This is how it played out:

1. A 1-1 draw away from home to Imperial
2. A 3-1 loss to Dannaz
3. Their second clean sheet of the season as they defeated Valiant 3-0
4. A 3-2 triumph over Sporting Lagos

Bamidele Adeleke was twice on target (in the first half) in the win over Sporting Lagos – one to even the scores and the other to put his side in the lead. By the end of this game, the Lagos-based side climbed into third on the log table – it was the closest they came to the top spot during the season.

Despite finishing off the year with a TCC Cup loss to Imperial, Coach Kabiru was able to lead his side into the knockout stages of the competition.

All the joy of ending the year on a high became sour by the turn of the year no thanks to the bad run of form that the side had to endure. It all started with a 3-2 loss to Valiant which was then followed by a 2-2 draw with Dannaz.

Scoring four goals in two games and failing to win any of it was of serious concern to the manager. But there were more troubling issues as the downward spiral continued, this time against Imperial as they lost 1-4. This was followed by back-to-back-to-back 2-0 losses – to Broad City, Dino SC and Gbagada respectively.

Sandwiched in between these losses was their biggest loss of the season: a 7-0 loss to Beyond Limits in the cup. Both sides went on to meet again in Iganmu’s final game of the season, another game Iganmu lost despite scoring twice.

Their poor outing in the 2nd half of the season undid the results they managed to get in the 1st half. As a result, they could only manage a 7th-place finish after winning just five games – one more than they managed last season.

If they’re to make themselves a force to reckon with in the coming season, they have to do better than they did this season.