Dolphins have been crowned the champions of the 2010/2011 Nigeria Premier League season after beating Bukola Babes 1-0 in Ilorin on Sunday.The battles to determine which team win the longest season in the history of football went to the wire as the Port Harcourt side trailed erstwhile leaders, Sunshine Stars, with one point before the last match day.The Akure side got more than they bargained for in Kano as Pillars pressured continuously until they got a goal through Abdul Haruna in the second half.Pillars victory, however, was not enough for the Kano side to secure a continental ticket as Warri Wolves drew 1-1 with Niger Tornadoes in Minna to snatch the last continental ticket available in Nigerias domestic football.Dolphins finished with 73 points while Sunshine are two points behind. Both sides automatically qualified for the CAF Champions League next season. Wolves, which finished with 66 points ahead of Pillars 65, will join Heartland as the second Nigerian team in the CAF Confederation Cup next season.JUTH, Crown, Plateau United and Zamfara United were all relegated to the lower division.A bitter Sunshine Stars coach, Gbenga Ogunbote, regretted the outcome of the season but was optimistic his side would build on their success next season.My players did well but this is as far as we can go. This season is gone but were going to use it as a baseline to improve next season, Ogunbote said.We worked so hard but had nothing to show for it except a continental ticket.Pillars coach, Ladan Bosso, was also not happy that his side finished the season empty-handed.Winning the last game is good for us. It was a good fight against Sunshine but we had hoped to finish with a continental ticket, Bosso said.Some of my players are from the feeder team, so were still building. The team will be better next season.The season started on November 6, 2010, running for 12 months and seven days. But NPL chairman Rumson Baribote assured that it would not be the case next season which he hoped would start in first week of January 2013.
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