Super Eagles icon Finidi George's reign at the top is over after four straight defeats

Nasarawa United were ruthless, clinical, and completely in control from the opening exchanges, dismantling Rivers United 4-1 at the Lafia Township Stadium on Monday to deliver the most damaging result of the Port Harcourt side's season.

Four different scorers on the day, eight goals conceded in four games, and two points separating Rivers United from the top of the table they once owned.

The numbers tell a story that is becoming impossible to spin.

Nasarawa set the tone immediately, pressing high and exposing a Rivers United backline that has looked increasingly fragile with every passing week.

Three goals arrived in the opening quarter of the match, each one a consequence of the same problem: a defence caught flat, disorganised, and unable to handle the intensity being thrown at them.

By the time Rivers United had a moment to breathe, following off-pitch issues in the stadium, the game was already gone.

A late consolation offered no comfort. It was the kind of goal that makes a scoreline slightly more respectable without changing a single thing about what just happened.

Finidi's side looked shell-shocked in Lafia, and the final whistle brought relief more than anything else.

For months, Rivers United were the standard. The team everyone else was chasing. Finidi had built something that felt genuinely title-worthy, and the table reflected it. That table looks different now.

Enugu Rangers are the new leaders with 54 points following their 2-0 win over El-Kanemi on Sunday. Rivers United sit second on 52, two points behind, having played the same number of games. ]

Nasarawa United climbed to fourth on 50 points, suddenly very much alive in the conversation for continental qualification.

The gap between first and fourth is four points. A league that looked like Rivers United's to lose is now genuinely open.

This was not a sudden collapse. It has been building across four weeks of football that Rivers United will want to forget as quickly as possible.

A 2-1 loss to Shooting Stars on March 12 was the first warning. A 1-0 defeat to Ikorodu City four days later confirmed something was wrong.

Niger Tornadoes held them to another 1-0 loss on March 19. And now this, the heaviest defeat of the run, against a Nasarawa side that had a point to prove on home soil.

Eight goals conceded, two scored. Twelve points dropped in four games. For a team that was top of the table when this run began, the numbers are brutal.

Rivers United face Kun Khalifat on Sunday, March 29. On paper, it is a winnable game. In the context of what has happened over the last three weeks, nothing about Rivers United feels automatic right now.

Finidi George has until Sunday to find answers. The players who delivered the performances that put Rivers United at the top of this league are still there.

The question is whether they can remember how to be that team again, before the season slips entirely out of reach.