Nigeria U23 international Godfrey Bitok Stephen opened his goalscoring account for the 2020 season in the Belarusian Premier League but could not prevent his team Isloch from losing 2-1 to Energetik Bgu Minsk on Saturday evening, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.

The left-back received unwarranted bad press from the media in his homeland recently with false reports claiming that he contracted coronavirus, which was later dismissed by his bona fide Belarusian agent Yauheni Haiduk.

Having recovered from a minor illness that made him miss last weekend's away game vs Dinamo Minsk, Bitok returned to Isloch's starting lineup for today's game at Stadyen Traktar (Minsk).

The 19-year-old was unlucky not to open the scoring when he unleashed a shot that hit the woodwork in the ninth minute.

On 13 minutes, Jasurbek Yakhshiboev converted a penalty to give Energetik Bgu Minsk a 1 - 0 lead, but Isloch were back on level terms through Bitok on 27 minutes.

The Dream Team VII defender scored a well-taken penalty to make it 1-1 after Momo Yansane was tripped in the box.

In the 90th minute, Bitok and his teammates were denied a share of the spoils as Evgeny Yudchits netted the game-winning goal.