Despite losing 5-4 on penalty shootout to Delta Queens FC of Asaba yesterday evening at the just concluded female pre-season tournament in Abuja played at the MKO Abiola National Stadium Abuja, manager of Edo Queens Moses Aduku, has showered praise on his team for their excellent performance at the event.
To reach this stage, Edo Queens finished top on the table with 19 points from 7 matches, while Delta Queens placed second with 17 points from 7 matches too.
The tension packed game attracted a lot of football pundits in and around Abuja. The highly explosive game ended 0-0 at the end of regulation time of 90 minutes. Edo Queens mounted pressure on Delta Queens and dominated the game from the blast of the Whistle firing shots from all angles with no goal to show for their excellent display.
Delta Queens goalkeeper Anderlin Mgbachi, was always there to parry most of the shots way.
For the individual award, Abideen Suliat of Edo Queens FC was voted the MVP, most Valuable Player of the tournament, the best coach of the competition went to coach Moses Aduku, of Edo Queens, the highest goal scorer went to Chinaza Agoh of Delta Queens, fair play award was won by Naija Ratels FC, and best goalkeeper award went to Anderlin Mgbachi of Delta Queens.
First, second, third and fourth place teams received N1,000,000, N500, 000, N300, 000 and N200,000 respectively.
For the Benin-City based girls, they were regarded as the most highly rated teams in the tournament. The 5-4 loss to Delta Queens was as a result of hard luck. Edo Queens fought gallantly throughout the game.
For coach Moses Aduku, he said:
“I’m not disappointed in my girls at all,and let nobody blame my players. As far as this pre-season tournament is concerned, Edo Queens is the best team in this competition. Penalty does not determined the best team in competitions. I’m very proud of my girls and at the same time very happy. They have showed that we are ready for the big challenge ahead of us. I want my girls to have mind set fixed on the bigger challenge.
“My girls did very very well, we got a lot of scoring chances we did not take those chances. You can see our dominance on the pitch, one thing am happy about in this pre season tournament is that clubs now know that Edo Queens is not a push over side. If we had converted all those chances we had the match would have been wrapped up in the first 45 minutes. You also saw the huge support enjoyed by Edo Queens, is just unfortunate that it happened like that. So now that we are done with this pre-season Cup tournament, we are going back to home to work on the little errors that we have seen.”
To me it was a good outing. If it was played in a league format we would be crowned champions of the tournament having placed top on the table with 19 points. So my girls should not feel bad about it there is always another time.” he said.
