Coach Akande Fatai, the Technical Director of Lagos-based amateur football team, Dannaz FC says he is pleased and excited to have achieved his aim at the club by securing promotion into the National Nationwide League Division One, the third level of club football in Nigeria.
Dannaz F.C were on the verge of missing out on promotion when they suddenly found themselves behind early in their Nigeria Amateur League Division Two play-off match against Best Talents F.C but staged a comeback to win the encounter 4-2 in a penalty shoot out on Sunday.
In an exclusive interview with Sports247 Nigeria after the game, Coach Akande Fatai narrated every path to the successful journey.
Can you briefly talk about the just concluded Nationwide League Division Two campaign?
“We thank God for everything. I am just so happy at the moment. It was a very tough one, playing 6 games in 7days. It was so intense and very demanding for the players because towards the end of the competition fatigue started setting in and we had two important games to play back to back that was on Saturday, 27th, and Sunday, 28th.
You can imagine the toll it took on you and we were behind in our following match, they scored us first so we had to come back from behind as our opponents were dominating, but we managed to keep on with what we were doing and eventually went into penalties and the guys were able to scale through it.
I think it was a very tough one and it was very good for the team.”
Dannaz F.C have gained promotion into Division One of the NLO, what is next for the club?
“Going forward is just for us to continue from where we stopped, we achieved a lot of positive things in the competition.
Like I used to tell you, a lot of emphases is on developing the players, especially the young players. We try as much as possible to make sure that the team is 80%-90% of young players that have the potential and that are mentally ready to take it to the next level.
So that’s what we keep doing and we build on towards our preparation for our participation in the NLO One.”
What do you plan to achieve with your team going into the new season?
“Actually getting the promotion is not a new thing, someone like me has done it with AS Racing by securing promotion to NLO Two at ijebu.
I have done it with ijebu and now it is happening again. It is good to be able to know the terrains, get support from the management and make a good players rotation when we start the new season.
So many details are needed and with God, our efforts will be crowned and move on to the next stage of whatever the plans and objectives are.
Basically, we just build on the positive foundation we have started, bring in more quality players and we keep developing them,” he concluded.
