Sunshine Stars of Akure coach, Kennedy Boboye has turned his searchlight on former Super Eagles’ defender, Godfrey Oboabona and returnee striker, Tunde Adeniji ahead of this weekend’s clash with Enyimba of Aba.
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Boboye is still seething over his side’s 1-0 loss to Sporting Lagos on Tuesday, which left The Owena Arsenal 16th on the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) table.
Although the ex-youth international and former league-winning coach parried pressure of Oboabona and Adeniji, who both joined the Akure team after long spells playing abroad, Boboye acknowledged that expectations are high from the fans for heroics by the experienced duo.
With Tuesday’s defeat, Sunshine Stars have now lost two of their last six NPFL fixtures, in contrast with two draws and no away victory, leaving them on 35 points from 25 matches.
Incidentally, the Akure Gunners’ recent draws were against two other south-east clubs, Heartland of Owerri and Abia Warriors of Umuahia, thereby giving Boboye hope for victory against Oriental giants, Enyimba, even as his side still have a game in hand versus Rivers United of Port Harcourt.
Towards achieving better results, though, Boboye sued for more effort from all players in the squad and charged them to turn around their fortunes, starting with this weekend’s match day 31 fixture against the defending champions.
He refused to fault Oboabona and Adeniji for the club’s recent winless streak, but admitted that his team need maximum points against The Peoples’ Elephant at Akure Stadium on Sunday.
Boboye argued, “For the short time they’ve been with us, they’ve done massively well. The only problem is that it’s not easy to adjust after going out of the country.
“Having played such a long time out of the country and then coming back, if you don’t watch it, you won’t adapt to the system very well. But, they are picking up and doing very well.”
He then analysed Tuesday’s loss to 11th placed Sporting Lagos, with a view that the result did not reflect his players’ efforts, but interjected that they now have to quickly turn their attention on the visit of Enyimba.
“The confidence is there, but we didn’t get the result we deserved,” Boboye conceded.
“For the game at home this weekend, we don’t want anything short of winning. It’s a must-win game for us. We don’t have any excuse not to win it.”
Boboye is also of a view that Akure soccer fans would get the best out of his squad once they stop putting undue pressure on their players.
