The came, they saw and they definitely triumphed over the other clubs. It was a long list of fixtures to be played within a very short period of time, but despite the hassle, Ijebu United becomes one of the teams to gain promotion into the Nigeria National League.
“It’s been a very wonderful experience, very tough playing about eight games in ten days. It’s pretty tough especially with the young players I took with me. We had to do a lot of team rotation and it was a big experience,” coach of the side Akande Fatai told Sports247.
“Unfortunately the pitch we played on was not too good, in fact it was not good at all for the type of game we wanted to play so we has to quickly come up with a way to adapt to what other teams will throw at us,” he said.
Enroute the finals, Ijebu United finished top of their group after seven games, picking up five wins and two draws to get to the finals, conceding just a goal in the process which explained the dominance and quality the side possesses all round and the coach praised the performance of his players in the Ekiti Centre.
“Big kudos to the lads, being able to stick with he game plan and team shape and trying as much as possible to do the needful,” the coach said. He also hinted that Ijebu United are ready for the challenges of the NNL financially as well as on the field.
“In terms of our readiness I think we’re ready, with the chairman that has a vision for the future and this is what he’s been looking for for quite some time now and I’m glad we have it. It’s just for him to follow up on what the set plans are and we’ll try as much as possible to cope with what the NLO throws at us.”
“A big thanks to all the players, the management, to everyone who has supported us especially friends in Ekiti, I’m grateful to them all,” the coach said.
