First Bank Coach, Gafari Mohammed has lamented his team being on the bad side of the center officiating referee wrong calls in their 1-1 draw against Sapphire FC of the opening game of the Nationwide League One 2023 at the Surulere Legacy Pitch.
In his post match interview exclusively with Sports247.ng after the game, Gafari allayed that that’s not enough excuse for his side draw but he did conceded that the referees have the final say and there’s nothing they can do about it.
“So far, so good, this one point in this game is very vital. In the first fifteen to twenty minutes, we gave them too much respect but later, when we saw that they were tired, we had to take the game to them and we had to salvage a point at the end of the day.”
“The referee came to the touchline to warn me once and I was carded which is uncalled for, we have a lot of obvious infringements which he failed to make correct decisions on but they have the final decision and it doesn’t mean we will react from the bench.”
“Football has gimmicks, when you are winning, you have to make a lot of efforts to frustrate your opponent and wasting of time is part of the game but I think they paid dearly for their time wasting antics,” he said of the opponent time wasting antics.
“The league is a marathon as we still have nine more games to play, we have played the opening. So, we will have to keep on improving and getting maximum points needed.”
