Matchday eight in the Nigerian Professional Football League saw 3rd placed Nasarawa United host 2nd placed Enyimba FC of Aba in a top of the table clash.
Enyimba, built on their recent form of three wins on the bounce to make his a fourth straight win in the league and also the 2nd win away from home this season by defeating Bala Nikiyu’s boys 2-1 in Lafia despite the Aba side being reduced to ten men in the course of the game.
Nasarawa on the other hand were trying to get back into form after suffering a loss in their last game to Plateau United but it wasn’t to be as they lost two in a row now and slipped further down the table.
Both managers spoke to Sports247 after the game, sharing their reactions and while one was ecstatic and full of praise for his boys and their tactics, the other had to make do with encouragements from the loss and focus on the next game.
POST-MATCH REACTIONS:
“The match has been played, won, and lost. It’s part of the game. Anytime you go to the field, you go with an ambition of either winning, losing, or drawing. From the beginning of the league season, we got two away wins, at least we were happy. If you lose a game, it will help you to gear up, because if we had won now, people will be thinking everything is ok-we have to gear up,” said coach Bala Nikiyu of Nasaraw United.
“We are preparing for the next match as it is. And whatever it is, I pray that we go out on a good day,” he added.
“We planned so much for this game because Nasarawa United are a formidable team. You can see how they played -they are so tenacious, threw everything at us, but we were so resolute that we got it tactically right. Kudos to the players for exhibiting the tactical ability. Even though we have lots of players that are offensive-minded, but we had to put them on the defensive position, before initiating the attack, and that worked for us,” said a very happy coach of Enyimba Warriors Fatai Osho, whose side climb to the top of the NPFL table pending the outcome of the other games left in this game week.
The solid Miners next travel to Port Harcourt to face high-flying Rivers United while Enyimba host Plateau United in Aba on match day nine.
