2021 champions, Akwa United began the season with high hopes of defending the title they won for the first time in their 25 years history.
The season had not gone as planned so Kennedy Boboye made way as they tried to recuperate what was left for the season then in came, Deji Ayeni.
The highly rated Ayeni started well with a resounding 6-1 win against Nasarawa United one of the important he master minded for the Promise Keepers.
Although lots of other points were dropped both home and away along the line, the 2021 champions could only finish in the top half of the table.
While giving his thoughts on the season after the 2-0 loss against Rangers on the last day of the season, Deji Ayeni said: “the just concluded season was really tough despite our effort to achieve our set goal.”
He continued: “We endured difficult moments especially at home where we dropped vital points in games we should have won comfortably and at the end of the day we rounded-off our season in 9th position and as far as I’m concerned, that is not good enough for a team like Akwa United.”
“I took charge of the club in mid-season and we put in our best to ensure we finish strong but it wasn’t to be. Every match we played was difficult because all our opponents wanted to prove a point playing against the champions.”
The former Sunshine Stars and Ekiti United head coach reiterated that they must fix goal scoring ahead of next season.
“We also observed that goal scoring was a big challenge and we hope to fix that as we look forward to building a more formidable squad for the next football season.”
“As we will be embarking on end-of-season break, we will reflect on the lessons learnt from the just concluded season because we hope to bounce back stronger.”
Akwa United however were able to win the Akwa Ibom state FA Cup and will be hoping to repeat their 2015 performance whenever the AITEO Cup finally kick starts.
