By Fisayo Dairo
There were some wild jubilations among players of Abia Warriors at the conclusion of their MatchDay 8 fixture last Wednesday. The team had just recorded their first win of the season in an emphatic fashion; a 4-1 win over dreaded Sunshine Stars in Okigwe.
For the management and coaching staff, it was a huge sigh of relief and a satisfactory sense in seeing their perseverance beginning to bear fruits of not just getting the right results it deserves but also an impressive team cohesion.
Warriors made their worst ever start since making their Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) bow in 2014 when they lost their first four matches this term. It was indeed an inexplicable form given the high expectation that trailed the appointment of former league winner Imama Amapakabo as head coach. The Umuahia side also made headlines with their preseason players recruitment.
As expected, the dismal run of results heaped an incalculable amount of pressure on Amapakabo and his coaching team, with the club pointing out while issuing a three match ultimatum that “the technical crew has enjoyed the greatest support and cooperation ever given to any crew in the club’s history”.
As though that was the tonic needed, results started trickling in; with all three matches in question ending in draws. At least, the spate of losses had ended before the much elusive win arrived on MatchDay 8 against a team they had never beaten in the league up till that point.
Amapakabo admitted to www.npfl.ng that there was pressure but insists it is same for every manager in the league.
“Like I say all the time, which coach is not under pressure?” queried the 2016 league winning coach.
“Every coach is under pressure; the coach at the top of the league is under pressure, the coaches at the bottom are under pressure. The league diadem is not given till after 38 weeks and in this side of the world, when things don’t turn well, the pressure comes immediately.
“It is unprecedented that the team goes seven games without a win but we were doing it right, we were seeing the picture we were trying to paint.
“My take on it all the time was to tell my players not to be disheartened because if they get disheartened they would lose picture of what we were trying to do. So long as they keep focus, the result is going to come.
“This is part of the results that come and we still have about thirty games to play so if they keep their heads up they will get more of these kind of results,” said Amapakabo.
Hardwork paying off
Warriors’ first three goals against Sunshine Stars were scored through dead ball situations. First, midfielder Fatai Abdullahi curled home a brilliant free kick in the 16th minute before Emmanuel Ugwuka (not one of the tallest on the pitch) rose highest to head home Kabiru Muhammad’s free kick five minutes later.
Shortly after Sunshine Stars’ Sadeeq Yusuf scored his sixth goal of the season after the hour mark to reduce the deficit, Imama sent on striker Bello Lukman who scored with his first touch of the game while heading home Mustapha Jibreel’s corner.
That was enough as a testament to the work being done on the training ground by Amapakabo and his wards, something he attested to.
“Everything you see here are what we’ve practised over time. That’s why sometimes as a coach, I get disappointed when it is not executed.
“Like I say all the time, as a coach, it is always a thing of joy when whatever it is that you’ve done prior to the game manifests in the game.
“So this has come and gone and to me, this one is done and dusted and Saturday is not too far so there is nothing to celebrate about. To me, it is Dakkada in the picture next,” concluded Imama.
Abia Warriors were beaten in Uyo over the weekend by Dakkada FC at the Nest of Champions on Match Day 9.
