By Fisayo Dairo
Enyimba head coach Fatai Osho was left to lick the squandered opportunities occasioned by his side’s profligacy in their 0-0 draw at home to Heartland FC on Sunday.
The televised MatchDay 24 game decided at the Enyimba International Stadium, Aba produced no goals but that was partly due to Enyimba’s inability to convert a couple of good scoring opportunities that came their way in the second half.
Wingers Reuben Bala and Anayo Iwuala were guilty of missing the best chances of the game for the People’s Elephant but Heartland, coached by Fidelis Ilechukwu also deserved applause for their stout defending throughout the game.
“It’s a quite disappointing one looking at the way we played,” began Osho to www.npfl.ng
“We created more than enough chances and if you create such chances, it is important you utilize them.
“That’s something we failed to do today and it is not because of want of efforts, these boys put in a whole lot of effort,” said Osho.
Enyimba have now failed to win their last three home games in all competitions, drawing all 2-2, 1-1 and 0-0, a sequence that will be worrisome to coach Osho. The former Remo Stars coach admitted that missing scoring chances is soiling his side’s good performances.
“You can see a whole lot of transformation from the way we’ve been playing of late but unfortunately they couldn’t convert chances.
“We’re not placing blames on anyone of them, we want to encourage them the more so that they can come back on Wednesday and get the desired result,” said Osho.
Osho did not also fail to pay a little compliment to his opponents, Heartland FC in the way they approached the game, earning a precious point in the process.
“Heartland’s tactics is a sign that they gave us a little respect, you can’t take that away and they are also deadly in their counter but you can see that we were able to deal with the counter a number of times but then had it been we took our chances, their tactics would have changed.”
Sunday’s game made it the fifth game in a row in meetings between both clubs that Enyimba have failed to score, let alone beat Heartland in the league. The People’s Elephant will now look to add to their points tally when they host Lobi Stars in a rescheduled game midweek.
