Head coach of Akwa United Muhammed Baba Ganaru has praised his team for their determination and fighting spirit on matchday 1 which saw them play a goalless draw against Lobi Stars in Lafia on Monday.
Coach Baba Ganaru however regretted his team’s inability to convert their many chances during the game, stressing that his boys were anxious in the final third.
In a post-match interview the coach revealed that the technical crew will continue to work to improve the team’s performance especially the goalscoring ability of his players to ensure they will make good use of their chances in subsequent matches.
“We are grateful to God for the one point we have gotten here in Lafia, but to be sincere, we came here with a match plan, which was to get all three points the same way we did last season but it wasn’t to be.
“In my general assessment, both teams played very well and created lots of scoring chances but at the end of the day no goal to show for it. The positives from this game is that we played well because if we didn’t play well, we wouldn’t have created those chances in the first place. I’m not very happy because in the last moments of the game we had a one-on-one chance but Mare didn’t score and that would have been the difference.
“It is our first match of the season and the boys were somehow anxious. My players need to be more composed in front of goal and we will continue to work on our scoring abilities and also to improve the confidence level of the players”.
Seven of the new signings made their debut for the Promise Keepers including ex U-17 and U-20 star Charles Etim.
The draw in Lafia means Akwa United have one point from a possible three and will next face Abia Warriors on Matchday 2 at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Sunday.
