Akwa United’s head coach, Kennedy Boboye, was left frustrated by his team’s underwhelming 1-1 draw against El Kanemi Warriors on Sunday.
The Promise Keepers needed a win to boost their chances of avoiding the drop into the second division, however ended the game in disappointment as they failed to win for the second straight match.
Forward Osoba Kabir gave the home side an early lead in the first half with his fourth league goal of the season, although they were pegged back by the Desert Warriors who equalized through an own goal from Ndon Wisdom.
Speaking after the game, Boboye expressed his disappointment at the draw despite dominating majority of the match and conceding a late equalizer.
He said: “Honestly it’s very disappointing and frustrating that we didn’t get all three points against El-Kanemi Warriors. It was a match we should have wrapped up inside the opening thirty minutes, but my players were not prolific enough in front of the goal.
“I can count at least three chances that we missed before Osoba put us in the lead. At this stage of the campaign, you can’t afford to miss those kinds of opportunities, especially at home, and the end result is that we got punished by a late equalizer that was even our own goal”, Boboye continued.
“We spent time in training to work on our finishing, and the boys did well throughout the week in that aspect, only to let everyone down when it mattered most.”
Akwa United currently occupy the 18th position on the Nigerian Premier Football League standings with 38 points, three points behind Heartland in 16th place with five games remaining.
The draw dealt a harsh blow to the 2021 league champions’ survival hopes, leaving relegation likely unless their fortunes change dramatically.
“We made some tactical changes, hoping to defend our goals since we were unable to score an insurance goal, but it didn’t work out the way we planned.
We have looked at the league table, and we still have a lot of work to do in the remaining five matches, and we believe that we will get out of the red zone into a safe position on the log at the end of the season”, the former Remo Stars coach added.
Kennedy Boboye’s side face Inter Lagos in Abuja on Wednesday in the President Federation Cup, before traveling to face former side Plateau United next Sunday.
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