Don’t Count us Out of title Race, warns Abia Warrior Players

After their now famous defeat of Bayelsa United to salvage the Oriental pride dented by successive defeats of Rangers International and Enyimba International, Abia Warrior players are upbeat about the club’s title chase revival after weeks of poor match runs.

First to speak to www.lmc-ng.org is Ifeanyi Onyeali, the player who took Bayelsa United to the cleaners in snatching maximum points for Abia Warriors away in Benin and he boasted of banging in more goals to ensure a strong finish for the Ochendo Boys. His mate, Mohammed Garba keyed into the aspiration, voicing a dream to help Abia Warriors grab a continental ticket at the end of the season.

With perfect finishes, Onyeali produced a brace scoring on the 39th minute to equalize and on the 57th minute to put the Warriors in front while team-mate Osamudiamon Idehen completed the ambush with a third goal to sink Bayelsa United at the Sam.Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin, Wednesday afternoon. 

Onyeali who described himself as an "in-and-out striker" said he is now more confident to go for goals.

"I feel great scoring two goals in the match and it is a confidence builder for me. I am sure to keep scoring because we want to get a continental ticket and we can achieve it even if we don’t win the league title. We started slowly but are shoring up. With this victory we will now move up on the table and if we keep winning, we will be within continental range. This is possible because we have a number of outstanding matches. Winning away is important and this victory over Bayelsa United has given us the assurance that we can pick many more points on the road”, Onyeali noted

In consonance with Onyeali, defender, Garba, says their collective dream is to have a taste of playing on the continent and warned that though they are a young side and new in the elite league, they are no push-over.

Looking ahead after the match in Benin, Garba said, "Yes, we may be a young side and new entrants to the Premier League, but we faced tougher challenges fighting for promotion and I don’t think we can be intimidated competing against old timers in the league. We will give all we have to get a ticket to play on the continent next season and the win against Bayelsa United has become the turning point for us.

“The game was good and the officiating was perfect. We dominated the game and had their balls and were able to showcase what we can do”.

He praised their coach for getting the tactics right and described him as very experienced. On the Coach, Garba remarked, “We have a very good coach with great experience and our approach was very technical. When we were ahead by 2-1 the coach brought on Sowemimo (Wasiu) who is an experienced defender to keep discipline while he brought on two fast paced attackers to put more pressure on Bayelsa United so their defenders would not be free to join in chasing an equalizer."

Culled from LMCNPFL