Good morning Everyone!
Its a little quiet from an Enyimba point of view following last weekend’s win against Kano Pillars. Credit where it is due – the boys stepped up to the billing, apparently stung by the result in midweek that more or less ended our Continental aspirations.
Besides the win, we clearly dominated the game and even got a third goal yanked off for a shocking offside call. In the end, it didn’t matter- the two goals we scored were enough to get the win on the day. Kano Pillars themselves, they rarely get anything in Aba and at the weekend, it was as usual.
Leading to up to the game, the club’s unofficial mouthpieces went a ranting on how unfair the scheduling had been for the club. They went as far as suggesting that someone was purposely sabotaging the club due to this pileup and sudden kickoff changes.
In the end it didn’t matter that Pillars had spent an entire week readying for the game. Enyimba on the other hand had just expended time and energy battling in the Federations Cup defeat to Abakaliki FC. All of those allegations were irrelevant and that is something we can clearly learn from.
The average human loves to grasp at the straws. Look for excuses and reasons to not perform on the day. Footballers can be built similarly too. Players assume – “Oh its an away game. So we cant get anything there”. Or “Yea, we’ve had back to back fixtures so we are tired”.
Tiredness is mental first and as someone who has seen far too many football games, I tell you, there is nothing a football team is incapable of if they fail to find any excuses acceptable. Look at Arsenal for instance. The club is 2nd on the League table and in the semi finals of the Champions League despite not having a senior striker at the club.
Another team would simply down tools and cite the many adversities as reasons why it cannot keep up with the demands of their League responsibilities. But while you are consoling yourself with excuse after another, someone else who is inspired by the dream of winning is defying those conditions.
Apparently, this League season is pretty much done and dusted but I will like to see an Enyimba team that is not perturbed by adversities thrown at it. No excuses should be good enough. Whether it be weather conditions or performance of the referee or mental and physical fatigue. And this change must start with the Head Coach.
Most of them are always in the habit of providing excuses and explanations of why the team is tired and is losing games especially away from home. Kadiri Ikhana spoke with me once in 2016. He told me how he worked on his players – providing whatever “ginger” his team needed to “overperform”. This formular is something we all can learn from.
Going forward it would be good to do two things – ensure a fair playing platform for the team as well as eliminating any potential excuses for abysmal showings on the pitch.
Back tomorrow
‘EnyimbaEnyi
