Sports
F ’Eagles Coach Disappointed Over Lesotho Walkover
Flying Eagles coach, Manu
Garba has said he was disappointed to eliminate Lesotho from the 2015 African Youth Championship via a walkover after they had prepared to beat them on the pitch.
On Saturday, the Flying Eagles qualified for the 2015 African Youth Championship after they walked over Lesotho in Kaduna.
“Congratulations Nigeria on this qualification,” saluted Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba.
“We trained very hard in the last two months for this match and we would really have been a lot happier had we qualified for the AYC on the pitch and not in the boardroom.
“It was a bit of a disappointment that Lesotho failed to turn up, but there was nothing we could have done about that.”
Manu said the team will now decamp and regroup in time for the tournament proper.
Match officials insisted till the last minute that they have not received any official notification that the first leg final qualifier has been called off after Lesotho expressed concerns over the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Nigeria.
They therefore went through the traditional walkover ceremony that involved a 15-minute wait after the referee’s kick-off whistle.
Nigeria will thus join seven other countries including hosts Senegal for the 2015 AYC from March 8.
The Flying Eagles thereafter walloped Kaduna United second team 6-0 in a test game at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.
Skipper Musa Muhammed and Sulaiman Abdullahi scored a brace each with Taiwo Awoniyi and Ifeanyi Matthew also getting on the scoreboard.
After misses by Awoniyi, Alhassan Ibrahim aka Muazam and Abdullahi Alfa, whose shot in the 18th minute crashed against the crossbar, the Nigeria U20s took the lead in the 21st minute from the penalty spot taken by Muhammed after goal-bound Awoniyi was felled inside the box.
Muhammed doubled the lead seven minutes later when he cut through from the right flank before he fired home a tight angle.
In the 31st minute Awoniyi rounded the Kaduna United goalkeeper to make it 3-0.
And eight minutes later, Ifeanyi Matthew slotted home another spot kick after Awoniyi was brought down and the goalkeeper was sent off.
Substitute striker Sulaiman Abdullahi scored twice in the 49th and 86th minutes after the Flying Eagles fluffed numerous chances.
The sudden departure of Nwachukwu, a multiple gold medallist, from Team Delta to the Coal City, Enugu , sparked controversy within the sports family, with officials of Delta State Sports Commission accusing the president of the Paralympic Committee of Nigeria, Sunday Odebode, of manipulating the system for the athlete to dump the state.
But Nwachukwu, who broke the World Record to win a gold medal for Team Nigeria in the Women’s Discus F42 event at the just-concluded Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, has cleared the air on the circumstances that led to her movement to Enugu State.
Speaking with The Tidesports source report, shortly after winning the gold medal, Nwachukwu said: “It is not true that anybody aided my movement from Delta State to Enugu. Rather, it was Delta State that forced me to leave because of poor remuneration.