Sports
Rivers United Targeting Silverware, This Season -Coach
Rivers United Football Club of Port Harcourt is poised to lay its hands on at least one trophy in the 2020/2021 football season. This was the declaration of the technical head of the club, Stanley Eguma while fielding questions from newsmen at the Dapo Abiodun Cup competition at Ijebu Ode over the weekend.
Eguma, whose side emerged winners of the recently concluded Governor Wike Pre- season Football Tournament in Port Harcourt was reacting to his team’s comeback 2-1 victory over MFM FC in their second game at Ijebu Ode. He was happy that the goal conceded by his side against the run of play did not demoralise the team, rather, it gingered them to fight back and win. He went ahead to commend the team, describing them as showing champions’ stuff.
He stated that the focus of the team is to win some silverware at the end of the season, with the NPFL title, the Federation Cup and the CAF Confederation Cup titles as targets.
“ Our target is to win something in the league this season, both in the NPFL and the Confederation Cup. I know it is very possible if we work very hard, for now, we have started and we hope that we will do a lot of hard work to achieve our collective goal, which is winning either the NPFL or the confederation Cup title or both”, said Eguma.
Though the coach said that at the club, they rely more on team work and do not judge the players individually, he, however, stated that the acquisition of the duo of Ifeanyi Anaemena and Keeper Theophilus Afelokai would go a long way to buoy the team, especially, in the continent, where they have garnered experience playing for their former club, Enyimba International.
“All the players have done well, we rely more on team work not individual players, we don’t judge them on individual basis but as a team and we are trying to gel as a team. But Anaemena and Afelokai are good and experienced players, they are integral members of the team, they came from the same club and the more they play, the more they get used to the team. I hope that their cohesion to give us more balance in the defence, we expect to see what they are made of and can bring to the team in the continent”.
Rivers United will be on duty this weekend against the Futuro Kings FC of Equatorial Guinea in the preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup, which led them to withdraw from the Dapo Abiodun Cup at the weekend.
Eguma has promised not to underrate the opponents but to go to Equatorial Guinea and win in order to make the return leg a formality.
By: Gabriel Nwanetanya