From Desmond Mgbo, Kano
CHAN Eagles Head Coach, Salisu Yusuf says his target at the on going NPFL pre – season invitational tournament in Kano, was not to win matches, but to assess the players he had invited to the national side.
Salisu spoke to the media after his side played out a goalless draw,Wednesday night, with the 2017 league champion, Plateau United in a Group A encounter at the Sani Abacha Stadium.
According to him, the outcome of the matches was not as important as seeing and assessing the quality of the 30 man team that had been invited to fly the nation’s flag in the continental championship coming up early next year in Morocco.
Besides a series of brilliant saves from the captain and goalkeeper of the Eagles, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, the match against Plateau United was largely unimpressive.
In the post match briefing, the coach of Plateau United, Kennedy Boboye expressed delight at his lad’s performance describing it as one of their best games in the tournament.
“Before the game we had a pre- match talk and I told them that we have not been doing well as Champions, that maybe we had been sleeping. I told them that we should give a good account of ourselves, that if we want to play in the continent and we are struggling the way we were struggling, we won’t go anywhere. And actually, they came out today (wednesday) and played to instruction” he stated
The coach appealed to their fans to exercise patience with the team, while pointing out that they were the only team in the NPFL invitational tournament that did not engage in any pre season warn up matches before coming to Kano.