Enyimba coach Usman Abd’Allah has blamed his side’s embarrassing 4-0 loss to league leaders Plateau United on injury to key players and ‘little bit of controversy in the officiating’.
The reigning champions surprisingly went down 4-0 to The Peace Boys in a Match Day 12 NPFL showdown decided in an extremely cold Jos, thanks to goals from Abba Umar (who bagged a brace), Uche Onwuasoanya and Ibrahim Mustapha, a result that ensured Abd’Allah’s men drop to 13th on the log with 15 points from 10 matches (with two games in hand).
Plateau United on their part consolidated their position at the top as a result of the win, with 24 points from 12 matches.
“It’s been a hard week, very difficult with almost half of the team and totally new set of the team coming in. It is football,” said Abd’Allah, after the shock defeat.
“We lost today (Sunday), it is hard luck. There is little bit of controversy in the officiating, but it is football, and it always comes this way.”
The former Kano Pillars assistant coach was also quick to put the defeat behind, stating that he will go back to the proverbial ‘drawing board’ to correct his mistakes with a view of moving forward.
“I think it is not the end of the world. The league is still young and we have a lot (2) of outstanding matches. And we can just try and go back and work on our mistakes, listen carefully and go back to the drawing board, and see where we can improve.”
Abd’Allah will hope to recover from one of the heaviest defeats in the club’s history when Enyimba face Kwara United in a Match Day 13 clash in Aba on Wednesday before confronting Paradou AC in the CAF Confederation Cup on Sunday also at home.
