Abubakar Arikya laments Nasarawa United’s lackluster display at Gombe United

By Saheed Afolabi

Head coach of Nasarawa United, Abubakar Arikya has lamented his side’s below-par display in a 1-1 draw with Gombe United in a Nigeria Premier Football League encounter on Sunday.

Mohammed Ogiri Galadima’s own goal gifted the Savannah Scorpions the lead in the 71st minute before Ayuba Francis Abubakar struck five minutes from time to rescue the hosts from defeat at the New Jos stadium, Jos.

Despite avoiding defeat at home, the interim manager hailed the visitors for the tough challenge, while lambasting his wards for failing to replicate their last week’s good show at Akwa United this time.

“Actually what we are expecting the players to play, they didn’t play to that level we were expecting and the way they played was a different ball game to the way they played in against Akwa United,” Arikya told media.

“We were expecting they will play like that. We will continue to play, and if God have said it that we will continue to come out in whatever we see.

“They played very well, they played more than my boys, they played to instructions. What I was expecting from my boys is to play what I told them but they went to play the wrong thing.”

The Solid Miners have four matches to go to recover and avoid relegation from the topflight in the regular season with 10 points from 14 matches and are placed ninth on the NPFL group A log.