Confluence Queens coach Bashiru eyes NWFL Super Six slot after Sheroes Cup outing

Head coach of Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Premiership side, Confluence Queens, Liadi Bashiru is confident that his team can qualify for the NWFL Premiership Super Six next season.

The Lokoja-based side missed the 2022 NWFL Premiership Super Six by a whisker and will hope to reclaim the form that saw the team reach the final of the 2021 Super Four.

And after his side’s suffered a 2-0 defeat to Nasarawa Amazons in the third-place match of the 2022 Sheroes Cup, he told media on Sunday: “With the way the team had performed at this tournament, I believe with free and fair officiating, Super Six is surely the target.”

Sheroes Cup is a women’s football pre-season tournament that was renamed from the previous Flying Officers Cup in honour of the Late Flying Officers, Tolulope Arotile and the Kogi-born gaffer is happy after the experience.

“So far so good, I was very impressed with the performance of my players. Before this pre-season tournament, I know the team I have and didn’t believe they will get this far,” he continued.

“It’s a third place and two minutes of madness and recovered after that. That’s the game of football for you. When it happens, there is nothing that we can do. We take it the way it comes.”

Goals from Ayatsea Hembafan and Chimembere Opara within two minutes handed Nasarawa Amazons a 2-0 win over Confluence Queens in the third-place match of the 2022 Sheroes Cup.

The former Osun Babes coach went on, saying: “Last season, we had a better team and a more stronger side. We lost almost all the first eleven after the season. We are just trying to rebuild ahead of next season. If they can come from nowhere to the fourth position, they have made an appreciable improvement.”

The defeat made it a back-to-back third-place loss for Confluence Queens at the women’s football pre-season tournament and they will shift focus on the 2022/2023 NWFL Premiership season.