NPFL: How Akwa United earned draw against Bendel Insurance – Fatai Osho

By Saheed Afolabi

Technical adviser of Akwa United, Fatai Osho has revealed how he caged Bendel Insurance after the Promise Keepers forced the Benin Arsenal to a goalless draw at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin

In aftermath, Osho insists that Insurance were an well organized team and he already had knowledge of the pattern they use and decided to hit them offensively while slowing down their fast football.

The former Remo Stars gaffer added, he curtailed the Benin Arsenal long balls but his players failed to take advantage of the offensive chances in the game.

“You can’t take anything away from Bendel Insurance team because they are well organized, I can remember vividly how they played in the super-six championship playoffs in Lagos at the end of last season,” Osho told the club website.

“They still have the same coach and maintain the same playing philosophy, so we came prepared with the knowledge of the team and we told our players what to do to slow them down while looking for the chance to hit them offensively.

“In terms of slowing them down, we did a wonderful job in that area, because we knew the long balls will come and we were able to drop our backline consistently so those balls will not come behind us.

“So the tactical agreement on our part was superb the way our players carried them out but going forward in our offensive play, we didn’t do too well because on transition especially in the wide areas we didn’t really explore too much probably because we started with three center forward players who were unable to do well in the wide areas.

“We want to compensate ourselves with the one point from this game and going home we have two straight home games and the confidence level will rise and we can just start our winning season from there.”

Akwa United are rooted to the bottom of the NPFL with three points from five matches and will host to Gombe United on November 1.