NWFL Premiership: Prince Usen explains Ibom Angels humiliation at Robo Queens

By Saheed Afolabi

Head coach of Ibom Angels, Coach Prince Usen has heaped blames on match officials following his side’s 7-1 drubbing at the hands of Robo Queens of Lagos at the Legacy pitch, National Stadium, Surulere.

The first leg between both sides ended in a 3-2 win for the Robo Queens but Ibom Angels heavy loss to the Lagos Landladies brought an end to the Uyo based side stay in the NWFL Premiership after a year of promotion.

The embittered gaffer explained how the match officials frustrated and intimidated his side in the heavy defeat, and also attributed their relegation to the abridge league format in the elite division.

“It’s all about the very poor officiating, I am not afraid to say this. Irrespective of the fact that you saw the girls, they scored first. The referee did what she had to do using card to intimidate the team,” Usen told Nigeriafootball.ng.

“I told them allow the players to play the ball, after all when they (Robo Queens) came to my home, I lost at home and I never quarreled. I greeted the away team but this very one, everyone have seen it. Today’s game showed that the officiating is very porous.

“There are so many things, so many viruses that contributed to it. It’s so unfortunate that it is an abridged league assuming it is a marathon league, there would have been some luck.

“If you check the age bracket of the team, they are 85 percent secondary school students, it’s a young team, a new era team who does not like an extra intimidation.

On what next for his relegated side, the manager further revealed his plans to the club’s push for a topflight return.

“The next step in keeping the team together is to recruit new younger players and keep them together, develop them, not a fire brigade approach, not immediate success,” he continued.

“This kind of players is developmental not immediate success, some of them are very young as you can see 19, 17, 18, 20 and at most 22.”