Sabo Okala sees brighter future for Honey Badgers despite Federation Cup ouster

By Wale Mustapha

Sabo Okala, Head Coach of Honey Badgers has refused to judge the team based on their disappointing defeat to Fortress Ladies in the 2023 Women’s Federation Cup Round of 16 on Thursday.

The Nigeria Women Football League Championship side, lost 2-1 to their Nationwide rivals Fortress in the match played at the Confluence Stadium in Lokoja where the amateur side came from a goal down to record the shock win.

Janet Ikpa had given the Badgers a first half lead with brilliant finish before Fortress staged a comeback in the second half with two goals within two minutes from Okundia Aisosa and Caroline Itebiye.

And the former Confluence Queens assistant coach described the defeat as disappointing, just as he is taking a lot of positives from the loss, including the exposure gained ahead of the Championship campaign.

“Truly, it’s painful and disappointing we lost, its a game we could have wrapped up in the first half with number of chances we had,”Okala told NigeriaFootball.com.

“Be that as it may, we need to look at the bright side which how they responded and adjust to difficult situations.

“The girls sticker together and played as a unit, yes there were some lapses and momentary loss of concentrations which can be worked, I see a brighter future for these girls and we are hoping to turn the lessons learned from here to do better in the Championship playoffs.”

The Honey Badgers who are the youth team of Naija Ratels will be competing for a place in the Nigerian Women topflight next month.