Abia Warriors head coach, Imama Amapakabo says his side have faced arguably the three strongest sides in the country as the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) hit the match day three mark at the weekend.
The Warriors have suffered three consecutive defeats in their opening three games of the season which was flagged off with a defeat to eight-time champions, Enyimba International in Aba.
That was followed by successive defeats to Rivers United and Akwa United but Amapakabo is not losing sleep over the failure of his side to claim even a solitary point from any of those three games.
“Every team in the league will lose three games too so there is nothing to worry about,” Amapakabo told SPNAfricaAfrica. “My team has played against arguably the best funded teams in the league and have not been disgraced.
“The league is still on and we still have 35 games to play. We are going to try to gain points in all of those games.”
He then spoke about constraints faced by his side in the shape of the choice of venue for their home games, the Enyimba International Stadium, Aba.
The Warriors are based in Umuahia but play their home fixtures in Aba which is 59.5 kilometers away from their traditional home ground.
Amapakabo described the situation as “a big minus”
“It counts as a big minus for us knowing that we train in Umuahia where the surface is grass but the pitch in Aba is synthetic,” he said. “However, we are getting used to the turf.
“We will do our best possible and we know that we have two games to play in the next seven days. Those matches represent six points and the players are beginning to understand that we have a total of zero out of a possible nine points.
“Every point dropped now matters to us and we know we cannot afford to make any more mistakes.”
Abia Warriors will face Jigawa Stars in Aba on Wednesday before embarking on a trip to Nnewi to face FC Ifeanyiubah four days later.
