By Ebube Dike

Enyimba Coach, Fatai Osho has criticised his players and described them as being “lazy” after they lost scandalously 3-1 against Katsina United in matchday 27 of the 2020/2021 Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL.

Enyimba played away in Katsina at the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium on Sunday in one of the fixtures.

The eight-time NPFL champions lost 3-1 to Katsina United at the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium on Sunday evening with coach Osho who was unhappy with the team after they struggled to beat Adamawa United 2-1 in Aba in Matchday 26, was curious with the lackluster performance of the players in the defeat.

Describing the attitude of the players as strange, Mr Osho said that the goals conceded by the team were ridiculous adding that he was forced to make changes in the early second half which unfortunately proved ineffective

“It’s quite strange, it’s uncharacteristic of the team. We saw a whole lot of them (the players) walking off the ball. We gave a whole lot space to the opponents and you don’t do that in football. We were not covering our grounds very well, a lot of loose players who were there and we could have been a bit tidy getting close to them.”

“We looked a bit lazy in that first forty-five minutes. We just had to make quick changes immediately after the first forty-five minutes. We could have made the changes much easier but we were looking at the players if they could respond but unfortunately they couldn’t.

“Those goals were giveaways just a simple reaction to those balls, we were not seeing people covering spaces in time, we gave too much space and any team could have beaten us in that first forty-five minutes.”

Osho also believes that scoring early in the second half could have been the turning point of the team.

“I think that should have been the rallying point but we were playing against a very physical Katsina United team. They thrived more on their strength and they put it to great use. You can’t fault them on that. But we could have done better.

“We had chances in all but we were unfortunate not to convert. We had two other (chances), if one had gone in we could have been looking at how we would level the game and see what happens but those two chances in succession were lost and that did not really help our cause.”

The defeat has dented the People’s Elephant continental aspiration as they currently lie 7th on the log with 41 points from 24 matches.

However, the Aba based side has three outstanding matches to navigate.