Dolphins' goal splash thrills Abdulahi but...

The glorious feat was a healthy development for the team though, but according to our man, who covered the encounter in Port Harcourt, CHINA ACHERU, the Kogi State-born coach, was not impressed with the attitude of his wards after shooting ahead their opponents in the first half. 

 "Yes, we have won today, but I must tell you that I was not satisfied at all.Coach Musa's grouse was rooted in his boys' kids'-boot handling and approaches in the first stanza of the match; and he remarked: 

 "I was not satisfied ...my annoyance with the boys stemmed from the way they approached the game after scoring the firts two goals.  In football, anything can happen so, nothing should be taken for granted.

"If you noticed, my boys became complacent after scoring two goals as if that was the end of the match.  It is dangerous to assume that it is over, when everybody knows that, it is not over, until it is over...and only the referee can signal the end of an encounter with his final whistle.

 " I must confess that, this calls for more talking to the players.I really have some homeworks to do over this aspect.  It could be fatal in both home and away matches in Championships of this magnitude.  It was a good victory, but if I dare say, it was one victory not enough because we still have some more hurldes to scale before shouting "Eureka," Musa recalled.

In the Continental soccer showcase, Dolphins' Kelechi Osunwa opened the floodgate of goals in the 20th minute of the encounter, which attracted an appreciable large crowd from both within and outside the the State capital.  Just six minutes later, compatriot Ibrahim Ndala made it two for the hosts. That was when complacency crept in and this was not good enough for the team's handler, Musa.

However on resumption, Dolphins' players having had some words of 'the wise' from their unimpressed coach, increased the goals tallyin the 90th minute from two to three through Osunwa, who earlier scored the first goal ; an achievement which raised his profile of being the leading goals scorer of the championship so far.  The two goals moved Kelechi Osunwa's number of goals in the competition to 10.

Gabonese coach laments mission impossible

Gabonese tall-dreaming coach, Jean Claude Ginzou rammed into a brickwall in Port Harcourt when his team, 105 FC was swallowed up by Dolphin.  And his tall and rosy dream went burst.  His dream before boarding the Nigeria-bound plane from Gabon was to ensure that the team made it to the finals of the continental marble of the Confederation Cup.

But this was not to be because a-three goal deficit is no kid's job in terms of erasure.  "Yeah, I really wanted to surprise Nigerians here in their homeland.  But what has become of the match is beyond my wildest imagination...three goals?  Man, that's a lot to cancel. 

Really, I told my club President that, we were coming to play to win...or at worse, pull a draw. "With the result of this match, that hope and aspiration, have become a mission impossible-sort of fantasizing. I think your boys were good, but they should watch it each time they are ahead of their opponents. 

 "If my boys were in a better shape today, perhaps the story would have been different at the end of the game,"  Ginzou reviewed.With the loss, the Gabonese still hold gingerly to their bottom-of-the-table unenviable position, while Dolphins shot up to the top of the ladder with seven points from three matches on the FIFA head to head rule against Ismaila of Egypt, who also share the same number of points accrued from the same number of matches.