Yema dedicates final day win to fans

Enyimba gaffer Yemi Daniel ‘Yema’ has appreciated the fans after masterminding his side’s 2-0 win against Plateau United on Sunday before a capacity crowd at home on the final day of the 2023/24 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season.

In a game totally dominated by the hosts, the 2-time African champions wasted several scoring chances before NPFL top scorer Chijioke Mbaoma (78) and substitute Alade Balogun (88) scored late on to hand the People’s Elephant a well-deserved win.

The result ensured Enyimba finished 3rd on the NPFL log with 63 points, and thus qualify to represent Nigeria in next season’s CAF Confederation Cup, to the delight of Coach Yema, who was full of praise for the Aba fans following their massive and unwavering support.

“I think the victory today (Sunday) is for the whole fans, because I told them ‘guys, people are here since 2pm inside the sun to come and watch us. We can’t afford to let them down. We must play everything to make the fans happy’,” he said in a post-match press conference.

“And eventually, we won 2-0. I’m happy and I think the entire fans and everybody are equally happy.”

Despite his side’s dominance, it took 78 minutes to finally break down the visitors, as Enyimba missed chance after chance.

The former Golden Eaglets assistant coach, however, disclosed he was confident his side will finally win the encounter despite the misses.

“When we were creating chances, I knew we were going to score,” he said.

“Sometimes when we play a game I have this instinct. Like when we played against Rivers United at home, they scored first, but I was telling them on the bench that ‘we’re going to win this game’ because we were creating chances. I knew conversion was just the problem and with a bit of calmness.

“You could see that in the 2 goals we scored. Those were some beautiful goals, right?”