Enyimba assistant coach Lawrence Ukaegbu has blamed severe fatigue and a lack of training sessions for his side’s disappointing 4-2 defeat against Katsina United in Friday’s Nigeria Premier Football League encounter. The hosts seized control early in the match, capitalizing on defensive lapses to build a commanding two-goal cushion before the interval. Enyimba’s nightmare start began in just the sixth minute when Onyema inadvertently turned the ball into his own net.
Mubarak doubled Katsina United’s advantage six minutes later, leaving the visitors with a mountain to climb. Katsina United picked up right where they left off after the restart, with Dadong extending the lead to 3-0 in the 59th minute. Enyimba mounted a spirited comeback. Michael pulled one back in the 67th minute, and C. Egbe struck eight minutes later to make it 3-2, setting up a tense finale.
However, any hopes of a dramatic turnaround were extinguished in the 80th minute when Katsina United restored their two-goal cushion to seal a 4-2 victory. The result hands Katsina United three valuable points while dealing Enyimba their fifth defeat in eight league matches. Speaking after the final whistle, Ukaegbu pointed to a heavily disrupted travel and training schedule as the primary culprit behind the sluggish performance.
“As you can see, the game was trying to flow at the tail end of the game. But what caused all these problems are fatigue and no training,” Ukaegbu told Completesports.com. “When we finished the match in Aba on Sunday, the players were allowed a free day on Monday and had to take off to Katsina on Thursday.
From Tuesday till now, we have not trained apart from yesterday that we had to warm up.”