We took things for granted - Walbe reflects on Remo Stars' poor start

With Remo Stars leading the log from behind halfway into their debut Nigerian elite division campaign, David Walbe feels his team took things 'easy' at the start of the season.

So far, the Sagamu outfit have been able to gather a paltry 19 points from 19 games and the goalkeeper revealed the rude awakening his team were dealt with having gotten promotion as the best team in the Nigerian second tier league last year.

"The early stage of the season; both the management, the fans, everybody took things easy with everyone believing there is a lot of games to play; so if this doesn’t work fine the other will," Walbe told Goal.

"But it never worked for us and now we are going to take every game very serious; from the top hierarchy to the lowest."

The Fatai Osho-led were again undone in the final of Ogun state FA Cup by less-fancied Almar FC via penalties and the goalkeeper blamed the high demands of the topflight for their loss.

"Actually I will say fatigue was the reason we lost the game because we should have won even before the shootouts. We just came back from Port Harcourt where we went for a game against Rivers United and we went straight into the game the next day, without any proper rest," he said.

"But I don’t think it [the cup loss] will have any negative effect on the team because now that we have this five-day break we are going to recuperate and come back [on Sunday].

"Since the beginning of the season, we haven't had any rest like this. We didn’t go for Christmas break and so on. So this is the only chance the team have to go on break and I believe we will be refreshed in time for the second round," he added.

On their chances of retaining their status as a Nigeria Professional Football League outfit next season, Walbe says: "We have calculated; we have been calculating; both the players, the coaches and the management. And even individually.

"Like myself, I've calculated that if we are able to win all our home games coupled with the 19 points [from the first round], then get some points away from home, we are going to scale through."

Remo Stars begin to push for a stay in the Nigerian topflight next season when they welcome Enyimba to the Sagamu Stadium on May 21.