Michael Ohanu apologises to El Kanemi for penalty miss

El Kanemi Warriors’ Michael Ohanu says he is deeply sorry for spurning an opportunity to put his team ahead from the penalty spot in their home tie with Plateau United on Sunday.

The Borno Army met a stiff opposition in the league’s reigning champions at the El Kanemi Sports Complex and they had a golden chance to get the curtain raiser in the 55th minute when the referee them a penalty, but the forward missed it.

El Kanemi eventually scored what turned out to be the only goal of the match in the 61st minute through Sunday Anthony and a delighted Ohanu hinted that he was extremely relieved that they got the three points at the end of the game.

“I am still kicking myself for not getting the spot correctly and missing the chance to put my team in the team,” Ohanu told Goal.

“I want to say that I am sorry for missing the penalty kick and I want to assure all that it won’t repeat itself because I will try to improve on my penalty kick techniques. I couldn’t sleep well because I was just wondering what could have happened had we not get another chance to score through Anthony.

“I was the happiest after we scored the goal that we had to fight harder to preserve till the end of the match. Plateau United came all out to get a good result but we showed them that we needed the points more than they did. We worked for one another and the result was the home win.

“I plan to go and formally apologise to my teammates and the fans I am using this medium to appeal to them to calm down and continue to support us.

"We want to do everything to ensure that we are not in the relegation zone after the weekend matches so that after the World Cup break we can build on it.”

Ohanu has scored two goals for El Kanemi Warriors since he joined them during the midseason transfer from Kwara United. He netted once for the Harmony Boys before leaving for Maiduguri.