Ngwaogu hails Abia Warriors' players for ABS win

Abia Warriors' Patrick Ngwaogu has praised his players for their performance in the 2-0 victory over ABS FC at the Umuahia Township Stadium.

A late brace from Sunday Adetunji ensured the Ucendu Babes secured maximum points against Henry Makinwa's men.

"It was a hard-fought win because we needed it to consolidate our position," Ngwaogu told Goal.

"And the goals came in towards the tail end of the match. I must commend the players and the fans for standing by the team all through the match.

"The ABS players are young and energetic. They took the game to us and it was not an easy win for us. I give them credit for giving us a tough fight.

"What I want people to understand about the league is that when you have a good bench and players you can rely on - you can always rally round and get your goals at any time of the game," he added.

"Even when we were still playing goalless in the 80th minute, we were very optimistic the time we made two changes, that we can go to pull the strings in the dying minutes and the winning goals came.

The tactician also believes that the Saraki Boys are tired and are struggling to compete with seasoned campaigners.

"I think the team is a young team trying to compete with the big boys in the league. I think the law of diminishing return is beginning to take a toll on the team.

"If they are relying on some set of players and take a statistics of the matches [they have played] so far they will find out that have been playing one set of players for quite a long time and the boys are already getting tired.

"I'm sure by the time they rest a little and come back in the second round. They will be in better shape. It is a very good and promising team."