According to Rivers United Coach Stanley Eguma, their NPFL opponents, Sunshine Stars of Akure, were merely fortunate to come away with a narrow defeat on Monday afternoon.

Coach Stanley Eguma stated this during his press conference shortly after the game between the two teams, which ended in favour of the home team.

Morice Chukwu’s unbelievable moment of brilliance inspired the defending champions to a 1-0 victory over their opponents at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium.

In their rescheduled NPFL23 matchday 12 clash, the Stanley Eguma team was clearly the superior team and scored the game’s decisive goal in the first half.

While speaking to the media, the Rivers United coach said;

“Sunshine stars were just lucky to concede only one goal, it could have been dozens of goals but I commend the effort of the players.” – he said.

He added that;

“The three points is important, I expected a tough game because Sunshine is also contending for Super Six, so today they came, fought hard but the game was under our control.”

Stanley Eguma said that the strategy was to play a fast tempo game against their visitors, which they ultimately executed quite successfully as Sunshine Stars struggled to keep up with the tempo throughout the game.

“The tempo of the game was very high, we raised a very high tempo which Sunshine could not meet up, it was what we planned for and I think we got it well.“

Eguma claimed that his team met expectations and upped their game despite missing a few opportunities that could have made things worse for their opponents.

“We started pressing them from the beginning and then we got our goal. The referee disallowed one of our goals, it would have been more than one goal, because we had a lot of scoring chances but the players missed them due to the slippery nature of the pitch but I think the players did well, they raised their game very well especially after they rested as most of them did not play in the last game.” – he said.

With a spot in the Super Six already assured, the Pride of Rivers will be aiming to wrap up the 2023 campaign on a solid note.

However, they must first defeat Doma United at home on Thursday.

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