The assistant coach of the Niger United Handball team, Audu Ladan, has blamed their 23-24 loss to Tojemarine Academy of Lagos, on Saturday, on errors by the match officials at the ongoing 2021 Prudent Energy Handball Premier League.
Ladan said that his players played a quality game, even though they lost the match.
“We didn’t lose because we didn’t play well, We lost because we had a major problem with the second stop on the table. We had some seconds to end the game and the referee stopped the game, but the table officials didn’t stop the time.
“This is the challenge we have now, we don’t know what the technical committee officials are going to do about it. We are waiting for the technical committee’s feedback,” he said
On his part, Tojemarine Academy, Bright Agubata, said determination helped his players to win their game against Niger United.
” Niger united are number one on the table. Before the match started, we knew we are playing a good side, so we played with all our energy.
“We played a tedious match yesterday against Plateau Vipers, we defeated them 25-23; we also played a strong team today and we also beat them.
Handball League: Desert Warriors, Tojemarine maintain perfect start
“The secret of today’s victory was the strategy I gave my players that they should make them run so that fatigue will set in and that was what we used in the first half and also the second half.
“We played a defensive game and we came out victorious at the end of the game. We don’t want to leave any stone unturned, we still have some hard matches to crack, ” he said, adding that this was his first time featuring in the Premier League as a coach”.
NAN reports that Tojemarine’s victory was an upset win, as the team is currently in seventh place on the league table, having won four of their matches and lost four others, while Niger United is on top of the table with 20 points, in spite of their loss to Tojemarine.
A total of 21 teams, comprising 10 female and 11 male teams, are participating in the premier league, which ends on Nov. 3. (NAN)
