After falling short in the state FA Cup final on Sunday, Inter Lagos FC have turned their attention to action in the lower cadre Nigerian National League (NNL), where they play away to Gateway United of Abeokuta on Wednesday.
It promises to be a titanic battle, as Inter Lagos will aim to vent their anger on The Rock City side, who are currently 5th on the table and are eager to gain promotion back to the top-flight.
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Inter Lagos, are joint-first on the NNL table with their local rivals, Ikorodu City, who beat them 2-0 in Sunday’s FA Cup final, as both sides have 23 points each and are only separated by goals difference.
Heading into their NNL mid-week away fixture in Abeokuta, the coach of Inter Lagos, Gabriel Ezema admitted to Sports 247 that last Sunday’s defeat at Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan was painful, but stressed that he and his players must shake it off and concentrate on their promotion ambition.
He pointed out that huge positives spurring them are that they have already qualified for the Federation Cup national level and are close to gaining promotion to the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) in their very first season.
Ezema added that his normally cool and calm approach to matches is a huge motivating factor that keeps on spurring his wards in their matches.
He is now expecting the same calm demeanour to stabilise the lads and ensure that they get back to winning ways in the NNL, having lost, and drawn their last two matches.
The sangfroid coach stated: “Nobody loses a final and is happy, but we pick positives from this defeat. Number one is the fact that we have made a lot of progress in just a single year of our existence.
“As debutants, we are in the Lagos State FA Cup final, we have qualified for the national Federation Cup, and we are close to gaining promotion in the league. I think that’s a lot of positives for us.
“I’m now encouraging my players to stay calm and quickly recover from this defeat.
I’m not a coach who gets nervous on the bench. I think that the most important thing you have to do is control your team.
It’s your team. You are coaching, not the referee. Once your team is doing well, good for you. If your team is not doing well, you have to try to make sure they up their game.
“The players also need to see the psychology of their coach to be able to get benefits from each match.
If the coach is calm, there’s confidence in the team, and they’ll be able to express themselves better. That’s a factor for me.
Now, we are back in the league, and we have a game on Wednesday against Gateway. We want to build on our performances so far this season.
“We are joint-top already on the table. We just want to continue to push and qualify for the play-off. Who knows, we could make it to the NPFL in our first season.”
Ezema admitted it will not be easy playing away to Gateway United, who are fifth with 19 points, but have a game hand, as they have played 13 matches, compared to 14 of his team.
Inter Lagos has 23 points and is only behind top placed Ikorodu City with goals difference in Group B of the NNL
