Head coach of Premier South Africa League side Chippa United has admitted his mistake in playing Nigeria international goalkeeper Stanley in their loss to TS Galaxy, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Nwabali who is back in goal after losing both parents within a space of two months, and made a costly error when in his attempt to quickly release a teammate, he instead handed the ball directly to Damir Sosvic who scored the decisive goal just ten minutes from full time.
After the coach the coach was asked about the decision to play Nwabali, who is yet to fully recover from the effect of losing both of his parents within a space of two months.
“A good game from us, we didn’t lose it anywhere,” September was quoted as saying by FARPost. “I think we did everything we wanted to do. But it’s football.”
The coach admitted that he should have listened to the 28 year told who asked to be left out of the game. “Where we lost it, maybe it’s from the bench. From me, from the coaching side, because my goalkeeper did plead with me that he was not okay today and he wanted to rest. He’s going through a lot. Him being the number one goalkeeper, I pushed him and said he must play.
“Sometimes you must listen. For me as a coach just growing into that. So, I’ll take that. From the players, everyone gave 120% performance, so I’m happy about that; they gave it their best.”
He rounded up by praising Nwabali for his performance before and after the blunder. “He didn’t have much to do, maybe towards the end when we made mistakes and towards the end when we were chasing the game. But other than that, he did very well,” September concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
