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Tag: Stanley Eguma

  • Eguma: Dolphins’ game will improve

    Eguma: Dolphins’ game will improve

    Head coach of Dolphins FC, Stanley Eguma has blamed their struggles at the ongoing Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Super Six tournament on their lack of a cutting edge.

    The ex-Enyimba coach said that they had better chances against the Dream Team VI side and could have come out victorious if they took all their chances in front of the opponent’s sticks.

    “I am worried that we have failed to score after two games and like I said, the boys have been goal shy. But it is my problem and I will go back to work on this,” the tactician said in a post-match conference.

    The Pride of Rivers narrowly lost 1-0 to the Dream Team VI at the Abuja National Stadium on Monday evening, but the coach was satisfied with the performance of his boys.

    “We played more as a team today (Monday), unlike our first game when we were just chasing the ball with no purpose. Forget the fact that we have not scored a goal so far, I am confident and happy that our game has improved.

    Veteran goalkeeper Rotimi Sunday made another blunder in two days, and the coach was quick to say that the club would recruit a good goalkeeper and keep the experienced goal minder.

    “The goal against us was a goalkeeper’s blunder and I think we need to work on his psychology and other challenges he has. He is not a bad goalkeeper but I think we will bring in another goalkeeper but will not throw Rotimi Sunday away because he has the experience we will need someday,” he added.

    The coach promised that they shall be back to the league and the CAF Confederation Cup with a better team that will live up to expectation.

  • Eguma explains late start

    Eguma explains late start

    Dolphins head coach, Stanley  Eguma has explained why his team resumed one week behind schedule for the 2014/15 football season.

    Dolphins officially opened camp on Sunday, January 11, 2015 but did not get a full house of players until one week later and Eguma states why.

    “It’s very unfortunate that we are starting very late but a lot of things contributed to it. We first had to register our team for the continent, then sort out logistics to get players in camp and we are happy all that is behind us now,” he said.

    “We hope we can achieve a little before the tournament in Abuja. As the saying goes, better late than never.”

    Eguma added that Dolphins will not be in Abuja to win the Super 4 tournament but to prepare the team for the CAF Confederation Cup next month.

    “The idea is to prepare for the CAF Confederation Cup next month and we will use the Super 4 to build ourselves,” said he.

    Only Emeka Atuloma was not in camp by the time the team trained on Monday evening with Onyekachi Akakem who formerly played his football in Libya as the latest to arrive at about noon on Monday.

  • Confed Cup crisis hits Dolphins

    Confed Cup crisis hits Dolphins

     • Exit of Eduok, Ebimobowei depletes squad

    One of Nigeria’s  representatives in the CAF Confederations Cup, Dolphins are at the risk of early elimination from the tournament if nothing is done to nip in the bud the crisis involving the team.

    SportingLife gathered that the technical crew of the Port Harcourt-based side registered four strikers for the second tier CAF club competition but with less than four weeks to the club’s first game against Leonas Vegetarianos of Equatorial Guinea, only two strikers are available for the continental games.

    Stanley Eguma, the technical adviser of Dolphins, had listed Ifeanyi Egwim, Omo Johnson, Emem Eduok and Peter Ebimobowei as the four strikers in his squad for the 2015 CAF Confederation campaign.

    However, while Ebimobowei, who was released on loan to Dolphins from Bayelsa after scoring 18 goals last season, has reportedly joined Egyptian giants,Al Ahly, Eduok on the other hand has pitched his tent with Esperance of Tunisia.

    Dolphins are now left with two strikers; Egwim and Johnson, but have up till January 15 to name replacements for the two players.

    The Port Harcourt club, who lost in the final of this tournament against Raja Casablanca of Morocco about a decade ago, now face a race against time to meet CAF’s deadline and register two players to replace Eduok and Ebimobowei.

    But the problem now is that head of the team’s technical crew, Stanley Eguma, left for Tunisia since last Friday and has not returned to Port Harcourt to assess the players he would name as replacements.

    “The situation is really dicey”an official told SportingLife.

    Continuing, he said: “Our coach has travelled to Tunisia with the General Manager since Friday and we have till January 15 to name replacements for Eduok and Ebimobowei.

    “We registered the two strikers for the CAF Confederation Cup with the belief that they would be available but their transfer has left us with a depleted squad,” he said.

    If Dolphins fail to beat CAF’s January 15 deadline to replace the two players, they would have to play with a depleted side and pray that they get to the group stages where they would have another chance to register new players.

  • CAF ConfedERATIONS Cup: Eguma worried about Dolphins’ readiness

    CAF ConfedERATIONS Cup: Eguma worried about Dolphins’ readiness

    Coach of Dolphins  FC Stanley Eguma is not happy with the way his team is preparing for the preliminary round of matches for next season’s CAF Confederations Cup.

    Speaking with footballlive.ng, Eguma says it is a big minus that his team is not in competitive form especially as other African teams are in season.

    Hear him: “The team will resume in early January and we’ll go straight into camping where we’ll work on the players and try to get into good shape for the competition.

    “Most African teams have their leagues on but I think our opponent from Equatorial Guinea is a good line up for us.

    “We just hope and pray that we’ll be able to do enough to scale through this round because it is not going to be easy.”

    Dolphins will engage Equatorial Guinea outfit Vegetarianos in the preliminary round of the 12th edition of the CAF Confederation Cup for 2015.

    The Port Harcourt-based side will travel to Equatorial Guinea for the first leg before hosting them in the return leg a week later.

  • Eguma satisfied with Dolphins form

    Eguma satisfied with Dolphins form

    Dolphins manager, Stanley Eguma, has said he is satisfied with the performance of his team in their 1-0 defeat of Kano Pillars in their Glo Premier League tie on Sunday at the Liberation Stadium.

    Emem Eduok zipped past Isaac Loute before going round Pillars keeper Theophilus Afelokhai to score the only goal of the match on 23 minutes.

    Eguma insisted his team played to win against a formidable opponent.

    He praised his players for putting up a commendable performance despite playing many matches within a short time following their run to the Federation Cup semifinals.

    “I’m satisfied that we were able to beat the leaders of the league,” he told supersport.com.

    “My players tried. They have done well to get the three points.

    “We’ve been playing a match almost every 48 hours, so they can’t play at the same level all the time.

    “When you play in midweek and the following weekend, including the long journeys, there is no way it won’t affect the team.

    “Kano Pillars isn’t a pushover. We played to win and we didn’t expect to score too many goals against them.”

    He praised Pillars for playing with confidence.

    “I could see from their game plan that they came to win, but it didn’t work out for them.

     

    “We also needed the victory and we didn’t take them for granted.

    “They have all it takes to be where they are. They are a good side,” he said.

  • Eguma wants Glo League title

    Eguma wants Glo League title

    AFTER breaking his Owerri hoodoo on Sunday, Dolphins head coach, Stanley Eguma says the club wants nothing but the Globacom Premier League title this season.

    Eguma who is currently the longest serving coach in the Globacom Premier League says it is a gift he must give to fans of the club considering how bad their last two seasons have been.

    Dolphins won the League in 2011 but ever since have struggled to escape relegation on the last day of the season for two straight years, a situation Eguma wants to change.

    “We can go for the title and we can win the title. We have struggled for two seasons and we are ready to get back to the top where we belong,” Eguma said. “We have gone for youth and pace this time to work with some of the older and more experienced players in the team and we believe that this will work for us. The players know what is up against them and they have assured me that they will give their best to ensure that we have a memorable season so I am assuring the fans that this season will be better than the rest,” Eguma said.

    Dolphins have won the Nigerian League three times in 1997, 2004 and 2011 and have won the FA Cup four times in 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2007.

  • Eguma: Abolition of signing-on fees is good

    Eguma: Abolition of signing-on fees is good

    The Head Coach of Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt, Stanley Eguma, says the abolition of signing-on fees by the League Management Company (LMC) was a good decision.

    Eguma told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that though the decision was best, it had the tendency to generate controversies because it was taken at the wrong time.

    According to him, clubs have already engaged players for the 2013/2014 season and it will create misunderstanding.

    “The initiative is a good one as players are now going to be paid on the basis of performance. It is a very good decision but it is too late to be adhered to this season. This is because the league was meant to have started since last year and club managers have already engaged players who are expecting signing-on fees.

    “If it was brought up prior to now, it would have been a milestone, but it can be fully implemented in 2015 based on contracts that had already been made for 2013/2014 season,’’ Eguma told NAN.

    NAN reports that following the abolition of the sign-on fees from the 2013/14 season, the LMC said that an enhanced salary scheme would come on stream.

    LMC had said that henceforth, no complaint of non-payment of signing-on fees by players would be entertained.

    On preparations by Dolphin FC for the forthcoming season, Eguma said the team had improved on the intensity of its preparations by engaging in stiffer friendly matches.

    “We are preparing well. We have also been playing friendly matches here and there and soon, we will be on our way to Lagos to play in anticipation of the league. Its part of a way of fine-tuning for the season”, he told NAN.

    The Globacom Premier League 2013/2014 season would start on Feb. 23. This was announced by the LMC after a meeting with the 20 clubs on Monday in Abuja.

  • Eguma promises better season

    Eguma promises better season

    Dolphins manager, Stanley Eguma has promised Dolphins would make up for the disappointment of the past two seasons by clinching a place on the continent.

    The 2010/11 premier league champions have had their fate in the top flight decided on the final match day in the past two campaigns and Eguma has declared next season would be different.

    He told supersport.com: “Dolphins have always brought joy to the people of Rivers State and we are promising them we will do much better next season.

    “We have not met our targets in the past two seasons, and two years in the doldrums is long enough for us to act to reverse the trend.

    “Our target is to qualify for Africa next season by finishing in a good position in the premiership. We want to return the team back to its winning ways.”

    Eguma has, however, ruled out rebuilding his side to achieve this objective.

    He insists he would only add a few new faces to energise the team, adding that they were still a force to be reckoned with.

    “We have always been involved in the transfer market, but we have tried to maintain the nucleus of the team to ensure continuity,” he told supersport.com.

    “Players would always come and go, but there has to be a foundation.

    “We would add wisely to make our squad very competitive.

    “This is the same team that won the league two years ago, so we can’t just start building another one from the scratch.”

    He said the league was unusually tight last term and that it would be unfair to criticise their performance simply because they avoided relegation on the last day of the season.

    “It was an unusually tight and difficult campaign with over half of the teams finishing so close to each other,” he said.

    “No team was outstanding as most of the clubs had their fate decided on the last day. There were four clubs fighting for the title and continental slots, while most of the others weren’t mathematically safe from the drop.

    “In the circumstances we didn’t do too badly, but it was a far cry from the targets we had set out for the team.” Dolphins finished ninth with 53 points.

  • Eguma wants kick-off date extended

    Eguma wants kick-off date extended

    Dolphins manager, Stanley Eguma is adamant that one month will be inadequate for clubs to prepare for the new season.

    Eguma, who was reacting to the decision of the League Management Company (LMC) to start the 2013/14 Globacom Premier League (Glo league) season on November 22, believes a lot more time will be required to prepare the teams physically and mentally for the upcoming season.

    He told supersport.com: “A one-month break will not be enough because it is very important that the players get some time to rest after a long season. Then the coaches and the management need to strategise since the preparations have to do with finance.

    “It is also very important that we regroup at the right time to ensure each member of the team is heading in the same direction and I doubt if all these can be achieved within a month.”

    Eguma also urged the LMC to revisit the live broadcast of Globacom Premier League matches before the commencement of the new season.

    Even though the LMC has hinted there could be as many as five matches broadcast each weekend; Eguma insists the most contentious aspect of the live transmission has yet to be addressed.

    “I hope they have a another look at the live telecast of matches. As it stands, only matches in the southern part of the country are being televised while those in the north are never covered,” he told supersport.com.

    “Why cover some and leave out some others? Where is the fair play in the league? Some stadia are television friendly, while others are not. The standards have to cut across to ensure fairness. I think issues like this ought to be resolved before the start of the new season.”

  • ‘Signing-on fees, bonus issues affecting Dolphins’

    ‘Signing-on fees, bonus issues affecting Dolphins’

    Stanley Eguma of Dolphins Football Club of Port Harcourt believes that the lacklustre performance of his team in the ongoing season is caused by the lingering signing-on fee and bonus problems.

    Dolphins, unlike their fellow Rivers State-owned club, Sharks FC, can only boast of just eight points after seven matches. They are however hoping for a win against Nasarawa United in week eight to help boost their stand on the table.

    In a chat with SportingLife, Eguma admitted that the club’s performance has been quite poor but attributes it to a problem that has lingered for over a year now.

    “I quite agree with you that it has not been so bad for Dolphins especially at the beginning of a season like this. But one thing is that the problem with the team has lingered. It’s a kind of prolonged, protracted problem which has not been settled”, Eguma said.

    He continued: “I must tell you that the spirit in the camp of the team is very low. I thank the commissioner for coming around to pally with the team and trying to delve into the issue, discussing with them so they could summon the courage to play.

    “This problem has been there since last season. It was there when we played in the continent and it was one of the problems that made us fall out of the competition early.”

    Eguma also related that his crew has done its best to ensure the good results come.

    “It’s quite unfortunate; we on our side have been doing very well. We’ve been working above our capacity to see that we harness and put these players in the best shape.

    “I know we’ve not gotten the best results so far but with time and productivity, we will. They are good players, it’s just that their state of mind is not good enough to give us what we desire and that is why I’m still optimistic that the team can still spring up to be among the title contenders”, he said.