Tag: Zachary Baraje

El-Kanemi Warriors head coach, Zachary Baraje has expressed disappointment with Stanley Eguma’s concerns about fairness in their upcoming NPFL tie in Maiduguri.

Eguma had expressed concerns over the lack of media coverage and “monitoring of the match” in Maiduguri.

Baraje said Eguma’s concerns were unfounded as none of the teams that had visited the El-Kanemi Stadium this season had complained about poor officiating or inadequate security.

He told supersport.com: “Why is he (Eguma) expressing any fear? He should ask the teams that have lost to us if they have been cheated. Have they lost to undeserved goals and penalties? Nobody has complained about unfairness, so I don’t know where all this is coming from.

“We haven’t had any ugly or bad incident in Maiduguri because there is tight security in our stadium despite the stadium being mostly filled up. When we played them (Dolphins) earlier on at the Liberation Stadium, they won by a penalty and one of my player’s received a red card, so why is he crying ahead of time?”

Baraje said he was confident they would beat Dolphins on Wednesday.

“In as much as one cannot predict the results of matches, I do not see Dolphins escaping defeat at my home. We’ll be going all out for victory after losing our last game to Sharks. We also need victory to sustain our title challenge, and we’ll surely beat them,” he told supersport.com.

Baraje was Eguma’s assistant at Dolphins for two seasons before joining El-Kanemi Warriors at the start of the current campaign.

El-Kanemi Warriors are third in the NPFL with 54 points from 34 matches, while Dolphins are 11th with 47 points from the same number of matches.

NIGERIA PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE:

El-Kanemi Warriors’ coach, Zachary Baraje has said it is almost 100% certain the side’s former striker, Ezekiel Thompson will lace his boots for the side at the end of the ongoing Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) transfer window.

Thompson made futile attempt to secure a permanent switch to Enugu Rangers but is wanted badly by the Maiduguri-based side to strengthen their attack in the ongoing 2012/13 NPFL season.

Baraje said his side’s management has been working tirelessly to ensure that all the paper work needed to properly secure his service are completed before the curtain falls on the first transfer window.

“We’ve almost done everything to ensure we have Ezekiel Thompson to ourselves for the remainder of the season. The management has followed up his paper documentation with zeal, I think it’s a done deal.

“We need his service badly in the front and it’s our hope his coming will add value and assist in solving the problems in the attack,” said the former Nasarawa United coach to supersport.com.

Baraje further said that his side are equally on the trail of a few good players but declined to disclose their identities.

“I don’t think it’s right to disclose their names when discussion is still ongoing. We’ll make their identities known once we’ve concluded every formality.

“The players are the ones we believe will assist us in overcoming the hitches we’ve been battling in the last nine weeks of the Nigeria Professional Football League,” he said.

The Nigeria Football Professional Football League (NPFL) newcomers are third from the rear on nine points from possible 27.

El-Kanemi Warriors will battle the side’s feeder team, El-Kanemi Babes in the Borno State FA Cup final on Saturday at the Maiduguri Township Stadium and Baraje said he will unleash the full weight on them aimed at picking a win.

“I’m not looking at them as a small side, we may suffer a upset if we make the mistake of underrating them. As far as we’re concerned they’re a big side and we’ll be going all out for victory.

“Both sides will represent the state at the national finals, we want to be the state champions,” he said.