NPFL: Complacency cost Heartland points against Katsina United – Ilechukwu

Fidelis Ilechukwu acknowledged he was extremely “disappointed” with Heartland’s performance against Katsina United in the NPFL season’s opener on Monday.

The Naze Billionaires went into the new campaign with optimism and were a few minutes away from securing victory, but suffered a 3–2 defeat to their hosts at the Muhammadu Diko Stadium.

Heartland took the lead in the second minute through a fine strike from Bright Onyedikachi.

Kastina United canceled out the advantage with goal from Boubacar Masally’s 44th minutes.

Heartland regained their lead in the 81st minute through Samuel Nnoshiri, but two goals in three minutes from Masally (88th minute) and substitute Samuel Kalu (92nd minute) turned the game on its head.

Reacting to his team’s collapse, Ilechukwu told brila.net that the players were complacent after they got their second goal.

“It’s so painful that we lost the game, after the first half everything was alright, but we collapsed towards the end of the match,” He told brila.net.

"We were relaxed, because the boys thought the game is done and dusted,
“They lost concentration and we made series of errors in dangerous areas and Katsina scored twice in three minutes,” he said.

The former MFM FC coach stressed further that he will continue to work on the players and optimistic they will get a win in their next game.

“We have already noticed the lapses and we will surely correct them before our next game,” he concluded.