Finidi George Reveals Why Rivers United Lost NPFL Game To Ikorodu City

Rivers United manager, Finidi George has revealed that his team lost their Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) game to newly promoted Ikorodu City due to a lack of concentration from his team.

On Sunday, November 3, coach Finidi George led Rivers United to the Onikan Stadium in Lagos for their 10th NPFL game of the season and they were expected to return to Port Harcourt with at least a point; interestingly, it was not to be.

Note that Rivers United went into the game as table-toppers of the NPFL and were enjoying a 9-game unbeaten run including two away wins. Despite the outstanding form, Ikorodu City, who have recorded five defeats in 10 games, outplayed the visitors.

After playing a goalless first half, Ikorodu City went into the second half looking more compact both in attack and defence. Their purposeful style of play paid off in the 48th minute when Ayomide Cole opened the scoring from close range.

Five minutes later, Rivio Ayemwenre scored the second goal after picking up a rebound in the 53rd minute. Afterwards, the visiting team tried to get a goal back, but the discipline of Ikorodu’s backline prevented that from happening as the game ended 2-0 in favour of the hosts.

After the game, Naija News asked Finidi George how he felt following Rivers United’s first defeat of the NPFL season, he said: “That is football. You know, sometimes in the game you are going to lose, but I think we should have played better but careless goals, I think those are cheap [goals].

“After those two moments, nothing happened in the game. Football, I think you have to concentrate for 90 minutes, but we will go back and see, watch the video and see where we got it wrong.”

On whether he expected to suffer a defeat at the hands of Rivers United, the former Super Eagles head coach said, “This is football. What do you expect that you win all the matches in the league? Sometimes, things like this will happen and you will have to think about how to bounce back to winning ways.”

When asked why his team suffered the unexpected defeat, Finidi George said, “I think in the first half, we had one or two moments where we counter-attacked, and we didn’t make the right decisions. The first half ended 0-0. And in the second half, the concentration wasn’t there 100% and they got the first goal. From that moment, they stepped up in the game and got the second goal. I give credit to them, they did well, got the chances and scored.

“But I think for us to move forward time wasting is not the best. What I saw today is time-wasting because you are leading; we can’t move forward with that.”

Note that with the defeat against Rivers United, coach Finidi George and his boys have slipped down from first place to the second spot in the NPFL table with 21 points in 10 games, the same as first-placed Remo Stars, who have a better goal difference.

After the 2-0 defeat in Lagos, Finidi told Naija News that the loss wasn’t a “cause for alarm”, stressing that Rivers United are still on course to win the NPFL despite dropping three points against the newly promoted side.

“Of course, we know that we can’t keep this run up for 38 games, so it’s so that the boys know that they have to work hard. This happens in football, so we back and plan”, the coach noted.

During the game, coach Finidi George was seen on the touchline agitating against some calls which went in favour of Ikorodu City.

After the game, Naija News asked him what he thinks about the officiating, the former Super Eagles coach avoided giving a direct response.

The coach, who seemed unhappy about the officiating, said, “What did you see? People shouldn’t be asking this question because if you see what I am seeing. What are you asking me? What did you watch? You don’t have anything to lose; you are a journalist, so you don’t have anything [to lose]. I am losing, and you are watching the game, and you are asking me if I was agitated.”

Rivers United’s next league game is a home match against 18th-placed Bayelsa United, while 17th-placed Ikorodu City will play Katsina United away on Sunday, November 10.