Following a commanding 2-0 defeat of Katsina United on Matchday 6 of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), Nasarawa United are firmly perched atop the log, displacing unbeaten Enyimba to second place.
Mangut Mbwas, the club coach however is playing down this leap for the club that have only struggled to beat relegation by slim margins in the last two seasons.
Mbwas, who arrived Lafia from neighbouring Tin City of Jos where he worked as Coach of Plateau United, has within the few Matchdays given Nasarawa United fans reason to entertain longings for another glorious era.
“We have remain focused. It’s not time for celebration yet because the league is a marathon, and still at its infancy”, Mbwas responded at a post match conference when asked to react to the win and their position on the log.
“It’s a thing of joy to win today. Our response was great because we have been working so hard.
“We actually planned for this, and we are achieving our goals gradually”, he continued.
Specifically assessing the opposition, Katsina United and their performance, Mbwas insisted that the scoreline didn’t come easy as it may seem, and attributing their eventual success to the first half goal by last season’s top scorer, Anas Yusuf.
“Katsina United are a team that could deny you win because they won’t allow you to play. The first-half goal gave us an edge to score the second one, even though we squandered some flurry of chances.
“We should have scored more than two goals today, but it seems my players were over anxious in front of goal, but we are working towards correcting all of those”.
Looking ahead, the former Heartland of Owerri captain, believes that they would implement learnings from the errors of previous games, especially as they travel to Benin to play Insurance on Matchday 7.
“In our next game, it won’t be easy, but my team is growing in confidence, game in, game out, and I believe we could win anywhere.”, declared Mbwas
The team’s mastery on the field was evident, with the two well-crafted goals coming off the boots of last season’s highest goalscorer award recipient, Anas Yusuf, at the stroke of half-time following a powerful shot from thirty-five metres, and right back, Abubakar Abdullahi, through a sublime finish, sealing the win 17 minutes to regulation time.