By Lexi Elo with Agency Report
Kano Pillars’ head coach, Okey Emordi believes that his side has nothing to celebrate yet in their marathon race for continental glory after a 3-0 victory recorded over Al-Malakia in the second leg of the preliminary round of the CAF Champions League at the weekend.
The reigning NPFL champions zoomed into the first round of the African elite club competition with a 5-0 aggregate win over the South Sudanese outfit after the second leg fixture at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano.
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Emordi, who on his second stint, finally saw the Kano outfit beyond the opening stage in three successive attempts, lamented his side’s failure to get more than three goals against the South Sudanese.
“I thought we could have gotten more goals because in the first half we were lacking seriously most especially in goal scoring. We had opportunity to have scored about 2-3 goals in the first half. The team is not a push over, they tried their best. They are just new intakes into this competition. This is their second appearance in the competition. I know as time goes on they will do better,” Emordi told Goal.com.
Emordi said there was still a long way to go for his team to reach the group phase.
“No, it is not yet uhuru until it is uhuru. You see we have a long way to go, not until we get to the group stage before we say we are going to do something. We still have one or two preliminary games to go. So, it is not yet uhuru,” he added.
On the secret behind the turnaround in Pillars’ continental fortunes, the former Enyimba and Enugu Rangers gaffer admitted he had to work on the psyche of the players in changing their orientation for the game.
“I think the orientation had to change. And we succeeded in changing it. Telling the boys that this is our primary and principal job, we don’t have any other job. If you want to achieve or become somebody in life, we must achieve this through playing football,” he noted.
The Kano Pillars coach hinted that he awaits the report from its official sent as spy to watch their next round opponents, Morroco’s Moghreb Tétouan, who edged out Mali’s Olympique de Bamako 3-2 on aggregate.
“I have to see the report taken by my colleague that travelled to [Mali] and see how it is and from there we keep on working for the encounter. If you remember Mali in 1973, they came to Algeria and beat them to carry the Champions League. So they are not a push over team,” he concluded.