Having lost their first match of the NWPL Super 4 to 10-man Bayelsa on Friday, Sunshine Queens of Akure bounced back with a solid 1-0 victory over Rivers Angels on Sunday to emerge third place winners.
Speaking after the game on what they did differently from the loss on Friday head coach of the side Wemimo Matthew said: “We lost the first match but we had a lot of chances which we failed to convert. So on getting to the hotel we talked about our goalscoring abilities.
“I called the girls and there is one important thing I told them which is that: we always have our chances as early as possible so this time around (in the third place final against Rivers Angels) any chance we have we should make use of it and that was what happened.
Although they emerged eventual winners thanks to an own goal, the Owena Mermaids were deserved third place winners having outplayed and outclassed the 2018 AITEO Cup champions for the majority of the game and were only unlucky not to have added to their goal tally.
According to coach Wemimo Matthew, the girls were motivated by the initial loss picking themselves up and deciding to go for the third place trophy and a million naira rather than leave Lagos empty handed.
“The girls were just ready to play the game. They said although they lost the first game they’ve put that behind them an were ready to go back home with at least third place which they did.”
Meanwhile second place Nasarawa Amazons and eventual champions Bayelsa Queens were rewarded with two million naira and three million naira respectively.
