For a team currently ranked second from bottom on the league log, it is expected that a whole weight of pressure will be cranking up on the playing personnel and most especially, the coaching crew.
Some seven odd years ago, Wolves used to be a formidable side feared in the country. Having narrowly lost the 2013 FA Cup final on penalties to Enyimba, the Seasiders then put up respectable showings in the league in 2014 and 2015, finishing second behind same Enyimba in the latter season.
What would however follow those years of fearsome competition was an anticlimax as the team got relegated from Nigeria’s top tier division in 2016. Since then, life never remained the same for the club that has consistently remained in the lower half of the league table anytime they are in the top flight.
Warri Wolves on Wednesday faced their bogey side Enyimba once again at the Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro (their home ground this season) in a rescheduled Match Day 10 encounter. The game ended 1-1 with Wolves’ Efe Yarhere, one of the most experienced members of the team sent off in the first half.
There were widespread rumours and speculations in Warri before the game that team’s head coach Evans Ogenyi is under fire from the team’s management and could lose his job with a loss to Enyimba, his former club. With a point earned in difficult circumstances, it remains to be seen if the result would at least keep him in the job a little longer.
For Ogenyi though, he holds no fear for the future, insisting that whatever happens “is not a death sentence”. “As a professional, whatever comes your way is not a death sentence. So I am not under pressure, whatever happens, I still give God praise,” began the Benue-born coach to www.npfl.ng
“I’m a top professional coach and under this present circumstances, to the best of my knowledge, I have done my bit. I have been trying to steer the ship.
“If you go round to ask the players, they will tell you that I’ve been trying to see that the team do well to the time that when window opens, we can inject some new players.
“So I have done a lot as a professional, whatever happens is not a death sentence, I will appreciate it and move on with my life,” said Ogenyi who coached Bayelsa United at a point during the 2014/15 season when they got relegated from the league.
As the battle to avoid the dreaded drop rages on, so also is the race for Ogenyi to avoid the sack. He however has another big task in his hands, a home tie to negotiate against 5th place Akwa United in Ozoro on Sunday. Akwa United have lost just once in their last seven games and will come to test Wolves the more. Ogenyi hopes to hang onto the positives from Wednesday’s draw ahead of the Akwa game.
“The end of one match is the beginning of another and sometimes if you don’t appreciate your present result, you can’t even celebrate victory because in any match you play, you must pick the positives.
“It’s still a marathon league but it pains me that I dropped two points at home but I will always approach every match with the seriousness it deserves and that’s my approach,” concluded Ogenyi.
