Enyimba Deserves League Title – Pillars’ Coach

Head coach of Kano Pillars, Salisu Yusuf, has admitted that new Premier League champion, proved that it deserves to be crowned new kings of Nigerian club football.

Yusuf told Naijaligue.blogspot.com that the Peoples Elephant showed hunger in the title-deciding game between it and his side, Kano Pillars, on July 7 at Aba by seizing the initiative from the blast of the referee’s whistle.

The former Lobi Stars’ coach also said his players had learnt a valuable lesson in playing a big game like the one against the Peoples Elephant in Aba.

“They are the best club in the country right now. And that was what they showed in the game against us. I think we started very slowly in that game and we were caught off guard even before the game started and by the time we started playing we had no time again in the match.

“But we have learnt our lessons this season. We have also learnt that playing in the final game of the season in which we needed to win to become champions that we needed to remain 100 per cent focused. Over all we did well this season but it could have been better by winning the league trophy,” said Yusuf.

However, the Kano Pillars’ gaffer looks back at the season and believes that if his side had if his team had maintained a 100 per cent record at home with dropping four points, he could have been celebrating a second title in the club’s history.

Yusuf, who was assistant to Kadiri Ikhana in the 2007/2008 season when Kano Pillars won its first Premier League trophy, took consolation in the fact that his side would return to the CAF Champions League next year.

He is also happy that his striker, Ahmed Musa, was able to set a new record in the history of the Nigerian league as the first player to score 18 goals in a single season.

“The only consolation we have for not winning the trophy is qualifying for the (CAF) Champions League. Then we can also say we are happy for Ahmed Musa, who set a new record. May be it would have been different if we had won all of our home matches this season and may be that would have meant that we could have won the league before the last game (against Enyimba),” said Yusuf.