Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Akwa Utd cry foul

By Legheri Onyamom

Akwa United defender, Hamza Onwuemenyi has described the decision of the NFF Appeal Committee to order a replay of the inconclusive premier league tie between his club and Warri Wolves in Owerri as "unfair."

Akwa United were leading the abandoned Week 16 encounter in Uyo 2-0 when the centre referee, Henry Ogunmoyadi refused to continue after alleging he had been harassed by hoodlums during the half time break.

Onwuemenyi believes the correct decision would have been to resume the second half of the game at the Uyo Township Stadium, the venue of the abandoned tie.

"I think the decision to replay the entire game, rather than resume from where we stopped in the original fixture is very unfair to us," he told supersport.com.

"We were involved in a similar situation earlier in the season when rain caused the abandonment of our game against Dolphins in Port Harcourt, and we played out the second half the following day without much fuss even though we were already down by two goals.

"I really don't understand why the game should be moved to Owerri because nobody has been able to establish that the referee was assaulted.

"It doesn't make sense for our supporters to attack the referee in a match we were comfortably leading by half time. That certainly didn't happen.

"I feel Warri Wolves knew they were up against it and manipulated the situation to get a replay."

Onwuemenyi, however, told supersport.com that they are still confident of clinching victory at the Dan Anyiam Stadium on Wednesday.

"We may be playing in Owerri, but it's still a home match and we are determined to nick the three points," he said.

"If Warri Wolves are hoping to come out strong because they feel the match has been moved to a neutral venue then they will be in for a surprise."


Akwa United are 18th in the Glo Premier League with 27 points from 21 matches, while Warri Wolves are way above in second place with 37 points from 22 matches.

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