The Owena Waves, despite losing their 36th game away at Owerri to Heartland through a lone goal, escaped relegation this season. Sunshine after 36 games maintained 51 points with 4 goals advantage. Should Sunshine acquire a point more, this means no team from 15th position can reach their tally. The Owena Waves are hoping for a continental spot and could displace Remo Stars, who currently sit on the third position when both sides clash this weekend at Akure.
Last season Sunshine survived relegation with a two points advantage over Jigawa Golden who finished 17th place on 43 points.
Sunshine will play two teams who need points to secure a continental spot in Remo Stars and Dakadda who need to move out from the relegation zone.
“I give it to the players and the technical team, they did well. They fought hard and it paid off. Whatever it takes we are moving hopefully to the end of the season. The next two matches, the home and away to Dakkada, I hope we win.”
The manager said he gave the players N100,000 for drawing Rivers at home and Plateau at Jos.
“You may have a team with good players, and they may not perform. There were matches they got set to play and l said, ‘win this match and I will give you 100,000 naira. I did it for them in Port Harcourt against Rivers United. We drew, l gave them 50,000. In Nasarawa, they drew l gave them 50,000”.
“You have to motivate these players. There is a lot of motivation in the team. We don’t owe salaries. We pay bonuses immediately after the match.
“That’s what has been making teams like Enyimba thrive. Anyansi is a good administrator. I admire him, l envy him too. So, motivation matters in football; financial motivation, and moral motivation. Relegation is a thing of the past for Sunshine Stars”.
“The framework and articles of operation of LMC is that security before, during and after a match be provided by the host FA. So, any State’s FA hosting any match has to take care of security,” Ogunja remarked.
“I won’t lie to you, some of our referees are bad. But we, thank God, they are surviving. The league has improved, but there are still ‘buts’ here and there.
“The length of any match depends on the referee. They have their special time. If the referee tells you that he will play 15 to 20 minutes after 90 minutes, you can’t query him. They know how they do their thing. I am not interested, l am not involved.”
