Africa Cup of Nations 1992 bronze medallist and handler of The PUNCHERS, Friday Ekpo, has warned ex-Super Eagles forward, Victor Agali, coach of Media Amalgamated, that his side will be a tough nut to crack when both teams faceoff in a novelty game on Saturday.
The match holds at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan, Lagos on February 24.
As part of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of The PUNCH, Nigeria’s most-read newspaper, the novelty match was arranged between The PUNCHERS and Media Amalgamated, a select group of journalists from Tribune, Nation, Vanguard, ThisDay, Leadership, Telegraph and The Guardian newspapers.
The highly anticipated and potentially explosive novelty match marks the commencement of an array of epoch-making activities for the 50th-anniversary celebration of Nigeria’s most-read newspaper.
In preparation for the mouth-watering encounter, The PUNCHERS already had a three training sessions and are set for another training on Wednesday (today) at their adopted home ground, Mountain Top University, Magboro, Ogun State.
Speaking ahead of their next training session, when The PUNCHERS are expected to put finishing touches to their preparations for the game, Ekpo said his side would be too tough for their opponents to handle.
“We will have our next training session on Wednesday (today) when we will finalise everything ahead of the game,” he said.
“We will give them (Media Amalgamated) a team difficult to play and I can assure everyone that we will enjoy the game and the anniversary because we have nothing to worry about.
“Every one of my players has put in their best and trained very hard and we’ve been able to build a strong team. I know my men are not professionals but journalists who are good at writing but on Saturday they will prove that they can also play football very well just the way they write.
“My players will play to their strengths and enjoy the match to the fullest. We want to win because we are the ones celebrating.”
Day one of the training last Wednesday saw The PUNCHERS work on their fitness, ball control, passing, shooting, defending and dribbling.
On their second training, Ekpo ensured that his lads worked according to instruction as the former Eagles midfielder perfected his strategies for the game.
Having worked on their winning strategies on Friday, the AFCON 1992 bronze medallist on Saturday ensured that his players were mentally prepared for the most talked about match.
Meanwhile, the Media Amalgamated team, under the supervision of Agali, had their first training session on Saturday at the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium, Lagos.
