by Baboucarr Fallaboweh
Real de Banjul and Team Rhino all registered a crucial win over the weekend to maintain their positions on the league table.
This came after a 1-0 defeat suffered at the hands of Waa Banjul, with the latter being beaten by BST Galaxy.
Real beat Brikama Utd 2-0 courtesy of Amadou Nyassi and Momodou Jobateh’s goals, while Team Rhino needed an 85th-minute penalty winner against Marimoo.
After the final whistle, Team Rhino Coach Yunusa Badjie, Wallidan Captain Kebba Sambou, and Steve Biko Adnan Musa all spoke to Alkamba Times to give their reactions to the match.
Congrats, Ebrima Jatta 🎉🥰👏
Y’all join us is congratulating our Head Coach, Ebrima Jatta who won the Coaches Association ‘Coach of the Month’ Award for November and December.
Giggs led the champions to 5 victories in 6 games scoring 9 goals and conceded just 2 in the process. pic.twitter.com/00sNHo6k3N
— Real De Banjul FC (@RealDeBanjulFC) December 24, 2023
Wallidan captain Kebba Sambou says the win in the capital will be the turn of fortune.
“Things were hard for us; we were working together as a team. We weren’t winning, but the teamwork was there all the time, and we fought together. The win arrives today, and we will continue winning now; we have moved out of the position that we were in.
After losing three in a row, Steve Biko is unbeaten in their last four games.
Then our next opponent was Real de Banjul they are the champions, but that was the best performance we had this season. The real goal was a deflection, for 20 minutes Real de Banjul were defending. After that we grabbed it and started winning, the new players started to catch up and started to understand the style of play. I think we are there because when I sat and look at things, losing three games on the bounce, when I look at the games against title contenders Real de Banjul, Falcons and Fortune then I know I have a team at hand.”
“If you look closely, you will see it’s not easy. Even though he had a good preseason with the system, the new players adoption of the system or way of playing consumed time. We were having problems with the backbone of the team. Dembo Saidykhan, who was the heart of the center; Ousman Sanneh, who was the center of the midfield; and Adama Bojang, who is the leading goal scorer. You will see that those are the keys; if you lose all of them, replacing them and getting their understanding will take time. Scoring shouldn’t be the problem; we worked, and the first game wasn’t even bad. In our game against the Armed Forces, the scoreline differs from the performance.
Team Rhino lost their six-game unbeaten run and conceded the season’s first goal against BST Galaxy on match day six. Yunusa Badjie’s charges responded brilliantly against a stubborn Marimoo FC side on Saturday.
“We wanted to react quickly, and we got a good response to our defeat against Galaxy. Because of our game against Galaxy, a lot of things didn’t go right during our preparation. There is a record between us and Marimoo, and we didn’t want that record to be spoiled. We knew all along that we couldn’t go all season without losing or conceding a goal. Marimoo is difficult to beat, and defensively, they are very organized. We were very conscious of the way they played. We created some opportunities, 1v1, which resulted in Marimoo’s defender being sent off, and then the penalty came, which was an open chance too. The way they were defending, that’s why we didn’t have an open play, which delayed us from scoring.
Week 7 Results
Samger 4 Tomorrow 1
Fernando Pereira, Benjamin Precious-Famara Camara, Ebrima Njie
TMT 0 Falcons 0
Fortune 0 Steve Biko 0
Team Rhino 1 Marimoo 0
Bai Beram Njie
GAF 0 BST Galaxy 1
Ansumana Gomez
Bombada 1 WAA Banjul 1
Lamin Tamba, Musa Ann
