By John Egbokhan

Despite their lowly 17th position in the Nigeria Premier League, Sharks captain, Odinga Odinga has boasted that the Port Harcourt side will soon swim out of troubled waters and start jostling for a top-five finish at the end of the current campaign. Sharks have endured a 19-week romance within the bottom five of the Nigerian top-flight. For some weeks, they were rooted to the base of the table, with fans crying for drastic actions to be taken to self their darling team from self-destruction.

In the last three weeks, Sharks have managed to salvage something of their season, swimming from the bottom to the 17th spot, a feat which Odinga insisted can only get better when the league resumes from the two-week break as directed by the League Management Company.

Speaking in an interview with Sports Vanguard during the Eunisell jersey unveiling, Odinga said that the team have learnt their lessons the hard way and have resolved not to look down in their bid to compete for honours in the unfolding season.

“Of course, had our problems at the start of the season but we have moved on from these setbacks and want to make something out of our season. It has been a troubling start for us, following the beating up of myself and another player by some angry fans in Port Harcourt.

“That incident affected our performance because most players were afraid on the pitch. The circumstances did not help us at all but after the new Governor came on board and settled out outstanding salaries, we started moving in the direction we deserved to move towards.

“It might sound funny to some people, but our resolve is to finish the season within the top five bracket. We have 18 points now, while the leaders Sunshine Stars have 36 and the fourth placed team, Heartland have 32. Our calculation is that we keep improving, we might overtake Giwa who have 31 points.

“Ï know people will say I am joking but we are going to work hard in these two weeks of break and return stronger than other teams, so that we can march towards our objective”’, added the veteran defender