By Jacob Ajom
Newly appointed technical adviser of struggling Nigeria Premier League debutants, Ikorodu United, Sam Okpodu has acknowledged the enormity of the task at hand as he moved to begin the rebuilding process at the club.

“It’s enormous,” he said, after watching the boys go down 1-2 to visiting Giwa United FC in an explosive NPFL match at the Onikan Stadium Sunday.

Just when everybody thought the tie was going to end at 1-1, Giwa FC midfielder, Amos Gyang struck to give the visitors a deserved 2-1 lead few minutes from the end of the match. Okpodu said he was not discouraged by the defeat because the situation was redeemable.

“The task is enormous,” he admitted repeatedly, adding, “it is surmountable. The situation is not as bad as it looks because the team is good.”

He is full of optimism and said he was sure of turning things around because of the quality of players in the team.

“We are beginning training tomorrow(Monday). The players are there all they need is a direction. We need to guide them and restore their self confidence.”

Okechukwu Emechetie, assistant coach who fielded questions at the post-match briefing agreed with Okpodu. “We have the quality. I think the problem is psychological because they have been playing well but not being able to score goals. And we are conceding a lot. I think their self-confidence is at the lowest ebb. And this is what we are going to work on before the Nasarawa match.”

Ifegwu Ojukwu, the lone goal scorer and one of the star players in the team agreed. “We can’t exactly say why we have not been scoring. We play very well but the goals have refused to come. But against Nasarawa, we are surely going to come out tops.”