Ibrahim tags derby clash payback

Wikki Tourists captain and right back Mustapha Ibrahim has rightly tagged as payback the northern derby against El Kanemi Warriors.
The Bauchi Elephants will host the Maiduguri Warriors in Sunday’s Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) matchday 22 clash at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium (ATBS) in Buachi. The first fixture clash between both sides at the Maiduguri Township Stadium ended 2-1 in favour of the Maiduguri landlords.

Ibrahim said the management has done a lot to motivate the side to a convincing victory against visiting El Kanemi Warriors.
“The clash is a northern derby aside the fact that coach Ladan Bosso was with us for a period of time in the past.
“We have heard from the grapevine quoting him to be saying he is coming to Bauchi to achieve a double over us.
“However, I think we know him and his antics more than he knows us and we are going to work on it to get the desired result.
“Of course, the clash is a payback of a sort as we were beaten 1-2 in Maiduguri after we fought very hard to keep scores even.
“The spirit among my teammates is quite high coupled with the fact that the management has gone ahead to motivate us to victory.
“It’s a huge morale boost heading into the game as the management took time off to offset all the previous match bonuses with a firm promise to pay promptly our match bonus once we beat El Kanemi Warriors.
“Already we have vowed to claim the whole three points at stake to help our course on the log as well as restore some measure of confidence in the team.
“We actually need all the points more than El Kanemi Warriors and will fight hard to earn the points on the field of play,” said the former Nigerian junior international strongman to supersport.com.
The Bauchi landlords are 18th on the 20-team top-flight on 24 points 15 behind league leaders Plateau United.