Sports?Football: 'It's a major blow For Enyimba's Title Aspiration', Ikhana Dubs Derby Draw In Aba

Enyimba manager Kadiri Ikhana has admitted that Sunday's goalless draw with rivals Heartland is a major blow to the title aspirations of his team. The Aba side failed to beat Heartland for the first time in Aba since 2009 and saw the points difference between them and leaders Kano Pillars extended to six. A clearly dispirited Ikhana told EnyimbaFC.net: "This is not a good result for us. We really needed to win today to remain in a good position but now that is not the case." "I must admit that this is a major blow to our campaign and our ability to win the league. We know that every point now is crucial so this is a painful result for us, but it could easily had been a defeat so we must look at it with some regret, but mainly with hope." The former head coach of the Falcons stressed that the remaining games of the league were significant to his team's title ambitions. "We have dropped points at home so this means every remaining match of the season is a must win. Luckily we still have quite a number of matches to play so we must continue to work hard and get better results," he said. "There is still hope, but it just means we are now under more pressure." "No, that is not true," he stated. "It's a strategy we have used in the past and still went on to score and win. I do not believe that it was responsible. After all, if we had scored any of the late chances we had, we would not be having this conversation now. "This is not a matter of poor strategy or tactics, we were just unlucky. You could see that despite the changes we made, we still had plenty of chances. So that is not correct. Some games can be like this. What we just need to do is to continue to work hard and get maximum points in the next matches." Quite interestingly, Kadiri Ikhana did not once mention the wet conditions of the afternoon throughout the post-match interview. Enyimba have 44 points after Sunday's draw and slip to fourth on the log. They travel to Crown FC for a Matchday 30 tie.