Assistant Nadroga coach Jitesh Nath revealed that frustrating Rakiraki’s defence was the key in their 2-0 win in the second Premier Division semifinal of the 2023 Courts Inter District Championship at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva today.
Nath said despite a goalless first half, the team officials kept motivating the players and instructed them to communicate with each which resulted in booking a spot to the grand final against Tavua tomorrow.
“I thank our Nadroga boys for their fighting spirit although Rakiraki was a very strong team today.”
“When we regrouped in the change, I told the boys to have patience and just talk to each other on the field.”
“Our approach was to frustrate Rakiraki’s defence and when we did that, they got tired. We saw that opportunity and I told the boys from the sideline, just press hard.
“We didn’t want to take any chances because Rakiraki really countered us in all aspects of the first half but we changed our game plan and just told the boys to play in their territory. We told our boys not to allow Rakiraki in our half and that paid dividends.”
Nath added the team will go back and rework on their game plan and finishing matching up the goldminers tomorrow.
“Tavua has a lot of experienced players and we know they will come hard on us because they have relegated and would definitely want to end the year with the tournament win.”
“Injuries have mounted us but we hope our key players recover and are able to play in the final because just like Tavua, we also want to win.”
“We have played them in the national league but we don’t take the past result in the game tomorrow. League has nothing to do with the type of performance we want to put against Tavua and the next level performance we expect from them.”
Nadroga will meet Tavua at 11.30am tomorrow.
