Tour of Spain has helped Rivers United, says Festus

 

The Pride of Rivers’ skipper has hailed their pre-season trip to Spain while noting that this has further prepared them for next season.

Rivers United’s captain, Austin Festus has expressed his delight at the Pride of Rivers pre-season tour of Spain and that it would help them in Nigeria topflight and the CAF Champions League where they have a preliminary round tie with AS Real Bamako of Mali in February.

He stated that their victory during the NPFL Super Four concluded in Enugu just a day before their departure to Spain was very pivotal and that the title informed them that they must double up their efforts in the European land adding that this guided them
to aim at beating their opponents in the few friendly matches organized for them.

Festus told Goal: “It was an eye opener for us and we cannot thank the Governor of Rivers, Nyesom Wike enough for putting this in place for us.

"It was an act of God that we will travel to Spain as the Super Four champions and this guided us while there that we must give good representation as representatives of the country. We held meeting among ourselves as players that we must be united and target victory in all our matches there.

“Our first game against Villarreal B was not easy but we used our experience to outwit them and against CD Roda we were close to getting another win before they salvaged a draw in the dying moments of the encounter.

"We are going to repay this kind act with impressive performances when the league starts next month. We are also ready for our CAF Champions League preliminary round opponents from Mali too.”