Opuene Yekorogha, the coach of Bayelsa Queens Handball team, said late preparations affected their performance at the ongoing 2021 Prudent Energy Handball Premier League.

Yekorogha who stated on Saturday in Abuja that they started preparing only five days before the commencement of the league, because the government’s support was late in coming.

” We make a proposal and it took a long time for the money to be released to us, to start preparation.

“When we were training for Division One, which we were the champions of the last edition, I used my personal money to fund the team.

“If I had money and the necessary funds we could have done better than this, but all the same we are still moving up.

”These are children, when they train you expect to give them something to encourage them and there was no feeding and it was very bad,” he said.

Speaking on their encounter against the Adorable Angels of Kwara, the coach said they would have beaten them, if they had good preparation before the league.

“It was a good game. My girls played well. Our problem is that we didn’t prepare well for this league

“We have not lost hope yet, we have two matches to go. We still have hope we will qualify to still remain in the premier league.

” If they could play this type of game against last year’s defending champions, then they will have done better if we have had early preparation,” he said.

NAN recalled that Adorable Angels of Kwara state thrashed Bayelsa Queens 47-31 in their encounter

Akande Isiaka, the coach of Adorable Angels, said it was a good fight and the girls showed they were determined to win the game.

“This is our seventh game, the game was so interesting, the girls tried their best and the Bayelsa girls also fought well even though they are new to the league.

” I urged my girls to be focused and serious because we still have two matches to play, which must end with a win,” he said.

NAN reports that Adorable Angels are currently second on the league table, after scoring 19 points from their seven matches in which they won six and lost two.

Bayelsa Queens, on the other hand, are placed ninth, after their seven games of which they lost six, winning only one.

A total of 21 teams, comprising 10 female and 11 male teams, are participating in the premier league, which ends on Nov. 3.