James Mballow, head coach of VISTA Bank football team has stated that his target this season is to challenge for the ongoing late governor Jatta Inter-Bank football tournament title.
Coach Mballow was speaking in an interview with Pointsports after his side was held to a 1-1 draw by BSIC Bank during their second encounter of the tournament played at the Independence Stadium in Bakau on Sunday.
BSIC Bank took the lead through Omar Ndow in the 79th minute while Mustapha Badjie leveled for VISTA Bank in the 87th minute.
The draw was the second conceded by both VISTA and BSIC Bank following their earlier draws against Zenith and Central Bank of The Gambia respectively.
“I am very happy with my team coming from behind to level the scores. Our main focus is to strengthen our forward area ahead of our subsequent games,” coach Mballow added.
According to him, their aim in the tournament is to win the championship for the second time, adding that they have a formidable side to challenge and win the tournament.
“Our biggest problem is gathering all our players. We have a side that has been competing for the tournament for the past four years.”
VISTA bank will next play defending champions, Zenith Bank in their final group match.
Lamin Njie, head coach of BSIC Bank said they could have done better considering that they first scored during the game, noting that his players always lose focus after taking the lead during games.
“By the looks of things we always score first but my players then loses focus which always led to our opponents equalizing us,” he said.
According to him, they will work on their weaknesses in order to avoid such a situation from happening to them again, adding that their target is to win the tournament but before that their next final group game will be their main focus.
In the late encounter played on Sunday, Access and Bloom Bank played a barren goalless draw.
In the earlier tournament’s fixtures:
Trust Bank Limited 1-1 MEGA Bank
Access 0-0 Guarantee Trust Bank
Zenith Bank 1-1 Vista Bank
Mega Bank 1-2 FBN Bank
Bloom Bank 0-0 Guarantee Trust Bank
Trust Bank Limited 1-1 Arab Gambia Islamic Bank (AGIB)
BSIC 1-1 Central Bank of the Gambia
Second games
Guarantee Trust Bank 2-0 Central Bank of the Gambia
FBN Bank 0-2 Trust Bank Limited
Arab Gambia Islamic Bank (AGIB) 1-1 MEGA Bank
Central Bank of the Gambia 0-3 Zenith Bank
BSIC Bank 1-1 VISTA Bank
Access Bank 0-0 Bloom Bank