With the caveat from club managers that the first round was nothing but a pre-season warm-up and therefore not the most accurate gauge of what is to come, the Super Four Round Two in Uyo starting Monday next week presents a much sterner barometer of where the teams are, and where they hope to be.

The cast of course is NPFL’s continental quartet, Nasarawa United, Enyimba, Akwa United and Warri Wolves in the order they finished in the first round in Kaduna and with the several new faces most of these clubs flaunted, the managers realise it is a race against time to ready them as duels with some of the continent’s biggest clubs loom on the horizon.

Recent performances of Nigerian clubs in continental club competitions have been far away from impressive with Enyimba, still the only Nigerian side to have won the most sought after CAF Champions League trophy.

The danger is that, that record is almost becoming a folk tale- the average NPFL Supporter barely remembers what transpired in Egypt 13 years ago or what followed a year later in Abuja. In other words, another Continental conquest is long overdue and none would be more grateful than the League’s new teeming disciples.