Nigeria skipper Jay Jay Okocha has pleaded with his country's football bosses not to hunt for scapegoats following the Super Eagles' African Nations Cup elimination.
Nigeria squandered a 1-0 lead against Tunisia in the semi-finals and eventually lost in a penalty shootout which sent the hosts into Saturday's final against Morocco and Okocha's men into a third-place play-off against Mali.
The Bolton Wanderers star also believes that the Nigerian Football Association should resist the temptation to drop local coach Christian Chukwu in favour of a foreign trainer.
"If they change the team then the same problems that have happened with Nigerian football in the past will occur again," said Okocha.
"We won't win anything anymore. The local coaches have done a great job because a lot of people at home were just waiting for them to fall flat on their faces.
"But they have proved here that they can handle professional players very well indeed. They have managed to keep team spirit and win matches and it's all down to them."
Nigeria, who had been hoping to win a third African Nations Cup title here, endured a stormy start to their campaign losing their opening match 1-0 to Morocco and then kicking out Celestine Babayaro, Victor Agali and Yakuba Aiyegbeni for breaking a curfew.
But they recovered to beat defending champions Cameroon 2-1 in the quarter-finals before they came up just short in the semi-finals.
"The squad is full of young players and they achieved more than was expected of them," said Okocha. "If we can keep the team together then you can rest assured that we will have a Nigerian team to count on.
"Nobody expected us to reach this stage of the competition. Many thought Cameroon would beat us black and blue.
"We took the difficult path to the semi-finals and the whole team deserves credit as they fought their hearts out. You can't ask for anything more than that."
The defeat to Tunisia doesn't mean Okocha's search for silverware this season has come to an end.
He will fly back to England on Saturday to rejoin his Bolton team who take on fellow Premiership side Middlesbrough in the League Cup final in Cardiff on February 29.
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