Bonney’s penalty wins day for Hearts

The 75th penalty by Accra Hearts of Oak Christopher Bonney penalty earned all three points for the club as they beat visiting Karela United FC by a lone goal at the Accra Sports Stadium in the matchday twelve of the ongoing Ghana Football Association (GFA) Special Competition.

Both teams started the game on a slow note in a raining first half. This made ball control and passes difficult for both teams as they struggled to put decent passes together.

Hagan Isaac in post for Karela United was called into action to make a fantastic save to rescue his side from conceding an early goal on a wet and slippery pitch.

It was a midfield affair afterwards as both teams were playing with caution to avoid mistakes due to the slippery nature of the pitch, yet decent passes were hard to come by.

Hagan was called into action again in the 35th minute but this time from a strong back pass that could have been disastrous for Karela, who were enjoying a better play in the day but Hagan stood tall to head away to a throw-in.

Karela United was gifted a glorious opportunity to open the scoring in the stroke of half time, but a decent cross from the left hand of attack was wasted as hearts also wasted a last minute opportunity to end the first half with a goal but to no avail as the additional two minutes was wasted.

Karela United came into the second half looking more dangerous with their fluent play upfield but Appiah Darlington blasted wide a good chance to put his side ahead in the early minutes of the second half.

Karela United kept the Hearts defence busy by probing for an opener, with a nice one-two splitting passes into Hearts 18 hard box, but Richard Ayi, in post for Accra Hearts of Oak, was equal to the task with a decent save to keep the score at 0:0 in the 49th minute.

Coach Kim Grant revised his tactics by bringing Kofi Kordzi for tired Abdul Omar Manaf to strengthen his attack as they searched for the opener.

Hearts made a second substitution in the game by bringing on Malik Akowuah for Aminu Alhassan as Karela kept squandering goal begging g chances.

As the game was heading for a goalless draw, Daniel Kodie was brought down in the 18-yard box, which Christopher Bonney converted perfectly.

Kim Grant threw in his last substitution card by introducing Michelle Sarpong for Benjamin Agyare as Karela brought on Alhaji Sani for Darlington to salvage a point for the travelling Karela but all to no avail.

Hearts now top Zone B with 25 points with Karela following keenly with 21 points, with Liberty Professionals on third with 19 points after twelve games.