Real Tamale United (RTU) started this year's OneTouch Premier League campaign on a good note when they beat new entrants, Zaytuna United FC by two goals to one at the Tamale Kaladan Park on Sunday. Real Tamale United proved their superiority over the visitors' right from the kick-off and entertained the unprecedented large crowd that thronged the park to watch the match.
Zaytuna United nearly conceded the first goal in the first minute of the first half but Lugard Tetteh in posts for Zaytuna saved Fatawu Owen's shot for the first corner kick, which yielded no fruits for the home side.
Both teams displayed their football antics to the admiration of the fans, who exhibited a joyous atmosphere at the Kaladan Park with clapping and shouting of appellations of RTU whislt hooting at Zaytuna anytime they got closer to scoring, characteristic of home support. Peter Yakubu threw the Park into wild jubilation on the 14th minute when his right footer beat the Zaytuna keeper into the back of the net to register the first goal for RTU.
The visitors nearly replied immediately but the RTU defence proved unbeatable and managed to deflect the ball to a corner kick in the 15th minute, which was wasted by Zaytuna.
From the 30th minute, both teams played a balanced game with Zaytuna winning the high balls and were swift at the RTU goal area but lacked the scoring experience to convert their chances. In the 40th minute RTU nearly made it two but Owen delayed in shooting at shooting to allow the defenders to clear the ball to safety. All efforts to increase the tally proved futile while Zaytuna also failed to redeem the lone goal before the referee whistled to end the first half in favour of RTU.
On resumption of the second half, RTU came back with more vigour and hungry for more goals and Alhassan Weah made sure he registered his name on the score sheet when he headed home from a corner kick in the 47th minute delivered by Peter Yakubu.
The second half goal nearly demoralized the Zaytuna boys whom the Kaladan fans called "MTN House" but they persevered and withstood the pressure and defended gallantly to avoid more goals.
Fatawu Owen, Peter Yakubu, Alhassan Weah made way for Philip Amoako, Kwame Asare and Abdul-Salim Alhassan, but the changes failed to work the trick for RTU.
Zaytuna changed the pattern of the game and depended on fast and long passes and made several attempts at the RTU goal but could not just beat Najewu Issah in goal for the home side.
When the match seemed to be ending with a two nil victory for RTU, Zaytuna played the "The Never Say Die" attitude when Amoako Agyeman pulled scored a goal on the 90th minute to end the match 2-1 in favour of RTU.
Before the end of the match, the fans kept on shouting on coach Ibrahim Sunday to allow Collins Akowuah of the "MTN Academy House" fame to play.
Some of the supporters were also shouting at Collins and telling him that RTU and Zaytuna were not a five-man squad just as in the MTN Academy House.
Coach Ibrahim told the GNA Sports after the match that his boys could have done better if they were jittery especially in front of goal. He said the boys gave a lot of respect for RTU, hence their inability to win the match and expressed the hope that they would do well in their remaining matches to be part of the top four teams at the end of the league.
