Hearts shrug off another embarrassing defeat at home

Accra, Oct. 6, GNA - Accra Hearts Oak put a last minute effort to shrug off an embarrassing defeat at the Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, when they managed a one all with Berekum Chelsea in their sixth week Premier League game on Wednesday.

The Phobians who returned from a lone goal victory over B.A. Stars last Sunday at Sunyani were no match for the visitors, who ensured the home team were limited to their area exhibiting quick inter-positional passes, as they created scoring chances in the 15th, 18th, 20th and 24th minutes of the game but had keeper Sammy Adjei standing on their way. Boasting of almost all the best players on the local scene, Chelsea remained the dominant side with the Hearts midfield duo of Moro Abubakari and Esme Mends struggling to contain them.

Hearts, however, made occasional inroads in the opponent's area with substitute Tawrick Djibrile assuming full responsibilities in the midfield but the Phobians had to grapple with uncoordinated attack, which robbed them off the ball when it mattered most. Despite the dominance, Chelsea was unable to create the difference, pushing the game into the second half without a goal for any of the sides.

Even though Chelsea remained the better side in the second half, it was Heart's John Antwi who failed to connect a cross laid on his path after Osei Pele had set him up after picking a through ball from Mends in the 55th minute.

Chelsea paid off for their team work when they broke the deadlock in the 57th minute, when Abdul Basit made a quick connection to Alfred Arthur's cross. A classic goal by all standards that found the entire Hearts defence ball watching.

The visitors could have won by a wider margin after the goal, but they surprisingly decided to take their feet off the accelerator and adopted a "delay tactics" approach to the game with their players falling to the ground by the slightest contact and spending several minutes on the pitch in a bid to buy time.

As Chelsea exhibited their content with the slim margin score-line, Hearts capitalized on this and subjected them to intense pressure in the last quarter of the game.

It was therefore no surprise when Hearts came up with the equalizer in the 88th minute after minutes of melee in the defence of Chelsea. Edwin Osei Pele's header gave Hearts the redemption goal and saved them from another embarrassing home defeat after New Edubiase handed them a similar defeat about two weeks ago at the same venue. Hearts could have increased the tally in the dying minutes of the game but Ernest Sowah was alert to keep his goal line safe. The supporters of Hearts were however not satisfied with the performance of referee Reginald Lathbridge and his assistants, Haruna Ayuba and A.S. Malik and sometimes pelted the assistant referees with sachet water bags for some of the decisions taken against their team. 06 Oct. 1