Kotoko Pip Faisal

Kumasi, Sept 19, GNA - Kumasi Asante Kotoko on Saturday beat King Faisal 1-0 in the resumed Zone 'A' Premier league match at the Kumasi Sports Stadium.

Substitute Shilla Alhassan scored the only goal in the 86th minute through a header from a corner kick expertly taken by George Yamoah.


With this victory, it is apparent that Faisal are finding it difficult to recover from successive defeats from their city rivals that started with their matches in GHALCA special knockout tournament. Playing as underdogs, Faisal, determined this round to tilt the scales went into attack right from the blast of referee G.K. Manu's whistle but lost the ball to Kotoko.


Kotoko counter-attacked and put the pressure on Faisal but they could not utilise the chances that came their way as Stephen Oduro and Nana Arhin Duah shot off targets in the fifth and 13th minutes respectively.


Let off the hook, Faisal attacked from all angles but found the Kotoko defence unyielding and missed two corner kicks in the 15th and 17th minutes.

Frank Osei of Kotoko shot wide in the 29th minute with only goalkeeper Suraju Mohammed to beat after receiving a neat pass from Arhin Duah.


They continued to pile pressure on their city rivals and earned their first corner kick in the 33rd minute but wasted it as well as several other chances that came their way. On resumption of the second half, Faisal came on strongly and nearly had the opener in the 52nd minute but Abubakari Yahuza's shot went off target.


The game from then became a ding-dong affair with both sides exhausting their substitutions until substitute Shilla Alhassan out-jumped the Faisal defence men to score the only goal of the match to bring the smiles back to their vociferous supporters.