Olympics hold Liberty in tension-packed clash

Accra, April 4, GNA - Accra Great Olympics revived their hope of a premiership survival after they earned a vital point in their Week 25 Glo Premier League encounter against Liberty Professionals on Sunday at the Cral Reindorf Park at Dansoman in Accra.

Togolese import Morou Zakari fired Liberty into the lead on 52 minutes before striker James Abban grabbed a well-deserved equalizer for the "Wonder Club lads" with eight minutes to the end of proceedings. The local derby was, however, characterized by nasty incidents from fans of Great Olympics which halted play in the second half for close to 15 minutes.

The incident all started as an in-house problem with some of the aggrieved fans hurling stones and other objects that readily came to mind at their head coach Dauda Lutterodt in protest of the team's dismal display in the early stages of the second half.

Olympics who needed to avoid defeat to stay clear off the drop-zone started out on a promising note but Abban made a mess of begging chances that came his way and they surprisingly drastically dropped their momentum in the second session as they allowed Liberty to dominate possession. Eleven minutes after Zakari had shot the hosts into the lead, Olympics managed to put the ball into the net from a goalmouth action but assistant referee Sylvester Bommedzi kept his flag up thus compelling Tema-based referee Daniel Offei to disallow the goal.

The disallowed goal gave birth to near mayhem at the Carl Reindorf Park as the fans of Olympics, some of whom dressed in the replica jersey of the "Wonder Club" went on rampage and hurled every available object at referee Offei and his counterpart Bommedzi.

Some of the supporters also broke through the inner perimeter unto the pitch but the officials were quickly whisked to the centre of the pitch by the handful of security personnel on duty.

This halted play for close to 15 minutes and it took the intervention of Olympics Board Member, Fred Pappoe, who is also the Vice President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) as well as the Chief Executive, George Afriyie and captain Bilal Mohamed before calm was restored. Pappoe and Afriyie had to virtually tour round the pitch appealing to the fans to calm down to allow play to continue.

The remainder of the game was tension-packed which reflected on some decisions by referee Offei in an obvious mood to ensure the game travels the distance and to avert a repeat of the nasty incidents.

One of his indecisions was during the quarter-mark of the 12-minute of added-on time, when Christopher Nkansah found target for Liberty but the goal was surprisingly disallowed by the intimidated referee.