Premier League: Kessben 1-0 Hearts

Kessben Football Club on Sunday played a determined game to inflict a one-nil defeat over defending league champions Accra Hearts of Oak in their Onetouch Premier League match played at Anane Boateng Stadium at Abrankese on the Lake Bosumtwi road near Kumasi.

The two teams played an even game but with Kessben matching their much experienced opponents by winning most of the exchanges to end the first half goalless.

It was Kessben who went into attack after the referee whistled for hostilities to begin and nearly took the lead in the 11th minute when Emmanuel Bukason in a two-man move with Rexford Osei missed the post narrowly.

Hearts took up the challenge and came into the picture in the 16th minute but a chance that came in their way was wasted by Kwabena Boafo who shot wide.

The visitors played the game hard and made series of incursions into the vital area of Kessben and came close to scoring but Boafo again missed the target in the 39th minute to end the half. Kessben improved on their game after the recess and went ahead to take the lead in the 47th minute through James Boadu who sent in a thunderbolt of a shot which beat goalkeeper Lord Quartey pants down. Hearts Eben Tetteh was booked for rough play on Ransford Osei in the 52nd minute, and immediately brought on Eric Gawu for Samuel Affum a minute later to strengthen the attack which failed to click. In the 54th minute, Kessben's Ransford Osei was on target to increase his side's goal tally but the goal was disallowed. Hearts again brought on Joe Louis took for Ekow Ghansa in the 61st minute but it was still Kessben who had control of the game with the Hearts completely in disarray.

The confused state of the Hearts defence enabled Kessben to dictate the game and nearly made it two but Baba Iddi miss fired a pass from speedster James Badu who beat three defenders in the 68th minute to lay the pass. With their pride at stake, Hearts replaced Eric Nyarko with Kofi Abanga in the 76th minute and this nearly paid off for them but a well taken shot from Hassan Mohammed was saved by Kessben's goalie Mohammed Alhassan.