Tamale, Jan. 6, GNA - Real Tamale United recorded their first "Sweet" victory at the newly constructed Tamale Stadium when they humbled visiting Kessben FC by winning two goals to nothing in their ninth week One Touch Premier League match.
The 21,000 sitter capacity edifice, though not filled to capacity, witnessed a large crowd that cheered RTU to victory. And true to expectation, they were entertained with good soccer from both sides. The victory redeemed the image of RTU who had lost to Liberty Professionals by a 2-6 margin last week, while Kessben had deepened their woes after losing 0-1 lost to Berekum Arsenal in a midweek fixture. Real Tamale United started the game with aggressiveness and made efforts to score in the first half but Kessben did not allow themselves to taken by the surprise and cleared the ball from danger. RTU mounted pressure on the visitors but Alhassan Mohammed in goal for Kessben played well to keep his side in the match.
Kwame Ajagba opened the scores in the 21st minute when his shot from a free-kick some few meters outside the 18 box beat the defence and the goalkeeper to register the first goal, which analysts described as one of the best in the ongoing premiership and the first official goal at the new stadium.
The goal seemed to have demoralised the visitors who had gained in confidence and were threatening RTU. Ransford Osei of Kessben FC, who won the second highest goal scorer's award in the U-17 World Cup in South Korea 2007, was frustrated as the RTU defence did not give him any room to operate and was substituted in the second half of the game. Kessben started the second half with more determination to redeem their one goal and mounted a sustained pressure on RTU for more than seven minutes, winning two corner-kicks in a row but they failed to utilise any of them.
Ahmed Toure who substituted Ransford Osei became a threat in the RTU goal area but wasted two glorious chances in one minute, when goalkeeper Charles Ripo made acrobatic saves to save RTU from disaster. It was indeed from the 70th minute that RTU regained composure and made the match more entertaining with accurate passes and dribbling antics but they failed to increase the tally. Abdul Yahaya came on for Shilla Alhassan while Kabiru Imoro also substituted Faisal Sulemana and the changes worked in favour of RTU. Abdul Salam popularly called "Small Boy Danger" had a pass from Philip Amoako and managed to meander his way through the Kessben defence and fired at goal. Kessben's keeper spilled the ball and Kabiru Imoro wasted no time to tuck in the rebound for the second goal for RTU in the 75th minute.
RTU gallantly defended their two goals and after two minutes of added time, referee Thomas Nunoo whistled to bring proceedings to an end with scores at RTU 2, Kessben FC nill.
