Coach Afranie chastises Hearts players

Caretaker coach Emmanuel Kwesi Afranie, has condemned the attitude of six players of Accra Hearts of Oak for deserting the Black Stars when their services were most needed.

He told the GNA Sports in Accra that apart from Charles Taylor and Bernard Don Bortey who were out of the country looking for clubs and defender Kwabena Boafo who spent some two weeks with the team, the other three- Wisdom Abbey, Dan Oppong, and number one goalkeeper Sammy Adjei decided not to join their colleagues ahead of the Ghana-Nigeria match.

The Stars lost the Sunday's encounter by a lone goal vie an own goal in the 12 minutes by defender Daniel Yeboah. The Coach blamed the defeat on the absence of the players and the refusal of referee by Joseph Willington to award two penalties to the Stars.

The referee ignored two first half spot kicks which Afranie believes could have changed the pattern of the game and made victory certain for the Stars. Referee Willington however, gave a late penalty to the Stars, which was wasted by Prince Amoako, one of the two professionals who featured for Ghana on Sunday.

In spite of the loss, Afranie praised his boys for the good show and said but for ill luck, they would have carried the day. As part of building a solid local base, the Black Stars trek to Egypt for another international friendly with the Pharaohs this Sunday and against Togo six days later.

According to the coach's programme, the Stars would break camp after the Togo encounter and reassembled for yet another friendly with the Super Eagles in Lagos, early January.