Former Hearts of Oak coach Kenichi Yatsuhashi has revealed that he prevented the club from offloading Vincent Atinga during his time with the club.

Coach Yatsuhashi explained that he insisted on keeping him despite management's decision on selling him.

Atinga made the headlines after converting a penalty to hand the Phobians a win which ended Kotoko's supremacy at the Accra Sports Stadium.

The Japanese trainer expressed his excitement at Atinga's winning goal saying "In October 2015, one player was about to be released from the list, but I insisted to keep him. Today, he scored a winning goal. Congrats!".