Teammates of Accra Hearts of Oak have been implored on to work hard at breaking the age-long jinx that the team merely participates in the GPL without winning anything.

Elvis Herman Hesse, Chairman of the National Chapters Committee of the club, in expressing his concerns about the club’s performance in recent years, stressed the need for the team to be determined to reverse that unfortunate cycle that has lasted for over a decade.

The only way to ensure this, he said, is for the club to make their home stadium, the Accra Sports Stadium, a slaughter house for all opponents, while ensuring that they win at least five of their away matches.

Hearts of Oak has been on a trophy hiatus since their winner against Sporting Mirren in the 2009 league, crowning them champions. Since then, the club has continued to regain its convincing form in the race for the ultimate title.

“We have improved tremendously but the only way we can win the title is through consistency. We should win at least five away matches to remain in contention for the trophy,” Elvis Hesse told the Daily Graphic in an interview.

He continued that, “Some of us have followed the game for long and I can tell you on authority that before we can win the league and break the jinx of being described as mere participants, we must win as many away matches as possible. This is what we are going to tell the players to focus on,” he explained.

He said that the current performance of the team gives hope of their ability to achieve that target but urged them to stay the course and not get too complacent.

“We encourage the players to be focused and consistent because having played just 11 matches, there is a long way to go. And without being focused on winning matches, we cannot improve on our points build-up to win the league as expected,” he stated.

He added, “Some of us knew from the beginning that our team was not bad at all. Unfortunately, we didn’t start on a good note because our coach who started the league could not manage the team to win games. However, he did well to recruit very good players so the current coach has turned things around, making it possible for us to play good football to keep us in contention for the league trophy.”