League Report of Sunday, 24 July 2005

Source: GNA

RTU Hold Power

At the Tema Sports Stadium, Power F/C and Real Tamale United (RTU) settled for a goalless drawn game in their GT Premier League match on Sunday.

The match, which started in a whirlwind fashion, saw Power making incursions into the vital area of RTU but Kenneth Sarpong found his first time shot missing the target in the 10th minute.

Determined to avenge the 0-2 defeat suffered at the hands of RTU in the First Round, Power continued their efforts in search of a goal but poor finishing upfront robbed them of any.

The tide changed in favour of RTU but Hamza Mohammed failed to score for his side as his beautiful shot was saved by Power's keeper, Alfred Mills in the 40th minute.

The game became balanced in the second half as both teams pressed for the wining goal.

In the 69th minute, RTU's Allhassan Weah was brought down in the box but referee Amoah of Kumasi ignored the penalty appeal by the visitors.

This infuriated the supporters of RTU as they engaged in a missile-throwing exercise.

The incident held play for some minutes but when play resumed, none of the teams could score till the final. Kenneth Sarpong of Power won the best player award.

And at Nkawkaw, Liberty Professionals worsened the woes of Okwawu United when they beat them by a lone goal at the their home base. Mustapha Essuman struck on 55 minutes with a terrific shot from an incisive pass provided by Michael Helegbe to deliver the maximum points to Liberty and glue Okwawu to the relegation zone.

Okwawu's goalkeeper Emmanuel Doe sprawled helplessly as the ball whistled past him and landed in the roof of the net to silence the vociferous home fans.

The goal sniffed the vim out of the home side who started the match with great determination and created chance after chance, which they wasted.

Before the half hour mark, Okwawu had won five corner kicks, but they failed to convert any of them and allowed Liberty to warm themselves into the match.

Liberty produced a spectacular form after one hour and had a chance to double their count in the 75th minute but Kofi Nti Boakye shot over the bar with only keeper Doe at his mercy.

Five minutes later, Okwawu created a decent chance to level up the scores, but Issaka Ibrahim shot away from Kotei Blankson's goal to the anguish of the home fans.

In the final minutes of the match, Liberty dominated completely and invaded the penalty area of their opponents but Kwame Antwi in the heart of the Okwawu defence stood tall and denied them any further advantage.

Tano Bofoakwa scored a teasing lone goal victory over visiting Berekum Arsenals in their GT-Premier League match at the Sunyani Coronation Park on Sunday.

Yaw Antwi of Bofoakwa scored the only goal of the match in the 67th minute in an encounter that the two sides exhibited hard-tackling tactics with Arsenals as the worse offenders and no wonder two of their players, Yaw Serbeh, captain of the side and Ibrahim Yahaya attracted Referee C.N. Atsetse of Tema's yellow card in the 25th and 80th minutes respectively for rough play.

Antwi had earlier played far below form attracted the wrath of most of the supporters of Bofoakwa who questioned why the technical men chose to keep him to continue to play until in the 67th minute when he turned the saviour after he out run through a bunch of defenders to connect home an in-swinger which goalkeeper Thomas Tuah Asare of Arsenals could not have an antidote to.

The Berekum lads however felt the ball was scored from an off-side position and quickly rushed on the Tema-based referee thus temporarily holding the game for sometime while the policemen managed to protect the referee and his two linesmen from any assault.

It took the intervention of some Arsenals officials led by Mr. Kwaku Manu, their Accra Representative and Coach Quarshie to cool down the players and after 10 minutes interval they agreed to resume play. Before the incident, the two teams started the game with full determination but it was Bofoakwa who had as many as four scoring chances but threw them all away as a result of hesitation in front of goal.

The near misses started as early as the first minute when Reubin Senyo with only goalkeeper Asare to beat, he shot wide and this was followed immediately by yet another chance but Eric Ackon squandered it while Yaw Antwi's header at close range went off target.

Sensing danger, Arsenals redoubled their efforts and managed to dictate the pace of the game from the 15th minute onwards but like their opponents they also could not find the net ending the first half without a goal.

Both sides made substitutions but it was the home side that benefited when in the 67th minute Antwi grabbed the only goal of the match to ensure Bofoakwa's three points.