MTN FA CUP: Coffie wins day for Ash-Gold

Ash-Gold Sporting Club on Saturday fought gallantly to defeat Berekum Chelsea F/C 1-0 in their MTN FA CUP semi-finals encounter at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.
The victory was secured through the courtesy of substitute Francis Coffie whose 119th minute goal took the miners to the finals of the competition.
The two teams have themselves to blame for not scoring in regulation time as they kept squandering the numerous chances that came their way throughout the match.
In the first half, Chelsea found the going very tough after they decided to rely solely on Isaac Morgan to lead the attack.
Ash-Gold took advantage of the situation and mounted series of attacks in search of goal. However, Eric Opoku, Nana Opoku and Aaron Amoah all missed by inches the clear-cut chances that came their way in the 17th, 42nd and 45th minutes.
The second half commenced on a vigorous note with Chelsea substituting Yaw Alexander for Issaka Ibrahim, while John Mose replaced injured goalkeeper Ernest Sowah. Edward Kpodo later replaced Gladson Awako.
Issaka brought more bite to the Chelsea attack and from the 50th minute, they took control of the match with some well-coordinated surging run upfront but lack of precision denied them of the needed goals.
Chelsea’s defender Nafiu Awudu was red-carded in the 70th minute for a second bookable offence following a rough play on Ash-Gold’s Nana Opoku.
Ash-Gold surprisingly failed to capitalise on the numerical disadvantage suffered by Chelsea and allowed their opponents to match them boot-for-boot to end the regulation time 0-0.
The two teams concentrated most of the action in extra time in the midfield until Ash-Gold broke loose in the latter part of the game as Francis Coffie combined beautifully with Nana Opoku who laid a perfect pass for the former to score in the 119th minute.**