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Sports News of Tuesday, 21 January 2020

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Kotoko fired up ahead of Hearts’ titanic clash

Asante Kotoko players in a pose Asante Kotoko players in a pose

Asante Kotoko Coach, Maxwell Konadu, has admitted that the Porcupine Warriors needs to maintain their winning composure to ensure a successful campaign in the 2019/2020 Ghana Premier League (GPL).

Two late goals from teenage sensation, Mathew Anim, and striker Richard Arthur enabled the Porcupine Warriors see off the bottom-of-the-log club, Dwarfs, 2-0, in their recent fixture.

Undoubtedly, the two-time African champions laboured to overcome their less-fancied opponents after back-to-back defeats to Medeama and Berekum Chelsea.

Going by statistics, Kotoko had so far won three matches out of five, scored six and conceded three - leaving them in the sixth position of the eighteen-club league.

Ahead of Sunday’s (January 26, 2020) match day six titanic clash between the two most glamorous Ghanaian clubs, Kotoko and Hearts, in Accra, Coach Konadu said: “Kotoko should do more to improve their performance".

“Truly, the confidence and morale of my players have been dented by our recent losses. We have to pick up the pieces and move on, because our next match is quite difficult,” he told the media in Kumasi.

Ghana’s version of the ‘El Classico’ would be honoured at a time when the Phobians are also recovering from an earlier setback, having lost their first two matches of the league.

The two clubs have more than forty (40) league titles between them, but the going had not been that rosy in the current campaign.

For Hearts, who currently occupy the ninth position on seven points, a win over their archrivals would definitely come with all the motivation associated with such crucial encounters.

It had been over a decade now the last time the Phobians annexed the league trophy.

Ostensibly, seeing off Coach Kim Grant seemed to have come as a good omen as their last couple of games in his absence had recorded some interesting results.

Definitely, a win for the Phobians would not only pacify their anxious supporters, but would also serve as the turning point for the former CAF Champions League winners.