Esso’s brace wins day for Hearts

Two goals from Hearts of Oak striker Joseph Esso sealed the day for the Phobians, as they beat visiting Ebusua Dwarfs by 2-1 at the Accra Sports Stadium in the fourth day of the ongoing Ghana Football Association (GFA) Normalization Committee special competition.

Esso opened the scores just under one minute into the game and doubled it up in the 37th minute to end on a not so impressive first half from both teams.

With both sides finding it difficult to put decent passes together, there was not much of any serious incursions into each other’s half in a game, that saw plenty of midfield actions as both teams failed to test the opposing goalkeepers.

Hearts of oak were forced by injuries to make two quick substitutions with Christopher Bonney and Kwadwo Obeng making way for Bakai Selassie and Robert Addo Sowah respectively as Abudu Dramani of Ebusua Dwarfs also made way for Bright Nurudeen to end the first half with Hearts of Oak Michelle Sarpong attracting the first yellow card of the afternoon.

Daniel Kodie opened the second half with a second yellow card in the game and Hearts of Oak second for the day, as Ebusua Dwarfs probed for an equalizer in a more purposeful play upfront.

Richmond Ayi in post for Hearts of Oak was called into action in the early minutes of the second half and did well to parry away for a corner kick as the pressure was mounting on Hearts.

The mysterious lads in search of a goal made their second substitution for the day by bringing on Mohammed Osman for Alhaji Mustapha and a final substitution for Dwarfs came just minutes after with Naba Abu Jnr.

Coming off for Simon Martey as Benjamin Kotey also made way for Malik Akowuah for Hearts to complete their substitution for the day.

Dwarf’s changes paid off as Nurudeen pulled one back for the visitors to pile more pressure in search of another goal as all efforts were thwarted, with begging chances going waste.

Esso, missed an important opportunity to hit a hat-trick on the day, as he shot his penalty into the waiting arms of Wiredu Mensah Danso in post for Dwarfs to still keep the game at 2:1 with fifteen minutes to end proceedings.

Dwarfs failed to capitalize on the injury to Hearts of Oak goalie to get another goal as Ayi, was forced to play through the injury with his side exhausting all substitutions for the day.

With match day four in the special competition ongoing, Accra Hearts of Oak have won two of the four matches played, losing twice on the road as Dwarfs have lost all four matches so far.