League Day 18: Hearts Thrash Goldfields

Champion Club, Accra Hearts of Oak on Wednesday tightened their grip on the league leadership when they whitewashed tottering Obuasi Goldfields by 5 goals to I in an uncompromising mid-week encounter at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Goldfields, who were determined to turn the scales this time dominated play in the ill-tempered first half but faded out in the second half thus allowing their opponents to run riot. This time around, it was playmaker Charles Taylor who set the tone in the 39th minute after the Goldfields defensive pair of Kofi Amoako and Kenneth Ababio had held him in check for sometime.

After sneaking to pick an Osei Kuffour pass on the left, this visionary of a player with Amoako to contend with, produced another piece of magic when he squeezed into the roof of the net a delicate shot form a difficult angle to confound many a spectator at the Stadium.

Three minutes earlier, there was a brief comic relief when Referee J. MacCarthy of Cape coast and his first assistant J. Yeboah Adu struggled to take a decision after Eric Boakye’s retaliation on Dan Oppong-Boakye was finally cautioned for the offence.

Having assumed control of the game, Hearts’ attacking trio of Taylor, Don Bortey and Kuffour began to expose their opponents defence with their incessant raids and succeded in getting the second goal after 54 minutes when Kuffour in a typical fashion scored a cheeky goal after dummying young goalkeeper Naim Shaibu.

With the vocal home fans on their feet then, Charles Taylor obliged to give them exactly what they wanted when he hit his 15th goal of the season after firing a low shot past advancing Shaibu.

Even though both teams played all their cards in this half, it was Hearts who benefited as Osumanu Amadu who replaced Charles Taylor in the 73rd minute announced his presence a minute later by planting home a cornerkick from Don Bortey. Osumanu, who could have hit hat-trick but for some unpardonable misses in the dying minutes, however, completed the rout four minutes from the end when he was presented with a gift goal after keeper Shaibu fumbled with an Edmund Copson’s shot.

Goldfields’ Togolese import, Kossi Noutsoudjie converted from the spot to give his side a consolation after he was brought down in the box by Kwame Antwi.

Results of other matches played are;
Hearts 5 Goldfield 1

B/A United 0 Kotoko 1
Abass Inusah, “3rd

Dawu 1 Okwawu 1
Issa Mohammed, “67th Daniel Baba Yara “88th

Maxbees 5 Mines Stars 0
Henry Bart-Plange, 60th Asamoah Dzifa-“75th, “79th Henry Bart-Plange, “82nd Asamoah Dzifa-“88th

King Faisal 1 Bofoakwa 0
Joe Agyeman Jnr., “86th

Hasaacas 1 Power FC 0
Ebow Mensah, “12th

Arsenal 1 Olympics 0 Richard Awuah, “70th
Liberty - R.T.U

[Leage table]