Ashgold hold Liberty to maintain title hopes

Accra, March 21, GNA - Obuasi Ashantigold kept alive their title hopes by holding Liberty Professionals to a one all draw in their Week 23 Glo Premiership encounter at the Carl Reinforf Park on Sunday. The hosts shot into the lead in the first half through Latif Salifu before substitute Mohammed Yakubu netted the equalizer later in the game to keep the "Miners" at the helm of the Premier League standings. The encounter was, however, marred by strange interpretation of the rules of the game by Sunyani-based referee Yaw Ametepe. Ametepe, one of the most experienced "Knights of the Whistle" on the domestic soccer scene chose to interpret the laws of the game his own way, with most of his calls drawing the anger of both the visiting and host teams.

One of his actions was on 16 minutes, when he awarded a penalty against Liberty following a close situation involving Liberty captain David Addo and Ashgold's striker Frederick Quayson.

The resultant spot kick was however wasted by Ashgold's captain Daniel Asamoah whose effort was saved by the Liberty goalie Daniel Adjei, for the host to maintain the lead thanks to Salifu's strike three minutes earlier. The visitors were a delight to watch as they launched several raids into the half of Liberty but they lacked the cutting edge upfront to draw even at that stage.

Ashgold resumed the second half with the same momentum and their efforts yielded the equalizer on 68 minutes through Yakubu, whose shot from a free-kick slid past the Liberty defence into the left hand corner of the post.

The remainder of the game belonged to Ashgold and with three minutes from full time, they were denied a second penalty as referee Ametepe waved on after Daniel Gyamfi handled the ball in the penalty area. Upon the blast of the referee's whistle, Ashgold fans went into wild jubilation when news filtered in that rivals Hearts of Oak had lost 1-2 to Wa All Stars, as players and members of the technical team were carried shoulder high by the fans for a spectacular performance. 21 March 10