Interim Hearts of Oak coach Edward Ansah insists he can guide the club out of the mess they find themselves.

The Phobians sunk deeper into the relegation zone after Sunday’s 1-2 home defeat to arch-rivals Asante Kotoko in the FCPPL’s match day 25 fixture at the Accra Sports Stadium. Hearts have thus suffered two straight defeats and now lie just above bottom-place BA United with five match days to end the season.

”I will congratulate Kotoko for their victory. They stole the win from our hands. We came here to get the maximum points because when you look at the league log, our position wasn’t too good enough for us so we wanted the three maximum points," the ex-goalkeeper said at post-match.

“We lost the battle but we have not lost the war. We have five matches to go, we need to push and we are going to push.

”At this moment, I’m in control over this. I believe I have what it takes to pull Hearts of Oak out of this mess. We are in a mess but we will come out of it. We will need three consecutive wins and come out of the relegation zone.

“A coach is judged by the performance of his team. I believe we are doing a good job, the players are responding to it and we will come out of this situation.”

Hearts face another tricky tie next away to neighbours Liberty Professionals in a match ay 26 fixture on Wednesday, August 5. Liberty were defeated 1-0 by AshGold on Sunday.