Hearts of Oak’s lack of killer instincts at home continued today after they failed to find a finishing touch to pick up all three points against visiting Aduana Stars at the Accra Sports Stadium.

For the first time in two months, there was a place for Soulama Abdoulaye who lost his position to Samuel Akrugu following a howler against sworn rivals Asante Kotoko in the first half of the season.

Soulama, in particular, will be delighted he kept a clean sheet on his return to first team action after a long time out.

Hearts of Oak’s new sensation Patrick Razak huffed and puffed but forward Cosmos Dauda and tricky midfielder Samudeen Ibrahim will have themselves to be blamed for numerous wasted opportunities.

It wasn’t all Hearts of Oak with Aduana Stars also creating decent chances of their own.

Godfred Saka, in particular, had a well worked free kick saved by Soulama and truth be told there was little he could do to get more accurate and credit should be given to the goalkeeper.

Lead striker Yahaya Mohammed re-emphasized his inability to score away from home after missing gilt edge chances in the second half, something Aduana Stars will have to work on if they want to win the title.

In a second half that was deprived of real goal mouth action Paul Acquah should have done better after he was placed on goal by Patrick Razak but his strike was so feeble the goalkeeper could easily have walked to clear it.

In a game that pegged first place against third place it was indeed fair to say the game did not live up to the billing.