Okwawu supporters want coach sacked after third loss
Accra (Greater Accra) 08 May 2002 - Liberty Professionals registered their second successive victory at the Accra Sports Stadium on Tuesday when they beat Okwawu United by a lone goal to move to the second spot in the Premier League on nine points.
Liberty's second position could however be short lived, pending the full complement of other league matches on Wednesday.
The start of the game was delayed for some minutes when Fatau Dauda in post for Okwawu wearing a jersey of similar colour to those of their opponents refused to change into another outfit. This caused some confusion but finally the goalie was prevailed upon and he changed.
When the game finally started after a minute's silence for the victims of the 9 May tragedy, which claimed 126 lives, Okwawu who won last year's encounter, controlled the early stages of the game and pushed their men forward in a bid to score. After being made to go through some anxious moment, Liberty replied in an emphatic manner as they opened the scoring in the sixth minute through John Paintsil who dribbled his way past George Tutu at the centre of the Okwawu defence and placed the ball beyond advancing Dauda.
Okwawu's resolve appeared not shaken by the early setback as they continued to dictate the pace of the events but found it difficult to break through the defence of Liberty and were compelled to resort to long range shooting, which on most occasions, went wayward.
Against the run of play, Liberty nearly doubled their lead through Paintsil once again when he benefited from a defensive blunder from Umaru Yakubu but his shot was saved by Dauda. The mountaineers came close to equalising in the 29th minute, when an Osei Bonsu’s freekick from the edge of the box just whisked pass the goal post.
Liberty, who on most occasions were on the back foot resorted to hard tackles and skipper Addoquaye Pappoe was shown the first yellow card of the match in the 40th minute for dangerous tackle on Asare Nyarko.
The second half was not much different from the first as Okwawu controlled the game and camped Liberty in their own area, leaving the leaders to play on the break. In one of the breaks Liberty managed to put the ball into the net through Paintsil but referee G.K. Zorve from Kumasi ruled it offside.
Liberty introduced David Boateng for Paintsil with 19 minutes remaining and the youngster brought more urgency into their attack. Within a minute of coming on Boateng was involved in a quick interchange of passes which freed Ernest Papa Arko but the league's leading scorer shot directly into the hands of Dauda in post for Okwawu even though he had a clear sight on goal.
Okwawu's game plan changed in the 77th minute when referee Zorve misjudged and penalised Duada for handling a back pass in their box when indeed the ball came off the foot of a Liberty player. Okwawu players protested vehemently and that resulted in a red card to Edward Acquah whiles the resultant kick was wasted. With a numerical advantage, Liberty pushed forward but could not increase the tally as they wasted chance after chance.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 May - Supporters of Okwawu United Football Club are calling for the sack of Philip Boamah who took over the coaching responsibilities of the club at the beginning of the season.
Mr Ernest Apau, a spokesman of the supporters who are organised under "Mountain Three" which is made up mostly of spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai, a suburb of Accra told the GNA on Tuesday that they have lost confidence in the coach who is a debutante in the Ghanaian premier league and that he must be replaced by a more competent coach who will give them results.
He said the spate of poor results the team is recording is a pointer to a misfortune, which awaits the club at the end of the season if the head coach is not fired. Coach Boamah joined Okwawu after being sacked by Nigerian giants, Julius Berger of Lagos, the best financed club in that country with whom he won the Nigerian First Division League in 2000.
The Nkawkaw club, which has temporarily adopted the Accra Sports Stadium this season as their home grounds are on four points from five matches, having won against BA United (1-0) and drawn with Maxbees (0-0). They lost 1-3 to King Faisal in Kumasi, 0-1 to Hearts in a home match and 0-1 to Liberty Professionals.
Mr Apau who is as an executive member of "Mountain Three" said the coach bought players who have raw talents which need to be polished but unfortunately, he is not able to straighten their rough edges to make them challenge for honours in the premiership.
He said for a team to score only two goals in five matches, it means the coach lacks goal-scoring formations and since goals win matches, he must either relinquish his post or be fired to save the club from relegation. Mr Apau castigated the players too for their mediocre performance as he described some of them as colts players who do not have the character and experience to play in the premiership.
He deplored the attitude of Asare Nyarko who was the captain of the day in their match against Liberty for removing his jersey and throwing it on the tartan tracks when he was substituted. Mr Apau accused Kumasi based referee G.A. Zorve of bias against Okwawu and advised the Ghana Referees Association to appoint only competent officials for matches in order to avert another tragedy at stadia.
GRi…/
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