Pressure is gradually mounting on Hearts of Oak Coach, Edward Nii Odoom, after chalking a point from a possible six in the first two Ghana Premier League (GPL).
Having seen their opener at Aduana Stars postponed over Coronavirus concerns, Hearts kicked their campaign on a bad patch, dropping points in their 2-2 second week clash against Ashgold in Accra.
But hopes of recording their first win of the season were dashed after Inter Allies stunned them with a solitary goal from the foot of Richmond Lamptey on Sunday.
That has no doubt put the coach in a tight corner as a section of fans have started to call for his axe.
His situation has not been helped with the arrival of former coach of the club, Kosta Papic who was present at the stadium on Sunday amidst reports he will assume unspecified role in the club.
But Coach Odoom has insisted that the club’s fortunes are not his making, rather shifting the blame on the playing body for failing to convert the numerous chances that came their way in the match against Inter Allies especially.
In his post match interview on Sunday, Coach made it clear that the Phobians should have won after dominating the exchanges and creating several goal scoring opportunities that were wasted.
“I am very surprised and even short of words. We did everything possible to score today but the boys wasted all those chances. I don’t know why we lost this match. Look at the number of chances we created. From the blast of the whistle, we had all the chances in the world to ‘kill’ this game.”
“We were in control of the game from the very start. Inter Allies were not extraordinary. They made good use of one good chance that came their way and we were done. We did everything we could, but the players didn’t help the club at all.”
“I feel the players didn’t help our course at all because we work on such situations at training sessions every time but when the stakes are high, they fail to deliver,” he said.
In his view, the area of goal scoring was one the team must take serious, adding that, “we will keep working on that till we get everything right.”
Sunday’s win was the first for the Harbour City boys, having dropped points in their earlier game.
In the match that saw the Phobians very expectant, midfielder Richmond Lamptey settled the scores with a decent swerving strike that beat the Hearts goalkeeper, Richard Attah.
Coach Edward Nii Odoom brought on Robert Sowah for an injured Nuru Sulley and introduced Abednego Tetteh to partner Kwadwo Obeng Junior but they failed to find the back of the net.
The Phobians have an outstanding game against Aduana Stars to be played December 9 and are hoping to win to boost their chances of winning the league.
BY ANDREW NORTEY
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