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We are still on course- Sylvester
By David Kyei
Posted: 7th June 2008
Having watched his charges secured victories match after match, the chairman of the management team of Kotoko, Sylvester Asare Owusu has described the lose to Real Tamale United (RTU) as a storm in the tea cup of the success story of the club in the 2007/8 premier league.
He has therefore implored supporters of Kotoko to put the defeat behind them and concentrate on how best they can make the league title aspirations a reality.
"The match was a difficult one for us but not to apportion blame or anything like that, I will ask fans to look ahead to the other matches and hope that we turn out better performances"
The players did not put up the vintage performance as they have done in previous matches and this was a worry to chairman Asare Owusu.
"This was a match that our players did not particularly play well to impress me, and even when they managed to create some chances in the match, they also made hush of them"
"My concern with the defeat is the fact that I did not see the kind of fighting spirit that has been exhibited in recent times. On top of it, I also did not see my players preventing their opponents from threatening our area".
After the match against Liberty Professional in Accra, the general feelings among fans was that the players were getting tired of winning, and this the chairman shares with some modification
"I am tempted to share in that opinion, but will also like to bring to the attention of all that, with the nature of league matches, it is always important that we look at the fact that after twenty matches and more, tiredness sets in and so the players will not be able to power up with the same strength they started with".
"We should not forget that we have been using virtually the same core players for matches and so it is normal in football to see their strength dwindle".
"This is one of the important reasons why we insisted on our players fighting hard from the start of the league to ensure that we wrapped up the winning of the league title when we still had some more matches to go. I am glad that the team lived up to that and so that makes any hitch at this period not count so much"
Chairman Asare Owusu may have been disappointed by losing to RTU, but how about his assessment of the performance of the match officials.
"As a club chairman and a football fan, I particularly do not like dwelling so much on the contributions of referee’s in my club’s loss, but in this match, I don’t think the referees did enough to ensure a smooth match worth enjoying".
"They kept awarding one doubtful decision after another and I wondered at a point if they were really up to the task they had been assigned".
"I just hope that our referees will use all opportunities to learn, since that is the only way they can improve their lot".
The defeat to RTU is now history and what is left is for the team to prop themselves up by stepping up their preparation as they have another important date with their local rivals, King Faisal, at the Baba Yara stadium on Sunday,
This is one match the chairman admits has a lot at stake and so had a word of caution for the players and fans.
"Our players are well aware of the enormity of the match on Sunday and so I expect them and their technical handlers to re-position themselves to the winning ways to establish our superiority over our opponents. We cannot fail our supporters twice on a trot so we need to do more to win on Sunday".
"To our disappointed supporters, I ask them to take heart and know that losing matches once in a while is a characteristic of all big clubs around the world of which Kotoko is no exception. I want to assure them that they will get their smiles back on Sunday so they should come to the stadium in their numbers to support the team.
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