Hearts silence Danbort

Hearts Cosmos Dauda given a chase by defenders of Danbort (In yellow & black)

Accra Hearts of Oak yesterday dismissed the bluff of Division One League (DOL), Danbort FC by defeating them 1-0 in their FA Cup quarter final game played at the Accra Sports Stadium, yesterday.

The only goal of the game was scored from the spot by defender Vincent Atinga on the 65th minute mark after Hearts’ bulldozer, Patrick Razak had been whacked down by an inexperienced defender of the Nungua based side, Saddick Abubakari.

Yesterday’s win lifts the Phobians to the semi final stage of the tournament.

Danbort were unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty five minutes after going down when Hearts defender, Fatau Mohammed clearly pulled his marker down in the Hearts goal area.

Danbort lived by their pre-match vow of stretching the Phobians to their limit with a brilliant first half display that saw the Premier League outfit struggle at the back to defend their goal.

Pushed from the back by the Saddick Abubakari and John Mensah, the Nungua lads carried the game to the Pbobians, threatened many times but failed to convert any of the chances that came their way as Atinga and Robin Gnagne thwarted their efforts.

But Hearts took control of the game midway through the half and pinned the visitors to their half of the field.

Within that period, Patrick Razak, Kwame Kizito and Isaac Mensah forced impressive saves from the Danbort goalie, Prosper Gbeky.

The second half started on a fierce note with Hearts slightly on top but still failed to break down the defense of the visitors  until Razak was introduced.

With his terrific speed, he proved a thorn in the flesh of the Danbort defence anytime he surged forward.

In one of his surging runs, he beat a marker and found himself in a ‘50-50’ situation with Abubakar in the Danbort goal area but instead of clearing the lurking danger, he went straight for the foot of Razak for a penalty which was expertly converted by Atinga.

The game became very physical as the DOL side tried to bully their way through and in the process attracted a number of cautions.

Razak went down again with two minutes of time added on but his appeal was ignored by the referee who adjudged it as a dive.

 

By Raymond Ackumey

 

 

 

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