Awako Scores As 10- Man Hearts of Oak Inflict More Pains On Noisy Neighbours Accra Lions– As It Happened
Accra Hearts of Oak secured their third win of the season after edging past league leaders Accra Lions 3-1 at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Despite playing the majority of the game with 10 men, goals from Gladson Awako, Ibrahim Salifu and Benjamin Yorke were enough to maximum points for the Phobians, who moved up sixth position on the league.
Coach Slavko Matic’s side was reduced to ten men after skipper Gladson Awako was shown a red-card by the referee on the 28th minute of the game.
Accra Lions commenced the fixture on a good note but the hosts were wasteful upfront as two goal glaring opportunities fell for Hagan Frimpong and Daniel Awuni but their efforts went into the palms of goalkeeper Richmond Ayi.
Hearts of Oak were productive upfront despite the home side enjoying majority of the possession in the early minutes of the game.
Gladson Awako opened the score for Hearts of Oak with an audacious strike on the 23rd minute to frustrate highly-flying Accra Lions before the half-hour mark.
Five minutes later, Awako was sent off by the referee with a straight red-card leaving the Phobians with ten men which forced Slavko Matic to introduce Congolese international Jeordon Otanga Mvouo for Junior Kaaba.
Hearts of Oak warmed themselves into the game after snatching the opener to force the first half with a 1-0 lead.
In the second half, Heart of the continued their impressive performance against Accra Lions to extend their lead after just three minutes.
Hearts of Oak doubled their lead from the spot after Jeordon Otanga Mvouo was fouled by goalkeeper Andrews Andrews on the 47th minute of the game.
Midfield dynamo Salifu Ibrahim elected himself to brilliantly convert the spot-kick to hand Hearts of Oak a 2-0 lead on the 48th minute.
Accra Lions were determined to reduce the deficit before the final whistle with the launch of fearsome attacks on the back line of the visitors.
Coach James Francis made some tactical substitutions which aided his side to reduce the deficit by scoring the consolation goal through Bassit Seidu on the 80th minute.
When most of the fans of Hearts of Oak were leaving the stadium, substitute Benjamin Yorke extended their lead to 3-1 with a fine strike after goalkeeper Andrews Owusu fisted it into his own net.
Following the results, Hearts of Oak have moved up to sixth position on the 2022/23 betPawa Premier League log with 12 points while Accra Lions drops to second with 15 points after match-week seven.
The betPawa Premier League will go on break after this weekend fixtures where Hearts of Oak will host Dreams FC whilst Accra Lions will make a trip to Kumasi to face King Faisal in the match-week 8.
