Aduana Stars ended their winless streak in the four-week old Ghana Premier League following a hard fought 1-0 victory against West African Football Academy at the Dormaa Park on Sunday.
The 2010 Premier League champions secured their first full points, thanks to a penalty well converted by reinstated captain Godfred Saka in the 45th minute.
Aduama Stars, who were highly tipped by connoisseurs of the game to win this season’s top-flight have so far had a torrid season, losing all their first three games. They first succumbed to a 0-2 defeat to Inter Allies at Tema on match day 1. They then lost 0-1 at home to Wa All Stars before suffering a 0-1 away defeat to regional rivals Techiman City.
The win which is the first for new trainer Cioaba Aristica on his return to the country is expected to propel the ‘Fire boys’ in their subsequent games.
But the head coach of WAFA, John Killa has blamed centre referee Reginald Lathbridge for his team’s defeat. The Dutch trainer accused him of awarding a dubious penalty to the home side.
Before Aduana’s goal the academy lads scored a goal which was disallowed and Killa indicated that he felt it was a perfect goal because according to him the whole circumference of the ball crossed the goal line before Stephen Adams grabbed it.
‘’I think everything went wrong. We lost this game because of one strange decision by the referee. The linesman didn’t raise his flag, only the referee knows why he made that decision,’’ he stated after the game.
‘’If you see that in the 48th minute(45+3) when everyone is preparing to go to the dressing room and suddenly he gives them a penalty. I would like to remind you for a fact that we scored the first goal. The linesman didn’t know what happened. The goalkeeper grabbed the ball behind the goal line of the post and the referee was still not sure, so he stole us twice in the first half,’’
He also stated that he was enthused with the performance of his players especially in the second half of the game though they lost.
‘’I think we were the better side in the second half. We played about 35 minutes of that half. We had a very big chance with Ofori but instead of kicking the ball he played it back. So I think that our second half was better than our first half.
‘’I see a lot of improvement. Any time I have to tell you the reasons why we are not winning away matches but today I think I have already given you the answer but we are close.’’
Killa noted that his side deserved a point on the afternoon though Aduana Stars also did well. He is confident his outfit would beat their next opponent in the shape of Liberty Professionals in the coming week.
‘’Aduana is a very good side don’t forget about that. They were in the title race last season and if you can play with a very young side and give them hard time, I think we deserved a point but we have to prepare for our next game against Liberty Professionals.
‘’There’s no panic, we have no stress because we know what we are doing. For next week, you will see the results.’’
WAFA occupies the 5th position with 6 points on the log, whilst Aduana Stars are at the 13th position with just 3 points.
By Daniel Osei