Asante Kotoko head coach, Charles Akonnor’s satisfaction was quite palpable at his team’s progression to the last four of the NC Special Competition on Thursday following their 1-1 draw with Aduana Stars in Dormaa.
The Porcupine Warriors needed to avoid defeat to have a chance of booking their place in the semi-finals of the competition and they were successful despite Aduana Stars’ efforts to find the winning goal after Abdulrahman Fatawu had cancelled Emmanuel Gyamfi’s goal to put Kotoko in the lead.
After the match, Akonnor spoke on his happiness at making the semi-finals but also highlighted the negatives with his team’s performance on the day.
“What was important for us was to qualify and if you look at the league standings, I am sort of satisfied. We need to improve on our play. In the first half, we were not too good.
We were not aggressive and not too compact. We allowed the opponent to have the ball and at a point, they had it for a long time and I was not happy with that at all.
In the second half, we got better and we possessed the ball. We had to win or draw and we got the draw and so, I am happy.
But football is strange because even when were not playing well and not looking good, we scored and so it is good. At the moment, we may not be playing well and it may not be attractive but we are getting the needed results.”
Apart from making to the semi-finals, Kotoko recorded another feat by scoring at Aduana Stars for the very first time in their history of clashes between the two teams since their first meeting in Dormaa in the 2009/ 2019 Ghana Premier League season.