GPL: 24/25: Holy Stars hold Hearts of Oak in a contest of blank shots
Accra Hearts of Oak lost further ground to their title rivals following a goalless draw with Basake Holy Stars in the Ghana Premier League on Sunday.
Despite an avalanche of goal-scoring opportunities at both ends of the pitch, the match ended goalless with Hearts missing the majority of them.
Having dropped points in their last league match, Hearts set out to correct that with a strong start when Hamza Issa broke free from Ramzy Yussif’s threaded pass.
However, the striker was flagged offside.
Twenty minutes into the game, Michael Ampadu made a timely intervention to Prince Tweneboah’s attempt to open the scoring for Holy Stars.
From then on, Holy Stars took control of the game, but were repelled by the resolute Hearts of Oak defense.
On the half-hour mark, Hearts nearly took the lead against the run of play when Ampadu set up Hamza Issa but the striker’s shot flew wide.
The Phobians were forced into an early substitution when Martin Karikari was replaced by Mawuli Wayo, just before halftime.
On the cusp of half-time, Theophilus Collison found Wayo with a brilliant pass on the counter with what many thought would be the first goal of the game.
However, with the entire goal to aim at, Wayo, the club’s joint top-scorer in the league, had four goals and was fired wide.
Hearts of Oak’s misfortunes continued nine minutes after the restart when Hussein Mohammed fell injured. He was replaced by Kwesi Asmah who came on for his debut.
Four minutes later, there was even more to worry about when Asamoah Boateng Afriyie fired wide with the goal at his mercy.
With the match seeming destined for a draw, Holy Stars had one last chance to snatch maximum points when Prince Opoku went down on the edge of the area.
Opoku stepped and expertly dispatched what appeared to be a goal-bound curler until Benjamin Asare responded with a finger-tip save just before the final whistle.
Sunday’s draw means Hearts are now four points off the pace in fifth place with 30 points.
Holy Stars, meanwhile, are now six points above the drop zone with 27 points but are winless since the turn of the year with two draws (against Hearts of Oak and Aduana Stars) and a defeat (3-1 loss to Nations F.C.)