Asante Kotoko head coach Eric Tinkler has admitted that his team still has work to do defensively despite securing an important victory over Heart of Lions.
The Porcupine Warriors had to work hard for the three points, with Heart of Lions creating several opportunities during the match.
Tinkler acknowledged that the opposition played well and caused problems for his team, but praised his players for managing the game and creating chances of their own.
The South African coach, however, was not fully satisfied with Kotoko’s performance and pointed to defensive weaknesses that need to be addressed.
He was particularly concerned that his team struggled to control the match even after Heart of Lions were reduced to 10 players.
According to Tinkler, Kotoko made the game more difficult than necessary but showed enough character to secure the win.
“We made things very difficult for ourselves. You can see Heart of Lions are a good team; they created chances, but we managed the game, and we created our chances,” Tinkler said.
“Overall, there is still a lot of work we have to do defensively. We struggled even when we played against 10 men.”
The coach admitted that the performance was not the best from his side but stressed that the result remains the most important thing.
“Today we won ugly, but we will take the three points and move on,” he added.
