Accra, Jan. 25, GNA – Johnson Smith – Interim Head Coach of Asante Kotoko has slammed the match officials in their game against Aduana Stars at the Accra Sports Stadium last Sunday.
The Porcupine Warriors were denied the opportunity to go top spot after Samuel Bio’s superbly taken strike proved enough for the “Ogyaa” Boys to secure the spoils on the day.
According to the Coach, the referee’s performance was not good enough because he denied them some infringements that could have changed the outcome of the game.
“I normally don’t complain about referees but the referee’s performance was not good as he refused to award us some penalties,” he said in a post-match press conference.
Coach Smith added that the early injury to Patrick Asmah also ruined their game plan forcing him to alter the strategy which was not successful.
“Our first substitution disrupted our game plan. Asmah’s injury forced us into an early substitution which was not part of the game plan.
“Despite using lots of defensive players, it doesn’t mean our approach to the game was purely defensive. It was just a tactical approach to get the lateral defenders to get in more crosses,” he noted.
When asked about his preparation for their next game against regional rivals AshantiGold, Coach Smith said, “We are taking a game at a time.
We going to plan for the AshantiGold clash and I would have to psyche the players so that we can win the clash against AshantiGold,”. he added.
Referee Tampuri was the center man in the game with Emmanuel Allou and Frederick Danful as his assistants.
GNA