The last time Asante Kotoko defeated rivals Hearts of Oak at the Babayara sports stadium in a league fixture Maxwell Konadu was their manager.
Maxwell is currently second assistant coach to Kwesi Appiah for the Black Stars.
In that season of 2011.12, Kotoko did not only go unbeaten against the Phobians (2-1 win and 0-0 draw ) but they also won the league title.
Since that time the Porcupine Warriors have gone six full seasons without ever recording a home league win against Hearts of Oak who haven’t lifted any major trophy since 2009.
Kotoko coach from October 2012 to February 2015 – Didi Dramani – played Hearts of Oak three times in Kumasi but never won a single game – 2 drawn games (0-0 in 2012.13 and 2013.14 seasons ) and 1 defeat (Kotoko 0 Hearts 1 in 2015 season. Goal scored by Selasi Adjei).
Even though Didi won three major trophies with Kotoko and led the club to beat Hearts in Accra , 1-0 in the 2013.14 season where Seidu Bancey’s famous piledriver won it for the Porcupine Warriors but not winning in front of the fans of Kotoko against Hearts of Oak remained one of the biggest disappointments in Didi’s era.
Caretaker coach Michael Osei who took over from the sacked David Duncan in the 2016 league season led his charges to win in Accra over Kenichi Yatsuhashi’s Phobians but in the second round reverse fixture at the Babayara stadium the points were shared. 1-1 was the final scoreline as Patrick Razak, in the 52nd minute, canceled a first half effort of Kwame Boateng for Kotoko.
In 2017 season coach Lugarusic started the season as Kotoko head coach and when he led them to Accra, they lost 1-0 to Frank Nuttall’s Hearts of Oak but Luga was not going to be there when the reverse fixture was played in Kumasi on August 6. British trainer Steven Polack was the coach of Kotoko by this time and once again the club failed to beat Hearts of Oak as striker Sadick Adams equalized from the spot a second half goal of Kwame Kizito. Draw.
So the list post-Konadu. Didi Dramani, Michael Osei, Steven Polack and Paa Kwesi Fabin have failed to beat Hearts of Oak in a Kumasi league game in six combined games – 4 draws and 2 defeats. That is certainly a bad run.
Not only have Kotoko failed to win a game in these last six home league encounters against the Phobians. They have also scored the fewer goals (2) as against four goals of Hearts of Oak.
Do you think Kotoko management should lure Maxwell Konadu back to the club?
