Ashantigold coach, Bashiru Hayford has revealed that he always told his players to take the game to their opponents and look for penalties when the going got tough.
Ashantigold sealed their 4th Ghana Premier League title on Sunday following a 1-0 win over WAFA on the back of Emmanuel Osei’s converted penalty on 72 minutes at the Len Clay Stadium in the face of WAFA goalie, Razak Abaolara putting up a man-of-the-match performance.
Speaking on live television just moments after the final whistle confirmed their first championship in 19 years, Coach Hayford blabbed it all whilst also hailing his own achievement of a second league triumph in the dugout with a second Ashanti Regional team.
“WAFA are dangerous, they are academy boys I know them and on a good day they can destroy you so I told my boys not to play beautiful football,” he said.
“Penalty was our strategy, if you get the ball, move and get into the penalty box, if they leave you can go on and score but if they bring you down, then it’s a penalty. It worked for us throughout the season,” Bashiru Hayford disclosed.
“And of course it worked again today and we are very excited. This is a joyous moment that everybody is happy. We started a long journey and now my Lord who began it has finally done it,” the former Kotoko and Heart of Lions coach added.
He continued: “This is my second league trophy after I won one with Kotoko, I also won three Top 4 trophies, two with Kotoko and one with Heart of Lions. It’s a very good achievement and record which every coach must try to emulate.”
