Hearts of Oak fell behind early but managed to grind out a 2-1 victory over 10-man Bibiani GoldStars to kick-start match-day 4 of the 2022/23 Ghana Premier League (GPL) Saturday afternoon.
The country’s domestic topflight competition was restarting with the Accra Stadium fixture after a three-week break forced by court action.
Serbian Slavko Matic was leading the Phobians in his very first competitive game after taking up the head coach job only the previous week.
Striker Prince Kwabena Owusu put GoldStars up early in the 9th minute with a magnificent effort over goalkeeper Richmond Ayi who had moved way out of his line.
Hearts had a clear opportunity to pull level in the 39th minute but Kwadwo Obeng Jnr was unlucky with his neat effort which went into the upright.
Coach Michael Osei’s side took the 1-0 lead into the break and held on for almost the next hour of the game.
The tie began turning the way of the hosts when GoldStars had goalkeeper Joseph Baah sent off in the 62nd minute for hitting CAR forward Yassan Ouatching.
Isaac Mensah – who had come off the bench – scored the equaliser for Hearts with a rush effort from inside the box in the 78th minute.
Star midfielder Gladson Awako then snatched victory for Hearts three minutes from time, seeing his free-kick come off the wall before beating GoldStars substitute goalkeeper Ernest Kussi.
There was an additional time of 13 minutes as Hearts of Oak marched on to their first win of the campaign. They are now on 5 points from four games in the 2022/23 GPL.
Hearts youngster Gideon Asante Yeboah was named the man-of-the-match.
