Match Preview: Hearts play Berekum Chelsea at home

Accra Hearts of Oak will host Berekum Chelsea on match day 29 of the First Capital Plus Bank Premier on Sunday 6th September, 2015, a game that happened to be the last home game for the Phobians in the ongoing season.

The Phobians succumbed to a 4-2 defeat to Berekum Chelsea in the first round fixture of the First Capital Plus Bank Premier league in a game played at the Essipong sports stadium due to a home ban on the Berekum based club.

Ahead of Sunday's game against the Berekum based club, the Phobians  have been handed a massive boost as they won a protest last Tuesday against their rivals Asante Kotoko benefiting three points from that and also lifted them from the 15th position to the 7th position.

Based on the points build up on the log sheet, Hearts of Oak need to win their last two games in order to escape the wrath of being relegated as a loss or draw will be a major blow for the former Africa champions.

Berekum Chelsea on the other hand are safe on the log sheet as they are at the third position on the league log with 41 points but their aim on Sunday is to beat Hearts of Oak in order to maintain their position on the log sheet.

In the ongoing season, Berekum Chelsea form has not been impressive in their away games, winning only one game in 15 away games, that win was the 3-0 thrashing of Asante Kotoko at the Baba Yara sports stadium.

The Phobians who are yet to lose a game in three games, having recorded a back to back victory over Liberty Professionals and Bechem Utd and a drawn game with Medeama would like to continue their fine form against Berekum Chelsea who lost 1-0 in their last away visit to the Phobians which was in last season's league.

And in-form Hearts of Oak winger, Thomas Abbey is optimistic of his side's win over Berekum Chelsea.

'Though we have won a board rooms points over Kotoko, we are not going to be complacent our position on the log sheet is still not safe so we must at all cost beat Berekum Chelsea and I'm confident that we will win that game.

'Getting the three points in the Berekum Chelsea's game can even push us to the top four and we are much determined to achieve that, all we need is for the fans to fill the Accra stadium and we will not disappoint them,' Abbey told  Allsports.com.gh .

Berekum Chelsea will definitely depend on their in-form attacker, Kofi Owusu who have scored 15 goals in the ongoing campaign and the 24 year old goal poacher said his side must shock Hearts in Accra.

'We have to shock Hearts of Oak in Accra, they are playing at home, everything is to their advantage but we are not wary of the threat they will be posing, we are going into the game to shock them and we will do that at the end of 90minutes,'  Kofi Owusu told  Allsports.com.gh .

HEAD TO HEAD
Hearts of Oak have played Berekum Chelsea 13 times in the league since the Berekum based club got promoted in the 2008/09 season. Hearts have won three, drawn four, and lost six in the 13 league encounters. Twenty-eight goals have been scored in this fixture with the visitors leading the way with 16 as against Hearts' 12 in 13 games.

2008 / 2009
Bechem Chelsea 2-0 Hearts
Hearts 1-1 Berekum Chelsea
2009 / 2010
Hearts 2-1 Berekum Chelsea
Berekum Chelsea 1-1 Hearts
2010 / 2011
Hearts 1-1 Berekum Chelsea
Berekum Chelsea 1-0 Hearts
2011 / 2012
Hearts 0-0 Berekum Chelsea
Berekum Chelsea 2-1 Hearts
2012 / 2013
Berekum Chelsea 2-0 Hearts
Hearts 3-0 Berekum Chelsea
2012 / 2013
Hearts 1-0 Berekum Chelsea
Berekum Chelsea 1-0 Hearts
2013 / 2014
Hearts 1 - 0 Berekum Chelsea
Berekum Chelsea 1 - 0 HEARTS
2014 / 2015
Berekum Chelsea 4 - 2
Hearts? - ? Berekum Chelsea