Hearts supporters deliver ultimatum to management

Accra, April 17, GNA - Irate supporters of Accra Hearts of Oak, unable to bear the pain of their 3-2 defeat to Cape Coast Ebusua Dwarfs in their 2005 premiership opener played at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra on Sunday, have tasked their management to replace coach Archibald Lamptey now or face their wrath.

The supporters, immediately referee John Atikesse brought proceedings to an end, converged in front of the VIP box to apparently have a word with the Mr. Thomas Okine-led management committee and tasked them to bring a substantive coach to replace the former coach, Sir Cecil Jones Attuquayefio's assistant before their next home match against Power FC or else they would chase him out themselves.

The angry fans blamed the teams defeat's on the coach, pointing accusing fingers on some individual players for faring below the par and also called for a massive offloading of players as Mohammed Hassan, Alfred Nii Larbi, Wisdom Abbey and James Boateng among others.

The furious supporters tasked the management to embark on a better recruitment exercise to get on board what they described as "better players capable of delivering" when it gets to the crunch.

They downplayed the capabilities of coach Lamptey, questioning what they said merited his continuous stay with the club after his "non-performance" in the One Touch Gala that was played last week. Hearts were dumped by Liberty Professionals on penalties during the quarter final stage of the two-day Gala.

"How can you expect to win with a coach of this nature?, Kwasi Owusu Sekyere, a fan quizzed the GNA Sports.

He wondered the sort of credentials that the coach possesses for him to be entertained by the management and asked, "When was the last time you heard something positive about coach Lamptey's exploits".

Another supporter, Nii Koufie Laryea said, "the earlier the management looked for a good coach, the better for all of us because we won't sit down for management to entertain anything which has the tendency of breaking our hearts and jolting our dreams", he told the GNA Sports.

Some also expressed misgivings about why the management kept faith in some of the lowly rated players when it was evident that they (the players) lacked what it takes to don the club's trio jersey of red-yellow-blue.

The obvious fact was that the expectant supporters were only clamouring for a classy coach and players who can successfully defend the trophy they won at the expense of Kumasi Asante Kotoko at the same venue some three Sunday's ago.

Coach Lamptey has however, fiercely criticized the supporters who are clamouring for his head but rather pointed accusing fingers on his players for letting him down.

"You hear supporters saying anything in times like these. How can one expect to win without most of the regular players? My hands are tied and I think it's completely senseless for anyone to blame me for our defeat"

He told the GNA Sports that the accusations of the supporters lacked basics whilst expressing the conviction that the return of injured players like Amankwaah Mireku, Francis Bossman, Eric Nyarko and Michael Donkor among others can overturn the fortunes of the club.