AshGold News: Hendricks Signs and more

JOE HENDRICKS SIGNS TWO-YEAR CONTRACT WITH ASHGOLD

Former Kumasi Asante Kotoko captain Joe Hendricks has signed a two-year contract with Ashantigold and will assume training next week. The deal went through after a mutual swap between Ashantigold and Kotoko saw Joe Hendricks sign for Ashantigold with Kenneth Ababio also going to Kotoko. When Joe Hendricks was spotted at the club's secretariat on Wednesday afternoon, he made it clear that he had served Kokoto for six years and needed a change to another club that has similar aspirations to achieve laurels.

Joe commended the management, the head coach and the family of Ashgold who in diverse ways contributed to his move to Obuasi. He revealed his great admiration for and excitements at joining the “Aboakese” family. He touched on the level of professionalism and facilities pertaining at Ashgold and promised to give of his best to help Ashgold achieve its goals. Hendricks promised to work in harmony with his colleagues and assured the yellow and black fans to troop to the Stadium in their numbers to watch the new Ashgold. COACH HANS PRAYS CALM The head coach of Ashgold, Hans Van Der Pluym, has urged the fans of Club to exercise patience and continuously rally behind the club even in times of difficulties.

He explained that Ashgold has a number of young academy players who have gained promotion to the senior team and need to be encouraged to play. Hans was speaking in reaction to Ashgold fans' show of disapproval over the team's one all result against visiting Berekum Arsenals last Sunday in a week four Ghana Telecom Premier League match at the Len clay Sports Stadium. Agreeing that Ashgold ought to have won to stay on top of the league ladder, he said, “Soccer is full of uncertainties” adding however that “a game is either won, lost and drawn”.

He said though Ashgold kept pressurizing in the second half and dominated play throughout the last 45 minutes, the team could not score the winning goal. He however attributed the inability to win the match to his boys' lack of desire to win.

He said, “If the boys had put into practice what we had learnt at training, Ashgold could have won the match convincingly”.

Hans Van Der Pluym touched on Ashgold's match against RTU as a tough match but promised to return to Obuasi with a surprise. He laid emphasis on the fact that though RTU lost by a higher margin to Liberty Professionals but that will not be enough grounds for RTU to ride over us.

When coach Hans was asked about Ashgold's contention for the premiership title, he made it clear that “one cannot assess the chances of any team with only four matches. We have twenty six more matches to go”.

Hans assured the fans to troop to the Stadium in their numbers and support the good work of management since the management in consultation with the Board of Directors is working very hard to secure the services of other players to beef up the current squad. ASHGOLD SHARE POINTS WITH ARSENALS Ashgold battled a stubborn Berekum Arsenals side to a goalless one all game and thus failed to garner maximum points at the favourite Len Clay Sports Stadium last Sunday.

Highly favoured to carry the day, Ashantigold had a relatively high number of fans that turned up impressively to cheer the team root for more goals after opening the scores in the 24th minute.

Strong defender Kwaku Wiafe overlapped and released an inch perfect pass to Shaibu “Owen” Yakubu who delivered a powerful shot towards goal only to be handled in the 18yard box by a defender of Arsenals resulting in a spot kick.

Shaibu beautifully converted for the first goal.

Arsenals accepted the challenge and organized their defence comprising Seth Opoku, Halifax Afriyie, Ibrahim Yahaya and Fuseini Adams that marked Shaibu out of the game.

10 minutes later, Ashgold's Fatau Dauda could not make a first time save of a shot and Alex Asamoah coolly connected the spilled ball for the equalizer. In desperation, Tony Baffoe was yellow carded for rough play in the 42nd minute.

Ashgold kept pressuring throughout the last forty-five minutes and bombarded the goal area of the visitors with several in-swingers and powerful shots but none could yield the needed winning goal.

Arsenal's Amo Adomah was sent off after receiving two yellow cards forcing the visitors to play at a numerical disadvantage yet Ashgold upon several incursions upfront failed score. THE LATE OPANIN KWAKU DUAH'S FUNERAL ARRAGEMENTS The funeral arrangements of the late Kwaku Duah, the father of Thomas Duah are detailed as follows: There will be no wake keeping however the body will be laid in state on Saturday May 7th at 5.00am at Breman. Burial will take place on the same day at 10.00am. The funeral rites start at 1.00pm to 6.00pm at Breman Roman Catholic School Park. The family gathers at the Breman Roman Catholic Park on Sunday 8th May 2005.