The Porcupine Warriors held their last training at the Adako Jachie training ground on Thursday afternoon before leaving to Accra for the Super Clash on Sunday
Asante Kotoko continued with their fine tuning on Thursday ahead of the weekend’s Super Clash against Hearts of Oak at the Accra Sports Stadium.
With the team expected to leave Kumasi to Accra on Friday, the players held their last training at the Adako Jachie training ground with a full house.
Apart from players like Fabio Gama and Isaac Oppong who have been ruled out of the game due to ill health, almost every player that have been playing part of Kotoko’s games recently were present.
Head coach Prosper Ogum Narteh took the players through some drills and also practiced some tactics and formations which they would like to deploy on Sunday for the game.
Also, former Kotoko player and chief executive officer Opoku Nti, together with other legends who made their names for the club in the past showed up at the training.
Their main purpose was to motivate the players ahead of the Super Clash and an
“Our coming here was made possible by the current management team of the club and technical team so we are grateful,” Opoku Nti said in an interview with journalists.
“The legends of this club always pray for the players to succeed. The only club we have is Kotoko and we adore it and if Kotoko progresses, it also opens doors for us in different ways.
“We want to mainly motivate them so that they can defeat Hearts. We feel the coach [Prosper Ogum Narteh] is doing wonderful job especially since he is new to the club and more than half of the players are also new.
“However, the results are very encouraging even though they didn’t get time to have pre-season so he is using the league games to work on the players and I think he must be commended.
“Football isn’t about magic but togetherness and cohesion and even though the player’s would’ve needed enough time to play as a unit, the coach has been able to work around the clock to make them understand his philosophy so easily,” he added.
Meanwhile, Hearts coach Samuel Boadu is under intense pressure to defeat Kotoko and breath life back into their title defence after going two games without a win.
They were pipped 1-0 by city rivals Great Olympics in the Ga Mantse derby a fortnight ago before sharing the spoils goalless last weekend against RTU in Tamale.
Kotoko lead the Premier League table with 36 points, twelve points above Hearts of Oak who sit eighth with 24 points.