By: David Kyei

Date: 08-11-11

Head coach, Maxwell Konadu, has sent an strong caution couched in a plea to supporters and football watchers to leave his player, Awal Mohamed, alone in their discussion and analyses of the Berekum Arsenal-Kotoko match.

He has also asked Kotoko supporters not to be swayed into needlessly chastising the player for it could be a ploy by some anti-Kotoko elements to destabilize the team by bringing fear and panic onto the players.

Speaking to Kotoko Express after the painful 1-1 drawn game against Berekum Arsenal at the Golden City Park, the Coach Maxwell insisted that despite the mistakes that players make in a game, he has full confidence in them because they have been showing by their response at training that they are willing to learn and also correct their mistakes.

According to him, he was working hard on getting the players to avoid mistakes and also bring their confidence up  by instilling winner’s mentality in the players.

“This is the more reason why I am calling on fans and football analyst especially to leave Awal Mohamed alone. The player remains one of our trusted and dependable defenders whom we are counting on to bring stability in our defence”.

“It has been said that the one who goes to the river to fetch water is the one who breaks the pot. I therefore caution that we would be doing a great mistake if we jump into doing things that will bring pressure to bear on the team”

He described the outcome of last Sunday’s match as a painful one because that was one particular match in which the players created several chances and yet could not make full utilization of them.

“My upfront players did well on the whole, but mention should be made of one ore two clear chances that they could have utilized to put us ahead in the score line. In all, our performance was good, especially taking into consideration of the fact that it was an away match in no less a venue than Berekum Park”.

“Getting an away draw is not too bad a result and so we will pick our selves up from the pain and look forward to our next match tomorrow”.

“We need a win on Wednesday and I am sure and know that we will pick the points to keep afloat our projections for the season”.

Kotoko supporters filled more than half of the spectators at the stadium and this was delightful to Coach Maxwell.

“I have always insisted that the supporters remain the reason for which we have been training. I have been encouraging them to continue to attend our matches in their numbers and looking at the way they turned up at Berekum, I am sure it will be soon for us to see fans occupying every available seating space at the Baba Yara Stadium to watch us play our home matches of the league and beyond”.

“I commend the fans for heeding my call on them to come. Let me also add that Kotoko is committed to making them happy “