Kumasi Asante Kotoko’s newly signed on coach Johnson Smith can aptly be described as the stone that the builders rejected that had become the cornerstone of the building.   The former international star noted for his immaculate ball juggling was the clubs assistant coach but incoming coach Paa Kwasi Fabin asked for his replacement a few weeks into the start of the season.

Enter new assistant Yaw Acheampong, also a former international star but as the pair could not produce the desired results, Acheampong was made the scapegoat and sacked. Subsequent events must have made it clear to management that Coach Paa Kwasi might be the culprit after all as Kotoko kept on losing matches with careless abandon.

With six matches to end the league and Kotoko ominously hovering around the relegation zone, one needed no white cane to see that Paa Kwasi had very little up his sleeves and a terse press statement said he had been asked to proceed on leave, then followed the dramatic announcement that the rejected Johnson Smith was to take over from Paa Kwasi.

It was a short notice and before the noisy sporting media could exhaust their trademark boisterous analysis of the whole saga, Johnson –Smith had led Kotoko to a most unexpected 1-0 away victory over Real Tamale United in Tamale; the second away win of the season. 

Predictably, the theories surrounding this brilliant start by Johnson are legion. They range from sabotage on the part of the players to spiritism but football purists appreciate Johnson Smith’s immense football tactics and they believe he has the wherewithal to improve Kotoko’s low standing in the league table.

There is an interesting coincidence about Kotoko’s surprise win. At the same stage last season when a new coach Herbert Addo replaced Bashiru Hayford, Kotoko carved a similar sensational away win over Sekondi Eleven Wise in Sekondi. Incidentally, the winning goal came from the foot of substitute Kwabena Yaro who also got the winning goal in Tamale as a substitute. 

The excitement for Kotoko fans is the timing of the Tamale victory which precedes Sunday’s tough fixture against Liberty Professionals at the `Baba Yara Stadium. Liberty hold the record of dishing out the heaviest defeat to Kotoko, 3-1 in Accra  and with this new wind blowing in camp Kotoko fans are looking forward for a revenge.

It is said that there is nothing impossible in soccer but sincerely from their eight position it would take a miracle for Kotoko to win the cup. Their best would be a top four placing.

There is a gap of 10 points behind leaders Obuasi Ashgold who are heavily tipped to win the title after a decade and half hiatus.

The miners have a tricky away encounter against Sekondi Eleven Wise who are desperately rooted last but one from the bottom. It won’t be easy as the 1958 pioneer league club would fight desperately to avoid relegation one more time.

Defending champions Hearts of Oak also face another relegation threatened club New Edubiase at Obuasi and it should be a thriller.

The remaining fixtures are (home teams first) Olympics v Berekum Arsenal; All Stars v Real Tamale United. Bechem Chelsea v Heart of Lions, Dormaa Aduana Stars v King Faisal Kessben v Sekondi Hasaacas.

These are all exciting pairings and it is hoped that with the European champions’ league taking a break, Ghanaian football fans would shift their focus a bit and patronize the local programme.

Talking about the European champion’s league, it is my personal view that the absence of any English team in the last four has taken a bit of shine from the competition. 

This is not to show any disrespect to any of the surviving teams but after Chelsea had been bullied out of the tournament by Inter Milan and Barcelona completely running over Arsenal, I was expecting Manchester United to hold the fort for England by eliminating Bayern Munich.

The match nearly lived up to its billing as the final before the final when United took a 3-0 lead. The stage had been set to see how Bayern could recover but by a combination of factors especially the unrestrained use of cards by the Italian referee who harshly sacked United’s young Brazilian defender Rafael. 

United lost the appetite to attack as they were seriously handicapped at rear and it for most parts of the game it was Van Der Saar against Munich just like it was Messi against Arsenal the day before.

I am sure if the same Italian referee had handled the Barcelona- Arsenal match he would have sacked half of the Arsenal players

for their tackles on Messi and this would have robbed paying fans their money’s worth.

Much as referees are not to ensure a clean game, it is my considered opinion that the strict interpretation of the laws of the game at times makes them look like robots or at best text book referees.

I maybe wrong but I maintain that Rafael did not deserve that second yellow card.  From my point of view after his dismissal, the match lost a huge chunk of its competitiveness. Let’s hope for a more rational use of the referees’ discretion in the subsequent matches.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.