Interim Hearts of Oak coach Eddie Ansah insists he can guide thee club out of the mess they find themselves.

The Phobians sunk deeper the relegation zone after Sunday’s 1-2 home defeat to arch-rivals Kotoko in the FCPPL’s match day 25 fixture at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Hearts have thus suffered two straight defeats and now lie just above bottom place at 15th position with five match days to end the season.

"I will congratulate Kotoko for their victory. They stole the win from our hands. We came here to get the maximum points because when you look at the league log, our position wasn’t too good enough for us so we wanted the three maximum points," the ex-goalkeeper said at post-match.

"We lost the battle but we have not lost the war. We have five matches to go, we need to push and we are going to push. At this moment, I’m in control over this. I believe I have what it takes to pull Hearts of Oak out of this mess. We are in a mess but we will come out of it. We will chop three consecutive wins and come out of the relegation zone. [sic]"

"A coach is judged by the performance of his team. I believe we are doing a good job, the players are responding to it and we will come out of this situation."

Hearts face another tricky tie next away to neighbours Liberty Professionals in a match ay 26 fixture on Wednesday, August 5. Liberty were defeated 1-0 by AshGold on Sunday.

Sadness

The stop-gap coach bemoaned Hearts' (formation in yellow, above)  lack of concentration as well.

“They stole the victory out of our hands, we came here with a good plan to get at least a respectable result, we came here to get the maximum points because looking at the league log, our position wasn’t too good enough for us so we came to get the three maximum points.”

He continued: “We started the game on a very high note and we had a penalty but we missed it after missing a penalty in such a high-profile game, the players naturally will come down but we tried to psyche them up and then we conceded a goal against the round of play and it was difficult for the players, but we were able to hold our ground to end the first half.

“After recess, we talked to them and got the needed equalizer and then we lost a little concentration, during the game they [Kotoko] were tired and they taught we took control of the game. We saw we could have pushed further to get at least a winning goal but then there was lack of concentration at one moment, and we conceded and that is the story now. We have lost a game but we have not lost the war, because we still have 5 games to go, we need to push and we are going to push.”

Hearts will battle Liberty Professionals at Dansoman in their next league game on Wednesday.

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More analysis

CLICK TO READ: Match report - Hearts 1-2 Kotoko

CLICK TO READ: Analysis - How David Duncan outsmarted Hearts

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