It was only a year ago that Bofoakwa Tano were readying themselves for their latest shot at a return to the Premier League — the club's best chance, in fact, since going down in 2007.

All that stood in their way was a one-off contest with fellow Division One [Zone One] side Techiman Eleven Wonders at the Accra Sports Stadium. A tense affair ended level even after extra-time, thus requiring a nervy penalty shoot-out to decide the destination of the sole top-flight ticket on offer.

Bofoakwa prevailed, carrying the spoils to Sunyani.

But the joy fans of the club felt, with Premier League football returning to the Bono regional capital, soon fizzled, as the reality of competing at a level they had been away from for so long dawned. By the end of the year, they had replaced one trainer, veteran Frimpong Manso, with another, John Eduafo, an assistant coach at Asante Kotoko when the Porcupine Warriors won the league two seasons ago.

That change, though, has hardly improved their lot. With just five matches to the end of the season, Bofoakwa are in the relegation zone, running out of time and opportunities to turn their season around in a more favourable direction.

Even so, it would be not quite accurate -- highly unfair, in fact -- to say Bofoakwa are a bad team.

They are not the easiest side to beat — only two of their last 13 games in all competitions have been lost, and even leaders Samartex have been defeated more often across the entirety of this league campaign — with the latest show of such resilience coming in Bofoakwa's latest game, against Dreams FC last Sunday.

The last meeting between the two sides had come only a week earlier, when Dreams visited Bofoakwa's Coronation Park home and snatched a point late in the game. This encounter, however, took place many miles away, in Sogakope, Volta Region, where the penultimate games of this year's FA Cup were played.

Nsoatreman had won the first semi-final the previous day, beating fellow Premier League side Legon Cities, and Bofoakwa winning their own fixture would set up an all-Brong Ahafo final — all they had to do was overcome Dreams, a club that did not even exist when last Bofoakwa were demoted from the Premier League.

Dreams are not flying so high in the league, but that's partly because of CAF Confederation Cup engagements — their maiden continental assignment — in which they defied odds and surpassed expectations. They went all the way to the semis, only being eliminated a couple of weeks ago by Zamalek, one of the African game’s more dominant teams.

It is that momentum Abdul Karim Zito and his charges sought to ride in defending their FA Cup crown, even if the league title is now beyond their reach. Against Bofoakwa, a club that has not contested a major final since losing the FA Cup to Accra Great Olympics some four decades ago, Dreams would have felt quite confident about their chances.

And that is why they boldly stormed back level, following Dacosta Aboagye's delightful outside-of-the-boot finish to give Bofoakwa the lead mere minutes into the second half, through skipper Abdul Jalilu. Bofoakwa would have the last laugh, though, courtesy of Elijah Addai's extra-time winner, which secured Bofoakwa their biggest game in 41 years -- 12 months after their biggest in 16.

And it may well prove the most consequential date in the club's long history. Winning the final -- at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium, Accra, on June 23 -- would not just land the club its first-ever major piece of silverware; it would also be rewarded with an African inter-club debut.

A section of the Bofoakwa fanbase might argue that those aren't the targets the club should focus on or reach out for, with Premier League survival far from certain, but that would be suggesting they need to pick and choose.

They don't. 

It could be, in fact, that the buoyancy supplied by such advancement in the cup, the sense of being on the brink of something truly special and unprecedented, is exactly what Bofoakwa require to propel them towards their more modest objective in the league. Should they not be distracted, Bofoakwa could have it all. 

But even if they fail to stay up, despite their best efforts, theirs could be the rare, if not exactly flattering, privilege — one that, quite famously, English outfits Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic had in the early 2010s — of competing in inter-club action while playing lower-tier football domestically.

It is usually not best practice, as the Akan saying goes, to peek down two bottles with a single eye, but Bofoakwa have every reason to disregard that otherwise sound counsel. With a little squad management by Eduafo (who, by the way, is already relishing the challenge of playing in Africa) they really could have it all — or at least some of it — come the end of the season.