1st April 2007
The Ghana Football Society (GFS) – UK 2007 League season kicked off with new entrants Yaram FC (Gambia) well prepared after proving their worth in 4 friendly matches, drawing against Park View FC (4-4), beating Soccer Stars (7-2), then a (4-4) draw in a return game and finally beating Hackney FC (4-2)
The expectation of the season’s first game was undoubtedly mouth watering. The 2 times league champions Park View FC against the strong, ‘pacey’ yet skilful new comers Yaram FC was definitely a game to watch. The presence of the GFS Chairman (Mr Peter Nuamah) and other clubs representatives made the occasion a highly tensed one for both teams.
A 12-noon kick off meant Park View arriving an hour earlier to warm up. Referee Carlos arrived on the pitch and blew his whistle exactly on the hour to commence the game. The match started very tight with both teams crowding each other’s space in the midfield. Park View had their usual away formation 4-5-1 and the home team playing a 3-5-2.
Both teams found it very difficult to penetrate each other’s set up, so resulted to the occasional long balls. 10 mins into the half, one such long ball was sent into the right flank which found Francis Williams (Junior), who instinctively whipped it across the goal mouth only to be terribly missed kicked by Charles Allotey after a spectacular bicycle kick attempt. 20 mins into the half Francis Williams was severely hacked down from behind whiles attempting to control the ball on his chest, resulting in a free kick 25 yards from the post. A brilliant long range left footer from Kofi Appiah (KK) found the back of the net, putting Park View a goal ahead. The second goal came 5 mins later with a clean through pass from Edmund Copson to KK who struck home another 20 ‘yarder’ to make it 2-0. Copson didn’t disappoint when an unsettling bad tackle caught him off balance but yet found the net with a sublime strike.
3-0 at half time meant Yaram had to rethink their game plan. They started off the second half playing 3 upfront resulting in a 3-4-3 revised formation. Park View replaced Tanko with Mohammed at the start of the half and no sooner found himself under immense pressure but managed to contain Yaram shots till the referee blew for a penalty no one saw (an apparent shove by Nana Kofi during a corner kick). Yaram converted the penalty making it 3-1. A few tired legs were replaced later in the second half by both teams. Hawell Awotwe, Moses Semakula, Steve Arthur and Kwabena Agyemang came in to replace Nana Kofi, Copson, KK and Allotey respectively for Park View. The changes had a sudden impact when a neat line pass from Steve to Hawell was crossed to Junior who cracked home a blinder for the fourth goal. The final results Yaram FC – 1, Park View FC - 4
Park View FC - Goal Scorers
Kofi Appiah (1st Goal)
Kofi Appiah (2nd Goal)
Edmund Copson (3rd Goal)
Francis Williams (4th Goal)
Park View FC – Line Up
Tanko (Keeper), Osei, Richard, Princeton, Joe, Kofi (Captain), Nana Kofi, Copson, KK, Allotey and Junior (Subs: Mohammed, Hawell, Steven, Moses, Agyemang)
LAUNCH PICTURES