Akosombo Krystal Palace picked a point on Match Day 25 against Kwaebibirem United at the Asuom SHS Park on Sunday, May 8, 2022 amidst riots from fans after the scoreless game.
It was a game that travelled over 100 minutes as fans kept throwing stones to Krystal officials, match officials and players.
The physical game started with Aboah Kofi Donkor winning a foul in the 2’ during an attack, after which the defensive pairs, Bernard Holdbrook-Smith and Jacob Kwasi exhibited resilience with excellent tackles as Kwaebibirem piled pressure to break the dead lock.
Esmond Nanor and Samuel Nanaba before half time created their own chances.
Some quick changes in the second half by Coach Otis Asante neutralized the midfield and gave Krystal other opportunities but were wasted.
58 minutes into the game, the fans started throwing stones to the MRO of Krystal Palace, who got pictures of the act while doing his work.
Meanwhile, Mubarak Zakari continued his wonderful saves that kept Krystal Palace in the game. Youngster, Bless Benuyena was also introduced alongside Maxwell Yeboah to again change tactics to push more men forward.
With 3 minutes to play, the technical team of Kwaebibirem as well as the fans grew wild when a lobbied ball found their attacker flagged off after his flicked got a goal scored while centre referee Nii Coffie stood his grounds.
This got their head coach sent off after he tried a headbutt to the centre referee, who stopped the game to deal with the situation at the Match Commissioner’s table, while fans started throwing stones to assistant 2.
Play resumed after 10 minutes and there was an additional of 16 minutes.
There were couple of yellow cards for Krystal Palace which included a double for hard working Patrick Adler Attanunu, who will miss the next match.
Immediately after the full-time whistle was blown for end the 0-0 game, fans started throwing stones to the pride of Akwamu lads which one got to Maxwell Yeboah’s knee.
Coach Otis who spoke 2 days after the match due to the situation was satisfied with the results.
“I really wanted the 3 points but I couldn’t and the away point is ok in such a situation. I was also satisfied with the performance of my players because the pitch wasn’t good for our normal flow of football and they worked hard and were tactically ok. We are still on course and we are trying our best to be out of the relegation zone. We are not relenting but we will make sure we fight it match after match and we will be out.”
The Police escorted Krystal Palace to the dressing room after which it took the away team 45 minutes more before they could leave the venue as Police restored calm.
Krystal still lie 14th with 27 points and will next travel to Oda to face Kotoku Royals.
Krystal Palace in their 4 meetings against Kwaebibirem have triumphed 3 times with 1 draw.