Coach Freeman Amponsah says Berry Ladies FC must not give up but do what they can to keep pushing following Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Soccer Intellectuals Ladies FC at Assasan Park, Ajumako.
Berries and Soccer Intellectuals couldn’t be separated in the hard-fought Malta Guinness Women’s Premier League Matchday 11 encounter.
Priscilla Agyemang Sintim, Martha Appiah and Elizabeth Ayebea did all they could defensively as the two teams were unable to find an all-important winning goal to earn the spoils in the home of Soccer Intellectuals Ladies FC.
Read on for a summary of what Coach Freeman Amponsah had to say during his post-match interaction with Berry Ladies FC media team (“This is Berries“) below…
On the contest overall…
A good point, if you want me to declare my stand, main difference to all other games we played over the years, I know the record is insane, that Soccer Intellectuals Ladies FC have not beaten us before both away and home. In the last 10 minutes of a match, you are always under pressure. The supporters were in our ears supporting soccer intellectuals and they played to impress their fans…, but we have a clean sheet and not a defeat which is okay for us. Could we have done better? Yes. I think so.
The first switch we played with Jafar and Portia at the first half of the match seemed to be working, but we didn’t take our chances very well and I felt the confidence wasn’t there as I saw Victoria Salifu struggling a bit and a bit tensed because she just came back from injury. We didn’t threaten them well, our midfielders weren’t in between the lines and some balls we missed a lot and gave away unforced and too easily. They had just one on target and we had more than five shots on target, which is a good sign as well from our players. It was a tough game as I said earlier that they could be a threat because of their position at the league table but we have a point though it wasn’t three points, and we got a clean sheet – we good to go to face our next opponent.
On Diana Wiege’s absence…
Diana against Police Ladies FC had a bit of injury which was a bit painful, but the day after our training on Wednesday she got another knock there and after the session she couldn’t walk well. So, we have to see how long that will take but that was the reason for her not being part of the match, but I think Ernestina Amoateng and Cynthia B. Yiadom had a good game that you will not feel her absence.
.
On what the big picture is for the rest of the season…
For Berry Ladies FC we will keep going till the last whistle. I saw a bit of disappointment in the eyes of the players that we couldn’t pick all three points. We have 3 wins and a draw so far after 4 games in the Malta Guinness Premier League in 2023.
.
.
We have to keep going, take the bad and good and go again. That’s what we will do. Nothing really changed on Saturday to me. Let’s take it from two points views, we didn’t win, that sounds very negative because we didn’t get three points, [or] we have a point more than before which is one point added and that sounds pretty positive. So, we can choose to take the positive and improve in our next game.
.
Read Also:
Berry Ladies FC: Coach Freeman Amponsah on Soccer Intellectuals Ladies FC tie
.
On Portia Sakyiwa’s substitution…
It was just clear… Portia Sakyiwa plays all the games for us and then we have to make [a decision] from time to time. We thought before the hit on her during the game that caused a minor injury and playing her throughout will be too much for her. But then she started and made some threats for us though we couldn’t utilize some of the passes she gave. The reason was purely because of her hit during the game and nothing else.
.
On not taking Abigail Tawiah off when she was injured…
Abigail had a hit on her throat or her chin which I didn’t really see it clearly because of my position on the touch line but when our physiotherapist, Gideon Sosu got to her, she said she was fine though she had a bit of a cut, but I think that clash was purely lack of communication and as she opted to continue, we had no choice than to make her continue.
.
On Jafaru Rahama’s form and whether she is ‘suffering from the previous injury’…
She is still Jafar, for sure, in the few games we won she was one of the much, much, much, much better players and if she is not performing, everybody want to talk about it and link it to something but that is football. When she is performing, nobody speaks about it apart from when she is involved in goals. She set up super goals in the last few games. She is OK, it is just the number of games and a bad day, that is all.
.
Copyright 2023 Berry Ladies Football Club. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.berryladiesfcgh.com as the source.
