THE Pride of the North, Real Tamale United, yesterday lifted their game a notch higher from their recent poor home performances to inflict a 1-0 defeat on visiting Kumasi Asante Kotoko at the plush Tamale Stadium.
The goal was registered in the 47th minute by Kabiru Imoro after he had squandered several chances in the first half.
The defeat of Kotoko, the second this season, was masterminded by a former player and coach of the Porcupine Warriors, Abdul-Razak, who now handles RTU.
The homesters had the better of exchanges in the first half of the game but failed to convert all the chances they had to bury the visitors.
However, getting to the dying minutes of the half, the Tamale lads lost focus and were saved by their agile goalkeeper, Charles Kipo, who either parried or blocked all attempts by the fast-running Kotoko attack.
RTU made their intention of collecting the maximum three points known early after recess when the dextrous petite Alhassan Tuah rallied his attackers with skilful inter-personal passes and made a lot of incursions into the Kotoko box, leading to the goal by Imoro.
The goal ignited the ‘Kum apem’ spirit in the Porcupine Warriors who exhausted their substitution by the 65th minute, pushing forward for an equaliser, but the resolute RTU defence marshalled around Fatawu Jnr, frustrated every move of the desperate Kotoko attackers.
The visitors were reduced to 10men in the 74th minute when Isaac Anderson was shown the red card after an earlier booking for bringing down danger man Alhassan Tuah, who wasted an opportunity to make it two for RTU on the 80th minute.
Realising that they could not increase the tally, coach Abdul Razak exhausted his bench on the 88th minute to consolidate their only goal in the interesting but tactically disciplined match.
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