Aduana Stars coach Yusif Abubakar has bemoaned officiating in his side's defeat to Asante Kotoko in the ongoing GHALCA G-8 tournament at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium on Sunday.
The Fire Boys were booted out of the season's curtain raiser competition after succumbing to a 2-0 loss to Asante Kotoko in the final round of games in Group A.
Deputy captain of the Porcupine Warriors Eric Donkor put his ahead on the stroke of halftime from against the round of play with a magnificent effort from the edge of the box to beat goalkeeper Gordon Yeboah before playmaker Kwame Boahene late solo strike ensure the Reds march on to the semifinals stage of the competition.
However, Aduana coach Yusif Abubakar believes bad officiating played a key role in his side's drubbing though he later pointed out that Asante Kotoko also suffered from it at some stage in the game.
"It was a very temperamental game with questionable officiating, that's how I'll describe the game. The officiating took away the shine of the performance of the two teams. I'm not saying this on behalf of Aduana to dampen the hard work of Kotoko but if this is how officiating will go then the beauty of the game cannot be described," Abubakar fumed to reporters.
"It's not only on Aduana, it's just a complete questionable officiating on the two teams. The game was becoming tougher with a very pressing game and with a lot of determination from Kotoko to qualify, which there's no doubt they wanted to qualify but we don't have to them just an easy workout for them to qualify but questionable officiating had helped that thing to happen, so I'm not saying officiating was just against Aduana but it something that spoiled the beauty of the game."
"Bad officiating is also a factor that affects performance in a game so before describing anything that went wrong; you have to also add bad officiating that went wrong."
Meanwhile, Asante Kotoko will square off against fiercest adversaries Hearts of Oak in a much anticipated semifinals clash at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium on Wednesday.
By: Reuben Obodai (@Reuben Obodai on twitter)