Asante Kotoko head coach Eric Tinkler has appealed to the club’s supporters to fill the stands to capacity when the Reds host Heart of Lions, describing a full house as central to his side’s push to finally get the better of an opponent that has troubled them since returning to the top flight.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Tinkler made a direct plea to the fanbase to turn out in numbers for the fixture.
We want to bring the fans and attract them back to the stadium, so I hope we can have a full capacity crowd against a very, very difficult team. – Eric Tinkler, Asante Kotoko Head Coach
The meeting carries its own weight of history. Heart of Lions have built a growing rivalry with Kotoko since their return to the Ghana Premier League, and the Porcupine Warriors have yet to find a way past them in the fixtures that have followed.
Asked directly how his side intends to finally shake off that record, Tinkler pointed to a recent pre-season friendly between the two clubs in Accra as a source of confidence heading into Sunday’s game.
We obviously had an opportunity to play them in pre-season, we played them in Accra. They’re a very, very good team: well structured, well organised, very hard-working. As long as we match them in those areas, we always stand a chance of winning the match, like we did when we played them in pre-season.” Eric Tinkler
Tinkler said his players needed to carry that self-belief into the match, framing home fixtures as non-negotiable territory for maximum points and casting the supporters as part of the team’s defensive armour.
We’ve got to go into the game knowing that the home matches are extremely important for us to collect maximum points. We need to make our stadium a fortress, and we need to make it very, very difficult for teams to come here. The fans play a big part in that the team should fear to come here because of the support base that we have. With them, we can obviously change that history.” Eric Tinkler
Tinkler was also pressed on his side’s recent away form, where two goals were scored despite the team coming away without a win, a scoreline some would read as a positive attacking sign. The coach was keen to clarify where his frustration actually lay.
What’s important is that I don’t get misunderstood in terms of when I talk about the performance of the team. The fact is we didn’t win the match. I wanted to win the match.” – Eric Tinkler