Three games, two goals, one conceded. Make of it all you want but the truth remains that, the faith fans had in Chris Hughton is not wavering but the Black Stars’ result in Antananarivo on Sunday, for a moment, smudged that trust in the coach.
Ghana put up a listless performance to draw goalless with Madagascar in their penultimate 2023 AFCON qualifier. Hughton earlier had a plucky start, beating Angola 1-0 in Kumasi, and drawing 1-1 away with the same side. Reactions to the Madagascar draw were critical and caustic, puncturing the hitherto positive outlook Hughton gave in his maiden media interaction and his first two games.
His third game in-charge of the Black Stars has however earned him little or no plaudits. Ghana neither attacked well nor created any decent chance effectively ending the game with hardly a shot on target. Hughton admitted the duel in the Indian island nation was “tough” and their failure to score disappointing.
“We needed to score to change the feeling of the game. We had a lot of possession, but we didn’t create enough clear chances and when you are unable to do this, it’s difficult to win games” Hughton told the GFA website. Claims that the quality of the pitch impaired our output are untenable. I’m happy the coach makes that concession too.
“The pitch is difficult, it’s an uneven pitch but it’s the same for both teams,” he said. We needed to be forceful to create more opportunities to score” he added. For obvious reasons neither the coach nor the GFA would talk directly to the discontent fans feel over the use of some players even when they were not faring well in the game.
We can afford to speak to the above issue and make it clear to Hughton that, truly the buck stops with him but then we are weary of watching players who give nothing to the course of games yet overstay on the field. If the Black Stars would come good, Chris Hughton must get that message clear enough.
Ghana must beat Central African Republic in the final qualifier to make it to Côte d’Ivoire. I’m sure we will win that game, but we should take no chances. If we struggled to beat Angola 1-0 in Kumasi, we could be in for trouble against Central Africa Republic (CAR) if we do not sit up. Thankfully, Hughton understands that.
“We know we [must] get the result. It’s a game we know the consequences if we don’t win. We will be going into another difficult game against [CAR], and we [must] win.” No doubt, the Black Stars must win that September fixture to be at the next AFCON.