The Porcupine Warriors boss was asked about their bizarre decisions after the league match against Aduana Stars
Asante Kotoko Maxwell Konadu has stated he “can’t explain” why he fielded 10 players in the first half of their Ghana Premier League clash with Aduana Stars on Wednesday.
The Porcupine Warriors and their opponents produced a bizarre scene in their Matchweek 11 fixture as both teams presented 10 players each for the first 45 minutes.
Their action, which has attracted wild criticism and ridicule, is understood to be for a superstitious belief that whichever team first deployed 11 men onto the pitch on the day would lose the match.
“I can’t explain that,” Konadu, who led Ghana to win silver at the 2019 Wafu Cup of Nations in Senegal, curtly replied when questioned about their action during a post-match pitch-side interview with StarTimes.
Kotoko ultimately ended up on the losing side as Samuel Bioh netted a last-gasp winner in the fourth minute of injury time to hand the home outfit a 1-0 triumph.
“It was a good game and I think we played far better than the hosts but at the end of it all they [Aduana] are [the ones] laughing,” the coach said.
“For this game, I’m not worried at all because the boys really played to instructions. My boys did their best.
“The goal came out of nothing. That is why I’m saying my boys did what I told them to do. I’m proud of them.”
At the start of the game, Kotoko and Aduana both held on to a member of their starting XI on the sidelines, portraying the player to be receiving treatment for a late injury just before kickoff while waiting for each other to first send on their 11th player onto the pitch.
The hosts kept Farouk Adams on the sidelines as two-time African champions Kotoko held off Martin Antwi.
