Asante Kotoko are back to premier league action on Tuesday against Bechem United at the Nana Fosu Gyeabour Park, and coach Kassim Mingle has made clear his views on the threat to be posed by the Porcupine Warriors’ front men, George Mfegue and Frank Mbella Etouga.
Asante Kotoko’s Cameroonian attackers have a combined number of 17 goals among them, with Etouga currently leading the top scorers’ chat with 13 goals. Asante Kotoko travel to Bechem to face the Hunters in the Ghana Premier League (GPL) match day 19 encounter, following a hurting 2-1 defeat to their ever rivals Accra Hearts of Oak on Friday evening.
George Mfegue and Frank Mbella Etouga are both expected to once again lead the attack for the Porcupines against the Hunters on Tuesday, but Bechem United head coach Kassim Mingle believes his side have nothing to worry about as he believes the Cameroonian duo are just symbols of toothless dogs when playing away from their home grounds, the Baba Yara sports stadium.
Mingle argued, that Etouga can only score home goals and so the situation will continue when he faces Bechem United at Bechem.
“Yesterday [Friday] they played against Hearts of Oak and they couldn’t surprise Hearts of Oak, so definitely the same thing is going to happen at our home grounds”, coach Mingle told ghanasportspage.com in an interview on Saturday.
“They played against Hearts of Oak yesterday and we couldn’t see them in the game. The Etouga he only scores goals in their home; away matches he can’t score goals. You watch the statistics you will see, all the goals he scored are home goals. So it’s going to continue, yesterday they played they couldn’t score. It’s going to continue like that”, he insisted.
Etouga has scored 13 goals so far in the league and he leads the chart as the leading goal scorer for the 2021/22 league season so far. However, the Asante Kotoko striker has managed only two goals away from home against Legon Cities in Accra with the remaining 11 goals all coming at the Baba Yara sports stadium, the home ground of Asante Kotoko.
Frank Mbella Etouga appears to be in red hot form for Asante Kotoko this season, having scored hat-tricks against Ashanti Gold in a 3-1 win for Kotoko at the Baba Yara stadium, as well as another hat-trick against Accra Lions before hitting a double against Dreams FC in their last league game also at home. Etouga is yet to register his name and establish himself in the Super Clash, the biggest club football match on the Ghanaian football calendar, having faced Accra Hearts of Oak twice and still searching for his first goal against their biggest opponent.
Bechem United will host Asante Kotoko on Tuesday at the Nana Fosu Gyeabour Park, and it will be a perfect opportunity for Mbella Etouga and Mfegue to either prove Kassim Mingle wrong or otherwise.
