Marked for Ali Mohammed
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match6 Feb 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 25. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The compensation was agreed inside a week and the club has lost a manager it had no intention of losing. Hearts of Oak start again, and start behind.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 42. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market8 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hearts of Oak people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A season average of 7.59 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Market8 Feb 2027
George Paaku has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hearts of Oak they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match6 Feb 2027
7 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Market8 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hearts of Oak, and it is not being withdrawn.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market11 Jan 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jesse Akila had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match9 Jan 2027
Wa All Stars will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hearts of Oak were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hearts of Oak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hearts of Oak people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.47 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match9 Jan 2027
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match9 Jan 2027
Nobody wants to play Hearts of Oak right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Leeroy Owusu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 52. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match19 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 17 matches without defeat is a foundation Hearts of Oak did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Richard Boadu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Hearts of Oak. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match19 Dec 2026
Medeama made Hearts of Oak work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
the manager: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwesi Asmah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 15 matches without defeat is a foundation Hearts of Oak did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hearts of Oak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Leeroy Owusu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hearts of Oak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
After 6 games, Hearts of Oak finally taste it again
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Ashanti Gold; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad7 Dec 2026
10 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Mohammed, and the manager let it.
Match5 Dec 2026
Hearts of Oak make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hearts of Oak, and 5 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Nov 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hearts of Oak will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match14 Nov 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Hearts of Oak have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jonathan Mensah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match14 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over Berekum Chelsea, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad16 Nov 2026
9 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
David Oppong gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” the manager kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match31 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad2 Nov 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match2 Nov 2026
25 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Hearts of Oak did not have in the autumn.
Market2 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Albert Kwasi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Albert Kwasi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hearts of Oak the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Richard Boadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Tashreeq Matthews was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Ali Mohammed gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Bechem United, and it could have been more.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.58, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match24 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Hearts of Oak do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Richard Boadu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.51 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Jesse Akila is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.21 with 6 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
the manager: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Stephen Appiah Asare falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Enock Asubonteng dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Hearts of Oak do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Leeroy Owusu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Hearts of Oak
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Ransford Mensah is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
the manager: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Hearts of Oak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwesi Asmah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Sep 2026
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jonathan Mensah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Jesse Akila was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad28 Sep 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” the manager kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Hearts of Oak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwesi Asmah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
George Paaku is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match19 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Hearts of Oak have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hearts of Oak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑0 win over Aduana Stars, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Mohammed, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Tashreeq Matthews at his very best
Marked 8.43. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Hearts of Oak.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and Hearts of Oak are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Hearts of Oak sell a favourite for $230.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kelvin Appiah was one of the reasons people came, and $230.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jonathan Mensah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market10 Aug 2026
Kelvin Appiah has left for Ashanti Gold in a $230.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Hearts of Oak spend $1.6M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.6M for Tashreeq Matthews, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Hearts of Oak asked and Stade Malien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andrew Boakye has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Christian Sulemana has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Hearts of Oak know it, and so does everybody who watches him.