A late strike from Selorm Geraldo powered Liberty Professionals to a lone goal over Real Tamale United (RTU) in their Week 17 clash at the Sly Tetteh Stadium, Dansoman on Sunday.
Geraldo struck the match winner eight minutes from time after Reginald Asante had put him through, delivering a point-blank shot that ensured goalkeeper Andrew Abbey picked the ball from his net the first time.
Prior to that, the visitors had put in a performance which forced everyone to rethink about their position at the depth of the 16-club log. The �Pride of the North� matched their hosts in every department and even earned plaudits from the hundreds of Liberty faithfuls, who had thronged the stadium.
Liberty without influential duo, Kwame Boahene and leading marksman Kennedy Ashia, on a training tour of Europe with the Black Satellites, struggled in search of their feet failing to string passes together.
The visitors parading the likes of Richard Ocran, Saliu Sakara, Emmanuel Kwamina and Fatau Mohamed at the heart of their team, had the upper-hand in the midfield but lacked the cutting edge upfront.
The hosts made inroads in search of the opener but Geraldo and Ibrahim Camara fumbled at the opportunities that came their way whilst RTU goalie Abbey also endorsed the barren state of the game with some superb saves.
Liberty resumed strongly with Coach George Lamptey introducing Michael Appiah and Asante as he varied his tactics upfront. Asante, who stared for the Dansoman-based clubs in the early 2000�s brought his experience to bear, cutting through with his one-touch passes and feeding Geraldo upfront.
Around the same time, Karim Abdulai was making a fool out of the Liberty defensive pair of James Dissiramah and Alfred Nelson, but lacked the support to finish.
Eight minutes from time, Geraldo profited from a counter attack, weaved his way past two defenders before fetching Asante. The latter squared Geraldo through with a one-touch pass before he blasted past Abbey for the only goal of the match.
Few minutes later, Asante had a golden chance to doubled the lead but his effort from a one-on-one situation with the RTU goalie was parried out by the latter in what was the final action of the game.
It was the 12th loss of the Tamale-based club in 17 games, and keeps them firmly at the bottom of the standings.
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