Kotoko-Hearts clashes are notorious for their close goal margins – a result of tightly contested, highly pressurized games, and so even two-goal margins are considered by the fans and connoisseurs of the game to be a disgracing result for the team unlucky to be on the losing side.

Pulse Sports takes a look at some of the memorable instances Hearts of Oak humiliated Kotoko in Accra.

Sunday 30th October, 1977

Hearts 2-0 Kotoko

Kotey Kalala broke the deadlock in the 8th minute of the game, before Bortsie Commey scored the second in the 47th minute in the novelty knockout league game at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Sunday 3rd October, 1999

Hearts of Oak 2-0 Asante Kotoko

Hearts of Oak defeated Asante Kotoko 2-0 on match day 30 of the 1999 Ghana Premier League.

The game was the genesis of the Phobians’ long-running dominance over the Porcupine Warriors in Accra from 1999 to 2008, this ironically coming off the back of going three seasons without beating the Porcupine Warriors at home.

Ishmael Addo and Osei Kuffour scored the two important goals to put smiles on the faces of their fans on the final day of the league.

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Wednesday, 15th March, 2000

Hearts 4 - 0 Kotoko

This, without a doubt, is perhaps the most defining match of the Hearts-Kotoko rivalry – if not all-time, then definitely in the 21st century.

A first half brace from the great goal machine Ishmael Addo, coupled with two others from Kenneth Sarpong and Emmanuel Osei Kuffour, made sure the Rainbow Boys emerged clean and supreme: four goals to nothing. It remains the biggest goal margin ever recorded in the history of the rivalry, the most humiliating defeat ever inflicted, the most emphatic victory ever recorded.

Sunday 21st July, 2002

Hearts of Oak 3-0 Asante Kotoko

The controversial yet immensely talented Charles Taylor started the rout in 35th minute, before his equally threatening teammate Bernard Dong Bortey doubled the lead for Accra Hearts of Oak.

Emmanuel Osei Kuffour completed the walloping three minutes into first half added time to give Hearts of Oak a well-deserved victory. The second 45 minutes didn’t produce any goals.

Monday May 1 2017

Hearts of Oak 3-1 Asante Kotoko

In the first leg of the Ghana @ 60 commemorative game which was played in front of the President of the Republic of Ghana in Accra, Hearts of Oak put Kotoko to the sword with a 3-1 victory.

Kwame Kizito shot the Phobians into the lead in the second half, but Awal Mohammed drew the Reds level.

Hearts of Oak, however, scored two goals through Thomas Abbey and Patrick Razak to silence their arch rivals.

The second leg will take place on May 28 in Kumasi.