Hekari’s hot run stops Besta

 Hekari United registered its toughest victory against Besta United, with the national development side making the champions work hard in their 2-1 win to cement their position at the top of competition ladder.

Much of the hard work was done by the Hekari forwards, whose attacks at the Besta goalmouth were contained by goalkeeper Vagi Koniel.

Vagi had a great performance that was rated above Hekari midfielder and two-goal scorer Emmanuel Simon and saw the teenaged goalkeeper take out the K150 man-of-the-match award from Zilu Scientific.

Simon, the former Besta and Gigira Morobe midfielder, now joins team mate Nicholas Muri as this season’s leading scorers after his dominating first half, in which he scored in the 20th and 24th minutes.

Down by two goals, Besta coach Bob Morris drilled his players during the halftime break.

That worked, especially with Koniel, who was pulled aside and given a special pep talk.

Morris said he noticed his goalkeeper, in his first campaign against the mighty Reds, was not totally focused in the first half.

Hekari slackened against a revamped Besta in the last 10 minutes  and that saw Besta midfielder Freddy Steven firing a massive shot from outside the penalty box two minutes before fulltime. 

Morris paid tribute to his goalkeeping coach in David Peter, who has greatly helped the Besta goalkeepers before the season’s start.

“We worked hard during the week knowing very well about Hekari and their when strengths out wide; they caught us flatfooted and we didn’t hold on well.

“Unfortunately their two goals were giveaways and happened because of our mistakes,” Morris said.

“My boys played very well in the second half; our combinations are starting to pick up, we have a few areas to polish but our future playthis season will be very good.”

Hekari coach Jerry Allen said while some experienced players were dropped because of injuries and to give them more recovery time because of the O-League matches, the important things was that their away matches had been won.

“I give credit to the Besta boys, especially their performance in the second half; the second half was very tight,” he said.