Some supporters of Hearts of Oak are still perplexed that the team could not win the 1977 CAF Champions League, then the African Cup of Champions Clubs even though they had the best team in the club’s history, headed by the tremendous five (Fearsome Five).
Even with their dumbfounding attack, the Hearts of Oak were beaten by Haifa of Guinea in the first leg of the final match and happened to lose on aggregate by 4-2.
Hearts of Oak had put on an astonishing comeback to disqualify Mufulira Wanderers F.C of Zambia in the semi-finals, causing the fans to believe that they will definitely win the final, mainly because they are playing in Accra first.
The strikers were Mohammed Polo, Robert Hammond, Mama Bomber Acquah, Anas ‘Thunderman’ Seidu and Peter ‘best man’ Lamptey (goal thief) who were nicknamed the ‘Fearsome Five’ that led the way for the team to reverse a 5-2 first leg defeat to make it to the final on aggregate 5-5.
In all five goals won during the two legs, the ‘Fearsome Five’ were responsible. Robert Hammond and Mama Acquah in the first leg scored the two goals while Polo, Lamptey and Seidu in the second leg scored three goals.
In the first leg in Accra, the team could not make a win to get a hand on the trophy, as the ‘Fearsome Five’ were not able to score goals.
On an interview with Dan Kwaku Yeboah TV monitored by 1Family Radio, a former General Secretary of Hearts of Oak’s National Chapters Committee, Maxwell Asabre claimed that, in the first leg the players could not score a goal after they were told the one who scores in the first leg would die.
During the interview he said, “We were in camp and they told us that the player who will score will die. So in Accra in the first leg, we got a penalty and Anas Seidu deliberately missed because he was afraid to die.” He said this when he was giving an account of how Anas Seidu was pestered at the stadium in subsequent years.
Source: 1Familyradio
