A 56th minute goal from Hearts of Oak’s Isaac Mensah was enough to deny Medeama SC any point in their 23rd GPL game of the season from the Accra Sports Stadium on Saturday.

The defeat to the Phobians ruined the chances of Coach Umar Rabi’s boys from their highly anticipated 2nd position on the GPL table before Sunday round of matches in the match-day 23 fixtures.

Medeama lined up in a 3-5-2 system of Vincent Atinga, Kofi Asmah and Baba Musah as the back three, with Darlington Gyanfosu, Benjamin Abaidoo, Prosper Owusu, skipper Kwesi Donsu and Rashid Nortey forming the five man midfield; as club’s top scorer Ahmed Toure and Sule Musa made up the striking duo.

Goalkeeper Kamil Anaaba maintained his starting role in the game which saw no goal in the first half.

Coach Umar threw in his first card 5 minutes into the second half with Agyei Boakye replacing Rashid Nortey to improve Medeama’s chances of getting the lead but ended up conceding the first goal in the 56th minute courtesy Isaac Mensah’s header from Afriyie Barbie’s cross from the left of Hearts attack.

A double introduction of Justice Mensah and Fatawu Sulemana in the 64th minute was made to to turn up the heat on Hearts for an equaliser and possible win but proved mission impossible.

Defender Vincent Atinga went into referee Alfa Ba-Adey’s books for bookable offense in the 71st minute.

Yet another substitution was made by Coach Umar with Godfred Kwadwo Asamoah coming on for Darlington Gyanfosu in the 77th minute.

Tried as Medeama did, they could not break the Phobia defense and had to return to Tarkwa with no points addition to their 36 already accumulated.

Medeama plays RTU in their next fixture at home at the Akoon Community Park in Tarkwa on Sunday.