Aduana Stars striker Nathaniel 'Ohene' Asamoah believes lack of action following an injunction placed on the start of 2017-18 Ghana Premier League by Great Olympics has taken its toll on his club's performance in the Caf Champions League.
The Fire Club have struggled to score on the road in the competition so far and needed two late goals to eliminate Al Tahady in the preliminary round.
They were unable to record a single shot on target in the first half when they faced Algerian team ES Setif in the last qualifying round on Wednesday.
However, they were bailed out thanks to Sam Adams' late goal from the spot in the second half.
"The delay of the Ghana Premier League has affected our team's play and this is not debatable," Asamoah told Otec FM.
"Since we've not been playing high profile matches, it was always going to have an adverse effect on us because the more you play competitive matches the more you gain fitness and correct mistakes," he said.
He added: "Ahead of our first leg against ES Setif, they played against their league leaders and defeated them 1-0, and that boosted their confidence before coming to Ghana and it was evidential in their play.
"We've only played friendly games and at times it's even against lower division clubs because of time and that is different from competitive games. So this delay has really affected Aduana but we will do our best to qualify to the group stage in Algeria."
Aduana will play Setif in the return leg on March 17.
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