Accra Hearts of Oak coach Kim Grant has praised  Mohammad Alhassan after the "fantastic" performer missed his kick in the shoot out against Asante Kotoko in their seminal final duel in the NC tier 1 Competition.

Alhassan, after a spectacular display in regulation time, saw his kick bounced against the post to end their dream of clinching any silverware for the season.

But reacting to his team's second consecutive defeats in a shootout, Grant gave his central defender a thumbs up for his performance in the NC Competition.

"Look! penalty is luck", he said.

"They scored all five and we missed one, And unfortunately the person that missed his had been so great because he was called to the Black Stars and has had a fantastic season."

He also expressed pride in his young team, which he says is "work-in-progress".

They had fought on from the 5th minutes when they considered through Fatawu Safiu till the grabbed the equaliser in the 94th minutes.

"The team showed character, professions and attitude, patriotism, power and it shows how we can play as a team and all I can say is am proud of all the guys," he said.

"This team is growing game by game, semi finals, penalties we didn't lose in both 90 minutes games, which is important.

"But this is learning process and I believe the boys can be much  stronger next season."

Hearts failed to make it to the final of the Normalisation Committee’s Special Competition after losing 5-4 on penalties to arch-rivals Kotoko.

The match played at the Accra Sports Stadium was the semi-final encounter of the special tournament introduced to determine Ghana’s representative for next year’s CAF Champions League.