THE BEST LAID PLANS OF.......

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

The best laid plans of Oz Kanka and Eski Kanka are now....... to use Mariac Kanka's vocabulary......... F*****D !!!

Hurriyet reported this morning that the TFF swords are out again for naughty teams like ANKARAGUCU, Fener and Trabzon, and they have punished all 3 clubs severely.... especially ANKARAGUCU.

Following the `supporter`, or should I say `hooligan` fighting and swearing at the Sakarya v ANKARAGUCU match last week, the TFF has decreed that the ANKARAGUCU v Fener match will NOT be played in Ankara. It is to be played in another city yet to be designated.

Boo hoo hoo hisss hisss hisss !!!

Therefore, it means that we will have to watch the match on TV. That being the case, I suggest we meet up in The Chopin Bar where there is likely to be a majority of ANKARAGUCU supporters. Whilst the Cappakokia is also a very nice meeting place, it does tend to attract a large following of supporters of Turkey's SECOND city, Istanbul, teams !!

So, presuming that we are all in agreement, we will meet in The Chopin from 7pm onwards on Friday 8 December.

Further details to follow when and if there are any more changes.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

HIBERNIAN LADIES - HOMING IN ON SILVERWARE

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Hibernian Ladies kept up the pressure on their rivals last weekend with a hard earned away win 4-2 against Aberdeen Ladies. The Hibernian Ladies are quite clearly unwilling to give up their Premier League Trophy !!

Attention now turns to the Premier League Cup Final which takes place tomorrow night, Thursday 30 November, against Edinburgh Ladies. The Hibernian Ladies will obviously start favourites, but I'm sure their manager will have warned them to take nothing for granted in a local derby match, especially as it is a Cup Final.

Watch this space for the result as soon as I have it.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU - NOT SO GOOD NEWS

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Rumblings and mutterings of discontent from Eski Kanka today !!

Turkey's `favourite` newspaper, Hurriyet, reported today that there is a question mark about the future of our star defender Abdurrahman Dereli.

The question posed was........... is he going to join Galatasaray ???

It surely goes without saying that this is NOT the time to be selling players when the team is on a roll in the League and Cup competitions. As I said before in a recent blog, ANKARAGUCU has the best defensive record in the league and one of the reason's for that is the excellent form of our man Dereli.

I'm hoping it is just rumour-mongering by `agents`. Watch this space for further news if any develops.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

FAREWELL FINLANDIA KANKA

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

It is with sadness that I report the imminent departure from these shores of Finlandia Kanka Marcus.

As most of us know, he has been a stalwart attendee at ANKARAGUCU and Gencler matches during the past 3 years and he will be sadly missed here.

I'm sure the Stadium Police will also miss him !! However, that is another story which can wait for another day !!!

There will be once last chance to meet him. He will be having farewell drinkies in The Red Lion Club tonight, Wednesday 29 November, from 5pm to 7pm. All kankas are invited.

On behalf of all the kankas, we wish you and your wife Chris well in London and I hope you will remember to visit the blog and post regularly.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Hibs 2-2 Celtic

Hibs and Celtic served up a cracker of a game on Sunday afternoon, Hibs looked to be cruising at two nil with just over twenty minutes to go but Celtic hit back with a late flurry and could actually have won. I have to admit that it felt like a defeat but once home from the game and having a chance to think about it both teams had good chances. The referee did not cover himself in glory, he seemed to have left his red card at home as at least three players should have walked (two Celts and one Hibs).

Anyway an Ivan Sproule rocket had Hibs in front after 10 minutes and Kevin Thomson extended Hibs lead on the hour with a cheeky nutmeg of the keeper. Celtic hit back with two goals in four minutes from Sno and McGeady. Kenny Miller missed a one on one with the Hibs keeper before Glass hit row Z for Hibs with the last kick of the game.

I will have to watch the highlight on TV tonight as I'm sure Neil Lennon should have got a second yellow after clashing with Scott Brown. I would like to say more about Scottish referees but I know Eski Kanka Jim gets very protective of his old friends. I will restrict myself to saying Mike McCurry earned his biscuit tin vouchers on Sunday.

Hibbee Kanka

Maniac Kanka sends in his report

Ankaragucu 1 - Antalyaspor 0

Maniac Kanka Harun has sent in this report of Sunday's match:

It's was a classic for fans of Ankara Gucu soccer (football) team.

Both teams started preciously and the first half was played mostly in the middle section of the field.

There wasn't any important significant goal positions, but the assistant referee had given at least five wrongful decisions against Ankara Gucu.

By the second half the fans of Ankara Gucu increased to around 15,000 and the first goal position came from Antalyaspor when in the 60th minute a shot was made from 30 metres only to come off the goal post.

This was the turning point of the game as from this minute on Ankara Gucu became more influential. On the 75th minute Burak was replaced by Ali Olmez and Bebbe Was replaced by Agali and we saw the first serious attack. The last five minutes were tense.

At the 88th minute Sedat was shown red card and sent off and this incident fired Ankara Gucu.

Seconds from the end Emre passed the ball to Agali who sent the ball over their goalkeeper and into the net :)

From now on we are happy and keep our hopes high for UEFA. This is our aim because we are just three points behind BJK which is in third place.

We are proud and strong and we are fans of Ankara Gucu...

Teamen go down

Rizespor 0 - Genclerbirligi 1

An win for the red and blacks today away to what Udo Steven Bassey of the Turkish Daily News likes to call the Rize Teamen.

Going by the Anatolian news agency report it was a pretty good win too with lots of shots on goal and one great save by Jesus.

The goal came in the 54th minute after Erhan Guven had a go which was deflected by their keeper onto the post. The ball came back into play and Okan Ozturk found himself with an open net.

An away win is always good and the three points put us into sixth position in the league and only 4 points behind second placed Galatasaray.

As I write this Sir Eski Kanka is interviewing Maniac Kanka Harun in order to put together some sort of report on the Ankaragucu match. Sir Eski says he will write up his post sometime on Monday.

ANKARA FOOTIE - UPCOMING FIXTURES FOR YOUR DIARIES

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

As you all know, ANKARAGUCU will play Antalyaspor tomorrow (Sunday) KO 2pm. Oz Kanka and I will not be going. However, I will be meeting Maniac Kanka Harun at The Cappakokia Bar after the match. He will be there after the match and I will be there at 7pm to join him. So, if anyone is planning to go then we will see you there.

Next weekend both teams are away -

Saturday 2 December - Sivas v ANKARAGUCU - KO 2pm
Sunday 3 December - Sakarya v Genclerbirligi - KO 2pm

The programme for the last round of matches before the winter break is as follows -

Friday 8 December - ANKARAGUCU v Fenerbahce - KO 8pm
Sunday 10 December - Genclerbirligi v Antalyaspor - KO 2pm

Meeting details to be announced by Oz Kanka nearer the time.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Just filling space

Just like much of the writing on this blog, I often wonder whether much of what goes into the Ankara section of Hurriyet is more a case of filling up space rather than actually news.

One of the important stories in today's Ankara section is that two players from Ankaraspor had a birthday party. Amazing stuff.

But of slightly more importance was a little rant by Atilla Turker at Gencler's goalkeeper Jesus and also against midfielder Mehmet Nas.

Turker praises Jesus for the various fine saves he made during last Saturday's 4-1 win over Konya, but he also gets stuck into him for shouting at various players (our own) after the last second consolation goal scored by Konya.

Jesus was pretty upset at the time and at first refused to join the rest of the team who came over to where we were sitting to receive own congratulations.

"Professionalism is not just playing well... discipline and gentlemanliness are also necessary," Turker wrote.

I have to admit I was slightly confused as to why Jesus was so upset, but I guess he had just lost a bonus of a few thousand lira for failing to keep a clean sheet. Oh well.

But then Turker goes on to attack Mehmet Nas for getting two yellow cards and thus putting the team under huge pressure. He also had a go at us supporters for actually shouting out in support of Nas.

What the hell is Turker talking about? The reason why we were shouting our support for the bloke was because there was no way he deserved that second yellow card. The incident took place right in front of us: Nas went for the ball, got to it first and the opposition player fell. It was clean. When the whistle blew I actually thought we would get the foul. Instead Nas got a yellow, his second, and left the field.

Having said that, I'm sure Turker was watching from the press box and therefore didn't have a good view. On this occasion I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, probably the first time this blog has ever done such a thing.

The Hibbie Kanka family

Sir Eski Kanka sent me this photo the other day and being the internet luddite that he is he couldn't figure out how to post it on the blog. So it falls to me to explain...

This blog hasn't always been all that kind to those whom in Australia we refer to in polite conversation as the "boys in blue".

We have told the story of overzealous coppers a number of times, for example here, and even poked fun at them, for example here, but I was blown away that our offical Scottish football reporter Hibbie Kanka was actually a cop.

Anyway, Sir Eski Kanka met Hibbie Kanka out in Saudi Arabia where the two of them were working in various military type things helping to protect Saudi Arabian democracy.

Obviously, the bloke on the left in the photo is Hibbie Kanka. Seated next to him is Mini Hibbee Kanka Liam who was once sent off after scoring five goals in a match. This is what Sir Eski Kanka had to say after news of that one.

"I have seen Mini Hibbie Kanka play footie and have actually played against him in his back garden. He is far more aggressive than his father and I can understand why he received his marching orders !!! On one hand a striker needs to be strong and aggressive, however, on the other hand we have to temper our energy within the laws of the game !!!"

Unfortunately I don't have the names of the two girls next to Liam but I'm sure they will play for Hibernian Ladies in just a few years time.

I just realised that the photo is just slightly out-of-date, almost three years out of date in fact. Was this done to ensure that no one will be able to identify those in the picture? I prefer to think that Hibbee Kanka is just like Sir Eski Kanka and still hasn't figured out how to set the date on his camera.

ANKARAGUCU AND GENCLERBIRLIGI IN PUSH FOR YOORO FOOTIE

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

We have to be positive, or at least optimistic, of our chances to qualify for Yooro Footie this season and bring Yooro footie back to Turkey's FIRST city Ankara.

With only 3 matches left before the winter break, both of the Ankara teams are well positioned to make a serious challenge.

Gencler is only 4 points behind 3rd placed Manisa who are beginning to lose their early season sparkle and promise. ANKARAGUCU is a further one point behind Gencler.

As they say......... all to play for !

This coming weekend Gencler is away in Rize on Sunday. ANKARAGUCU is at home to Antalyaspor and the KO is again at 2pm.

For those not suffering with St Andrew's Ball hangovers, the meeting will probably be in the Chopin at midday.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Super Six from Hibs

The Hibees turned Motherwell over on Saturday to record their biggest away win for a while. Already four goals up at half time Hibs notched another couple in the second half either side of Motherwells consolation.

A couple of wins on the trot has lifted Hibs up to fourth in the league still only three points off second place. Next weeks home game against Celtic will be crucial if we are to pressure the teams above us, personally I think Celtic are due a defeat and next week will do quite nicely.

Scott Brown opened the scoring against Motherwell after 10 minutes, Chris Killen added another after 25 minutes before Sproule double the score before half time. Big Rob Jones headed the fifth after 75, Motherwell then notched a goal for themselves before Dean Shiels completed the scoring. According to all the reports I have read the scoreline could and should have been double which is quite incredible for senior football. Already the papers are full off which HIbs players the Old Firm should be signing. I am all for players furthering their career but not with the Old Firm. I think by next year both Thomson and Brown will be plying their trade in the English Premiership. Good luck to them as I think they will be good enough to reach the highest level.

Hibbee Kanka

An apology

Genclerbirligi 4 - Konyaspor 1

A simple selection of quotes from this blog may have given the impression that Isaac Promise was not exactly the next Maradona. Phrases we have used include "all up I'd say that, as usual, Isaac Promise had a crap game", here, or, "a couple more chances in the first half, Promise fluffed one of them", here, or even "I'm not counting Isaac Promise who has proven time and again to be an absolute joke who if he was a racehorse would have been shot a long, long time ago" which can be found here

We would like to apologise for the above statements and would like to point out that we now consider the man to be an absolute genious who could do no wrong and who today scored a wonderful goal.

Apologies all round, especially to Private Eye.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'm guessing it is the earlier starts that are keeping people from getting to the Chopin Pub on time but I was happy enough with my beer and newspaper. Not too long a wait until Trainspotting Kanka Andrew showed up and then a little while later Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo and his mate Jac joined us. I was just getting ready to tuck into my Inegol kofte when a man new to Ankara football gave me a call.

Scott was in the general vicinity of the Chopin but couldn't quite figure out where the bar was. I walked out of the bar thinking he was nearby. He said he was in front of the Aba Piknik kebab restaurant. So was I. I then thought he must be at another kebab place and found another Aba Piknik. Still no Scott. Bloody hell. How many bloody Aba Pikniks are there in Kizilay? Scott finally found the pub, had his single beer and then we jumped in the taxi for the stadium.

We got in a minute or two late but didn't miss much. Gencler seemed to have the vast majority of the possesion but weren't really creating too many chances. Not much difference to the last few weeks then. Despite not having much position Konya were actually getting shots on goal, fortunately Jesus in goal was playing fairly well.

We should have been given a penalty at around the 25th minute mark but the referee mysteriously ruled play on. As if to make up it he awarded us a penalty in the 35th for someone or other pulling down someone in the box. It didn't actually look like a penalty but it was justice for the earlier decision.

Okan Ozturk calmly slotted the penalty.

Then a few minutes later came what was clearly the goal of the match. Not sure who sent the ball in from the right but somehow it fell to Isaac Promise. I expected him to try and pass it on to someone else but instead he gave it a lovely whack with his left foot and it went sailing past the keeper. An excellent goal.

Almost half-time and the referee decided it was time for revenge when he gave Mehmet Nas a second yellow card for something that was not even a foul. This was truely a bad decision which had all the Gencler fans, and the players, up in arms.

Second half, a man down but 2-0 up. Nervy.

Konya obviously decided to go for it, and Gencler decided to play it defensively. Konya missed a couple of clear chances and Jesus in goal again played well. With defence in mind there wasn't much point in having Isaac Promise on and so in the 60th minute midfielder Engin Baytar replaced him.

At the time I thought it was a good move but with hindsight it may have been better to have taken Mehmet Cakir off as he was clearly very tired and not bothering to run for balls that Isaac Promise would normally easily get.

It didn't matter though because as Konya tried to press we were playing the counter-attack game. Both second half goals came from breakaways in our own half and then some nice final passing to get around the keeper and into an empty net.

These were nice team effort goals with Traore Lamine getting the first and Cakir the second.

4-0 up and we didn't really care when Konya scored a consolation game at the end of the match.

Great stuff all round. I'm sure Sir Eski Kanka will come up with something soon on what must have been match of the round: Sakarya 0-Ankaragucu 0.

EDIT: Flying Dutchman Kanka helped me out a few weeks ago in posting links to the goals each week. Well, Lig TV have gone and changed the way they do it and all previous links probably don't work. Great. I'll have to go through and change them all manually. In the meantime the following link to the goals should work. Just remember that this game was in the 14. Hafta

Will Cemal Aydin run again?

It certainly isn't the biggest surprise in the world but Ankaragucu have decided not to hold an early general congress and thus the "signals" are there that Cemal Aydin will run for chairman once again, Hurriyet reported on Wednesday.

It seems that the recent good run by the team on the park has given Aydin the confidence to keep going. As we reported earlier here, the board had previously decided to hold the congress in early December. Aydin had also promised that he would not run.

I wonder if the team's good performances will actually save Aydin. Afterall, the fans have been calling for his resignation since before the season begun and last week I noticed a group of fans in Kapali shouting "yonetim istifa" even though the team was 2-0 up and about to post its sixth-straight win.

Don't be surprised Mr. Aydin if at Ankaragucu's next home game in a couple of weeks that the entire crowd will be screaming for your scalp.

Ego trip? More like an ego trap.

When I think of the highs of writing for this blog I think of meeting up with the Bilkent Kankas, having Zagreb Kanka join us, teasing Sir Eski Kanka is always fun and of course I enjoy the riches that is the almost 100 dollars we have made out of advertising.

I have to admit though that it truely was a great ego boost when a few weeks ago a message was left on the comments section of one of our posts asking if we would be interested in helping out a UK television company in wanting to make a show about Turkish fans.

Let me repeat the original message:

"I am currently researching for a television prodcution company in the Uk. We are researching a programme concerning Turkish football. All of you here seem to be an ideal bridge for us to get a feel for everything. Would you like to help? I don't know how we can exchange email addresses. Mine is ****@****.uk.com please email me if you would like to help"

Having been guilty of it a million times in the past I ignored the spelling error in the first sentence and was instead caught by the hook... "an ideal bridge", that's us clearly. "Would we like to help?" You bet.

Since then myself and Sir Eski Kanka have been involved in more than 30 e-mails pinging back and forward between Turkey and England

I was extremely excited. Sure, getting a link from Gulay or Ahmet is great but this was over the top.

But then we started to get our suspicions:

"We are making a programme which is going to focus on the fan culture in Turkey. Obviously a large part of the programme will focus on Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas, but we are also looking to go to a different city as well, which led us to Ankara as Ankaragucu and Genclerbirligi seem to have good fan bases. We are going to look at a broad spectrum of different supporter levels. The extreme elements will play a key role too. English speakers would be best as the programme is going to be shown over here. We want to get a real feel of the culture, which fans are the most extreme, which the best etc."

Extreme? Mmmm. What are they playing at?

Our e-mail conversations continued and it was at this point that I noticed a large number of search enquiries from Google from a single service provider in the UK. The search enquiries were such things as "genclerbirligi hooliganism" or "ankaragucu street fighting" and variations on the theme. As the only English-language blog writing about such things it was little wonder they found us. Not surprising really as a search for "looking for boyfriend Ankara" will also find us near the top of the google charts.

We decided to let it go on anyway and last Sunday, before the Ankaragucu-Rize match we finally met up with these people who had flown in from the UK. Carl, the producer, and Rana, a researcher, were lovely people. They both seemed to have really enjoyed their few days here in Turkey and understood that this was a very safe country.

The only hassle was that they continually asked about all the violent incidents that we have encountered as Ankara football fans. We, of course, explained that it is more dangerous going out anywhere in London on a Saturday night than it is to go to a football match in Ankara but still they persisted.

The two of them had to go off to the airport and thus couldn't actually come to the match to see what it is really like but they did leave behind a couple of DVDs of their company's previous work.

"The Real Football Factories" is their franchise and lets just say that it does not put football fans in a nice light. You can check out one of their shows here

Trainspotting Kanka had already warned me not to have anything to do with this lot, and having seen the DVDs and the website above I can't agree more.

In other words, if you are contacted by ZigZag productions in the next few days or weeks, steer well clear. Their aim is to paint us Gencler and Ankaragucu fans with mud.

I've also posted this advice on various Ankaragucu and Genclerbirligi forums.

Having said all that, their "The Real Football Factories: Scotland" does have some interesting Hibs stuff :) But by God where on earth did they they find that presenter

ANKARAGUCU AND THE NON-LOVE AFFAIR WITH HURRIYET

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

For those of you who are unfamilier with the press in Turkey, it is my understanding that The Hurriyet has the largest circulation in Turkey (Oz Kanka will correct me if I'm wrong !!). Every Tuesday there is a Footie Panorama section which gives the league stats, team of the weekend, players of the weekend, etc.

It is therefore with disappointment that I report that after 13 weeks league footie, only 3 ANKARAGUCU players have made it into the team of the weekend, and zero times as team of the weekend.

I don't want to downgrade the achievement of Sivas in beating Besiktas and featuring as team of the weekend this week, however, it is apparent to me that The Hurriyet perhaps are unaware of the recent exploits of ANKARAGUCU.

Six wins out of six starts is surely something that demands attention, and I am sure that if our team name was ISTANBULGUCU it would be a different story !!!

If the Hurriyet sports team are reading our blog, I therefore invite you to attend the Sakarya/ANKARAGUCU match next Saturday and take your blinkers off !!!

By the way, well done Bebbe for making team of the weekend !!

All the best from Hurriyet Hater Eski Kanka Jim

Hibees back on track

Hibs beat Inverness on Saturday 2-0 to haul themselves back up the league. Goals from Steven Flether and a penalty from Chris Killen, both in the second half, saw Hibs finally beat Inverness for the first time in six matches. Hibs could easily have been behind in the first half but a tremendous double save from Zibi kept Hibs in the game. Hibs new manager John Collins had kept faith in his keeper after some costly errors and his faith was repaid in full.

Hibs never quite hit the level of performance they reached against Hearts last Wednesday but the important thing was that they managed to pick up the three points. The other SPL scores were as follows:
St Mirren 1-3 Celtic
Rangers 2-0 Dunfermline
Dundee Utd 1-0 Kilmarnock
Aberdeen 2-1 Motherwell
Falkirk v Hearts (Tonight)

Celtic might be 15 points clear of the pack but the fight for second place is making the league a bit more interesting than normal. Only three points seperate six teams. Second place will get a Champions League qualifier so there is plenty to play for.

Hibbee Kanka

Are we violent?

Ankaragucu 2 - Rizespor 0
Erciyes 0 - Genclerbirligi 2

Up at the crack of dawn this morning in order to get to the Chopin at the extremely uncivilised time of 11 am to find Trainspotting Kanka drinking his coffee and chatting away to Carl and Rana, a producer and researcher for a UK television company.

They were in town to do some background work for a show they are putting together all about Turkish football fans. It appears that their main interest is in the more violent side of football fans.

Poor guys, sure, Turkish football supporters have got a terrible reputation, thanks in large part to the English tabloids, but I've hardly seen a violent incident in years of going to Gencler and Ankaragucu games. In other words I reckon they will have a difficult time making their documentary.

Anyway, speaking of peaceful people Maniac Kanka Harun joined us, as did Dirk, Lulu and Lulu's boyfriend. Lulu has only been in Ankara for a month or so and while she was unable to come along to the match itself I'm sure she will joing us soon.

Two other long lost souls from the wilds of Bilkent also showed up, Battle-hardened Kanka Damon and Mountaineering Kanka Robbie.

All up a decent turn-out, Sir Eski Kanka was sufferring at work, poor bugger.

Off to the stadium nice and early and the crowd was quite a decent one. Bugger all Rizespor supporters of course but Maraton was pretty much full, both sides of kapali were pretty much full and the gecekondu crowd wasn't too bad either.

And were they up for it? You bet. Five wins on the trot for Ankaragucu had the fans in full voice. The atmosphere today was brilliant. Shame no one told the players.

Let's just say that despite Rize not being very good and Ankaragucu dominating it wasn't until the 24th minute before Ankaragucu had a shot on goal.

Oh I did forget that a few minutes before that Rize almost scored from a free kick which went onto Ankaragucu's forward Mustafa Ozkan who was denied an own goal by the post.

Another close shave came when the Gucu defence allowed a bald bloke from Rize a free header. Nonsense stuff.

0-0 half time and tensions were rising. Including on the terraces where for some reason a group of the Anti-X supporters started shouting stuff at a group of Genc Ankaragucu supporters. No idea what started off the handbags but the cops were having none of it. Fully tooled riot police were ordered in and although nothing happened, the atmosphere was definately tense. Perhaps that TV company are onto something.

Second half and both sides had chances. The difference was that Ankaragucu, and Tita in particular, seemed more intent on fancy passes around the box instead of actually having a shot.

Again the bald bloke from Rize was left unmarked twice were he could have scored with that shiny pate and then he really stuffed up when he was one-on-one with Serkan (who actually had a very good game).

And so it was against the run of play when Bebbe scored for Ankaragucu with a header off a corner.

A few minutes later and Ankaragucu sealed it after a lovely move down the wing which led to Ceyhun sending the ball to Bebbe who whacked it into the back of the net.

Us happy campers then went off to the Cappadocia bar to warm up.

It was here that we learnt of the other great result today. Erciyesspor 0, Genclerbirligi 2.

It was an away match and thus I have to rely on the Anatolian news agency who report that neither goal was scored by Isaac Promise. In fact, Isaac was replaced in the 74th minute and in their star report Anatolia gave Isaac one star out of a possible three (being chosen in the first 11 is enough to earn that one star).

But perhaps I'm being too tough on the young bloke because I doubt there was much need for attack considering that Engin Baytar and Okan Ozturk had both scored within 5 minutes of the match starting.

All up a great weekend which pulls both Gencler and Ankaragucu further away from the drop zone and closer towards a UEFA place. Let's keep dreaming.

The round ball in Ankaragucu Show Hibs the Way

Hibs followed Ankaragucu's example tonight and beat Hearts in the League cup quarter final by one goal to nil. The game was very one sided as Hibs corner count of 14 to 2 proves however with only one goal to show for their efforts the nerves were showing towards the end.

Hibs goal came from one of their corners, the ball fell at Rob Jones feet and he lashed it into the net. That goal came after about half an hour and was the least Hibs deserved. I do not know where Hearts usual fight was, maybe playing Hartley wide right instead of through the centre took the edge of their game. In any case Thomson, Brown, Beuzalin and Zemama had complete control and a bit more luck would surley have provided some goals.

It is a refreshing look to the semi final draw this year with no Rangers or Celtic in sight. The other quarter finals were as follows:

Rangers 0-2 St Johnstone
Celtic 1-1 Falkirk (Falkirk won on pens)
Killie 3-2 Motherwell

The semi finals are not till next March I think, plenty time to mull over the possible scenarios.

C'Mon the Hibs

ANKARAGUCU - GIMME FIVE !!!

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

I think we will have to go back (a long way ?) in time to discover the last time ANKARAGUCU won FIVE straight matches.

The Turkish Cup result today was.........

Genclerbirligi 0 ANKARAGUCU 1

Three league wins and two cup wins on the trot for ANKARAGUCU is pretty impressive, especially after their abysmal start to the season.

All the kankas were heads down at work today, with the exception of yours truly. So, I visited Maniac Kanka Harun in his Sports Shop...... advertisement time...

Esse Spor, Menekse Sokak, Balkanoglu Carsisi, No 7/32, Kizilay.

and tried to convince him that the cup match was more important than selling sports kit. That took all of 30 seconds and then we were off to Chopin for some `refreshments` !!

Arriving at the Stadium we forgot (olde age ??!!) that it was an away match for ANKARAGUCU and so we had to walk round to the other side but with only 15 minutes to KO time. We therefore decided to go to Kapali and stand with the Pegasus Group. That was an added bonus because I met Volkan (Leader) and lots of my old Pegasus friends from the good old days in Sahil.

The match kicked off with ANKARAGUCU again starting like an express train and they opened the scoring after only 5 minutes before we had time to catch our breath.

An attacking move down the left and a cross into Bebbe who did well to lose his marker. The goalkeeper committed himself but was left fumbling as Bebbe cut the ball back for the incoming Tita and he almost burst the net with his gift from Bebbe.

Jumping up and down and singing time and we were all in full voice.

ANKARAGUCU continued to press forward with the ocassional breakaway from Gencler, but in all honesty there should have been more goals from ANKARAGUCU. The fact that Ceyhun and Mustafa (the 2 top goalscorers) were being rested perhaps contributed to that situation.

Gencler started the 2nd half in more determined fashion but most of their efforts were long range. There was one scare for ANKARAGUCU though when Serkan came running off his line to punch a clearance but it went straight to a Gencler forward who drove it in for a sure fire goal. However, the ever reliable Sedat was on the line to head clear.

ANKARAGUCU's Murat had 2 clear cut chances to put the game beyond doubt but declined to score at the invitation of an open goal. He decided to blast the ball over the bar !!

The noise in the 2nd half was unbelieveable. I kid you not that the Gecikondu boys (and us in Pegasus) sang the same song about following ANKARAGUCU through wind, rain, snow and any other weather front for the whole of the 2nd half. You really had to be there to appreciate the passion of these supporters. I can't find the words to do them justice.

Oh...... sorry.... I forgot to mention the Gencler supporters who cheered their team when they came out for the 2nd half. Maniac Kanka and I counted the supporters but we disagreed on the number. He said 38, but I'm sure it was only 37 !!!!

The last 10 minutes of the match was all about ANKARAGUCU holding on to what they had and that really wasn't a problem for Serkan, Sedat, Emre, Dereli and Petrov. However, we did receive a few yellow cards for time wasting tactics.... tut tut tut !!!

It was off to the Cappadokia after the match for more amber nectar and some comisserations to the owner who supports Gencler. He was asking why Oz Kanka was absent ??!!!

ANKARAGUCU now lead the group stage with 6 points from 2 matches and are looking good to join either Gencler or Besiktas in the final stages. Incidentally, Buca of the 2nd Division beat Rize today to more or less eliminate Rize from further interest in the group.

Wednesday afternoon footie is not quite the same as weekend footie but there was a fair sized ANKARAGUCU crowd today to at least bring some atmosphere to the match.

Back to league footie at the weekend.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU SUPPORTERS - PRAISE INDEED

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

It is not often that we hear about ANKARAGUCU supporters receiving praise for any quarter, particularly from the Press.

Therefore, it is with pleasure that I read a report in The Hurriyet this morning written by Mehmet Buyukborekci on the subject of a meeting held in Ankara on 4 November to support the Turkish Republic and against those people who want to introduce and promote religion into politics.

There were lots of different groups in attendance, eg, civil servants, private business, etc., and........ a group of ANKARAGUCU supporters.

Mr Buyukborekci went on to praise the ANKARAGUCU supporters for their support and also posed the question..... where were the supporter groups from the other Ankara teams, and the Istanbul `Big 3`.

I'm not sure which ANKARAGUCU supporter group it was. However, whoever they were ..... a big WELL DONE from me on behalf of us all at The Round Ball in Ankara.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Is Bakkal too agressive?

I'm not sure if this is all a beat up by the media but Hurriyet's Ankara section today ran a story with the headline "Bestepe'de Bakkal Krizi" or "Coach Bakkal Crisis at Bestepe (the Gencler training facilities)".

Apparently the other day after the 0-1 loss away to Galatasaray our chairman Ilhan Cavcav said something like "You are shouting too much at the players. You are very aggressive. You may destroy the confidence of our young players. Be more careful".

The paper goes on to say there has been a significant cooling of relations between Cavcav and Bakkal.

Cavcav has since gone on the record saying that he won't be sacking Bakkal and that he can stay at the club as long as he likes. I'm not really sure what is going on.

But I was wondering if Bakkal has been taken a leaf out of the book written by former Leyton Orient manager John Sitton. Have a look at this video of Sitton's attempts to gee up his players at half time. (warning lots of swearing).

HIBERNIAN LADIES - STILL ON SONG

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ladies footie returns to the blog with a latest update on the super girls of the Hibernian Ladies team.

The ladies are obviously determined to retain their Premier League title after their two recent wins. Last week they thrashed Lochee United 7-0, and this week they kept another clean sheet by beating Forfar 3-0.

Kim Little was again the star of the show against Forfar, scoring 2 to take her tally to 17 for the season.

Well done ladies and good luck in the League Cup later this month.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Hibees Struggle

Hibs have only managed two points from their last two games and find themselves stuck in the middle of the table. When Rangers and Hearts have been dropping points Hibs could have been closing the gap but instead lost 2-1 away to Aberdeen and then drew 2-2 with Kilmarnock on Saturday. The draw with Kilmarnock was John Collins first game in charge and he will probably be looking back to Monaco for a goalkeeper as Hibs weakest position came back to haunt them.

The defeat up at Aberdeen was a sore one to take as the winning goal came in the dying seconds of the game, Hibs had been reduced to 10 men (again) and looked comfortable in holding on for a draw when Scott Severin hit a 25 yarder past Zibi. I believe the draw with Kilmarnock was a fair result, I am still not getting to the games due to other committments but after next Saturday will be able to give a better account of the game.

Hibs play Hearts on Wednesday in the League cup quarter final, hopefully we will see a win for a change.

Hibbee Kanka

THE TURKISH CUP AND UPCOMING LEAGUE FIXTURES

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

The Turkish Cup sectional matches continue this week and the BIG ONE is right here in Ankara. Another helping of Genclerbirligi and ANKARAGUCU.

Wednesday 8 November KO 2pm.

Not a particularly good time to stage another local derby match, however, having missed yesterday's great ANKARAGUCU win, I will be going to this one. Gencler is the home team again, so if you are coming, then please remember which end of the Stadium you will use. Meeting in The Chopin Bar at about 12 noon and going to the Stadium at 1pm.

Next weekend sees Gencler playing away against Erciyes, but ANKARAGUCU is at home.

Sunday 12 November KO 2pm. More details of meeting venue nearer the time.

Hope some of you can come on Wednesday and join me. All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Not as cold as we thought

Genclerbirligi 1- Ankaragucu 2

At 10 o'clock Sunday morning the snow was coming down and the wind was howling. It was bleak. But that wasn't going to stop us from going to the match and so wrapped up for a Siberian winter we headed down to the Chopin for pre-match beers and then off to the 19 Mayis stadium. By the time we got to the stadium however the weather seemed to have changed completely. We were sitting in the sun and it was actually quite warm. Weird.

Ten of us made it today for the match, unfortunately the Ankaragucu Kanka crowd were thin on the ground, only Casanova Kanka Gokhan made it for the sari-lacivert side, but us Gencler supporters were out in force including Flying Dutchman Kanka Carlo, Spine, Legal Kanka Saadet, Jac, Roger, Arja, Oguz and Viking Kanka Jens.

On to the football and it was nice to see Ankara's two top teams gathering pre-kick-off to salute the crowd together. After all, this may have been a a damn important derby but in the end the real enemies are all in Istanbul.

First half and Gencler were definately on top. The Ankaragucu keeper was never really challenged but that is not because he shouldn't have been. Yet again, this blog's favourite striker, yes, Mr. Isaac Promise, buggered up in front. We should have been one, possibly, two in front by half time.

At the same time I have no idea what the hell our keeper Jesus was thinking. At one stage he came off the line attempting to punch a ball, buggered it up and went running off towards the corner post to clean it up. At this stage he was beaten by a 'Gucu player and if it wasn't for luck the ball would have ended in the back of the net.

If they served beer at the 19 Mayis stadium, we would have been crying into them.

Second half and Gencler had clearly taken a sedative or 11. It was dire stuff. Midfield rubbish, defence... oh dear.

In the 56th and the 64th minute Ankaragucu pounced, with Ceyhun and Mustafa Ozkan scoring. The second goal in particular was nice with Mustafa scoring from what we thought was an impossible angle.

As for the first goal, was it offside. I guess we will have to look at the replays (which I shall put up as a link here soon).

2-0 down and Ankaragucu started to play act, players were falling down left, right and centre in an attempt to run down the clock.

One might have thought that our keeper Jesus might actually have wanted to speed things up a bit at this point, but no, he took his time whenever we had goalkick and did Promise have any idea what the score was when he was so so so rightly replaced towards the end.

Promise! If your team is 2-0 down and you are replaced your job is to bloody well run off the field, not saunter off as if you had just scored a hat-trick!

After Promise was replaced we finally started to play some football and it resulted in a goal from Mehmet Cakir in the 76th.

It was all Genclerbirligi for the rest of the match but to no avail.

Depressed we trudged, not unlike Isaac Promise, out of the stadium and off to the Red Lion Club to watch England get slaughtered by the All Blacks. At about half-time we finally came across some Ankaragucu Kankas in the form of Maniac Kanka Harun, his mates and Sir Eski Kanka Jim.

Smug would probably be the best word to sum them up.

EDIT: Just fixed up the spelling of Arja. Sorry about that.

Real footy weather

As you may deduce from the photo taken from my window a few minutes ago it is a little snowy in Ankara and thus I'd advise everyone coming to the match later today to wear appropriate clothing (in fact just put on everything you own) . To think it was only 10 weeks ago or so that we were wearing shorts to the football. They say that rain is a leveller in football. What do they say about snow?