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