ANKARAGUCU RE-WRITE THE RULE BOOK !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu decided to change the Laws of the Game yesterday and play for only 45 minutes instead of the customary 90 plus minutes !    Fortunately, they were playing opponents who gave Altay a quiet afternoon !

ANKARAGUCU   4          Gaziantepspor    0

It was painful to watch Ankaragucu huff and puff their way to the half time whistle with numerous attempts on goal but none likely to find the target.   The air in the dressing room at half time was probably blue with Ismail Bey not a happy bunny.   However, whatever he said seemed to have had the desired effect with a more organised and determined Ankaragucu in the 2^nd half.

The 3 kankas and a visitor to the kanka group met in the Stadium and there was a fantastic atmosphere with Gecikondu in fine voice.   Kaleci Kanka Tansu, Miguel of Portugal and his friend from The Netherlands, Henri.

There was a love-in all during the match with the 50 Antep supporters and Gecikondu singing the praises of both teams and each other !

The first real action of the match came in the 16^th minute with a fine rendering of the Bursaspor song !

Three minutes later Ankaragucu should have taken the lead when Kenan burst through the Antep defence, but instead of shooting when he had the chance, he passed to Kehinde but the pass was intercepted and cleared.

In a rare Antep attack, an attacker missed a sitter from a corner, and with the goal at his mercy he managed to screw his shot wide.

This was to be the story of the 1^st half !

Then from the 25^th minute to the half time whistle it was all Ankaragucu – first, Erdem sent over an inviting cross but Kehinde headed over.   More efforts from Kenan, Erdem, Kehinde and Yusuf were all wasted from reasonable scoring positions.  

Just before half time the most dangerous looking player on the field, Tonia, went off injured and was replaced by Enes.    (Here’s hoping it’s not serious).

The players reappeared for the 2^nd half with Umut on for Arif and what a difference that made.

Three minutets in and Putsila hobbled off to be replaced by Mbamba and just prior to that, Kehinde wasted another chance with a poor header which went out of play.

Then a few minutes later, relief all round as Ankaragucu finally found the back of the net.   A great piece of anticipation from Umut who collected a dummied ball on the left and off he went with defenders chasing in his wake.   The cut-back and Enes was there to tap-in.

Umut almost scored 10 minutes later when he collected a pass from Enes, but his shot was over the bar.

There were two more efforts from Erdem and Enes with constant Ankaragucu pressure, but we had to wait until the last 15 minutes for the 2^nd goal to put a realistic picture of the match in perspective.

A great run into the box by Mehmet and just as he was about to shoot, he was brought down for a penalty.   Kehinde stepped up and was fortunate when the ball squeezed in with the goalkeeper guessing the direction correctly.

We were all in fine voice now and Umut put the icing on the cake 10 minutes later with a textbook header from a cross on the left.

Only a few minutes to go and Kehinde laid the ball back for Kenan to angle his shot in for the 4^th goal.

So, a comfortable win in the end, but Ankaragucu must resort to playing a footie match for 90 plus minutes when they play teams of a higher level than Antep.   That starts next Sunday when they travel to Bolu.   Ismail Bey please note !!!

So, off to the Red Lion Club it was where we met-up with Maniac Kanka Harun and then we witnessed the Funny Shaped Ball match with SCOTLAND against the Auld Enemy, Ingallind.   No need to tell you that The Calcutta Cup is back where it belongs, ie, at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh yesssssssssssss !!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim