ANKARAGUCU’S SEASON IS NOW IN THE ‘MELTING POT’ !!

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu made their intentions clear from the start yesterday with the opening goal in their first attack in the 2^nd minute.   It was a well constructed goal from Kenan’s cross and Putsila’s headed effort.    Then Putsila went from hero to villain just when Ankaragucu was looking good to extend their lead !

Knowing full well that a win was necessary to stay in the hunt to win the league, or at least stay 2^nd, their indiscipline once again reared its ugly head and now their destiny is in the hands of others, or ......... in the ‘melting pot’ !!

Umraniye    1        ANKARAGUCU     1

Team – Korcan, Erdem, Gencer, Yusuf, Arif, Mbamba, Ferhat, Kenan , Putsila, Kehinde and Umut.

Substitutes used – Abdulkadir, Enes and Parlak

The kankas met-up at The Alerta Pub – Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Apple Kanka Erman and his luvly daughter Ece.    It was a fine Spring day with about 20 other Ankaragucu supporters present and after the explosive start we were all optimistic of Ankaragucu doing the biz.

Rize could only manage a 0-0 in Denizli, so what a golden opportunity for Ankaragucu to move into pole position, bearing in mind that Rize and Umraniye must play each other before the end of the season.   Also, Umraniye must play Balikesir next Sunday.   However, Ankaragucu threw away this opportunity, but having said that, all is not lost ...... yet !

Let’s go back to the beginning ............ after the great start and going one up in the 2^nd minute, it became an end to end match and pretty much even until the 22^nd minute when Putsila lost his head at a disputed corner and hit out at an Umraniye player.   The referee, who had a good match, produced a straight red and off he went and together with our hopes of a 2^nd goal to put the match to bed !

Umraniye sensed ‘blood’ and they went into all-out attack.   It was almost the equaliser on the half hour mark but Korcan came to the rescue with a fortuitous save from his leg when a shot was goalbound.

Heading for half time and Umraniye was doing most of the attacking but the Ankaragucu defence was soaking up the pressure and as soon as I wrote that Umraniye scored an ‘offside goal’ !!   It was grim backs to the wall stuff from Ankaragucu and the half time whistle came as a relief !

The 2^nd half was mostly all Umraniye with Ankaragucu defending stubbornly.

Ankaragucu did have a few breakaways when they could have extended their lead – first, Kehinde was put through but instead of going alone and shooting, he passed to Kenan who had drifted offside.   Umut had a chance but his shot was well saved.   Enes had a one on one with the goalkeeper but shot straight at him.

The 2^nd half really belonged to Korcan who produced save after save to protect the lead, apart from one occasion when he was beaten, but the crossbar came to the rescue.

Lots of oooos and aaaaas and mutterings of discontent in the 65the minute when Parlak was introduced for Kehinde.   FFS Ismail Bey, when are you going to get it through your head that he’s a liability in our team and contributes absolutely nothing ..... Aaaaaargh !!!!!

15 minutes to go and Ibrahim of Umraniye received a red card, but that didn’t alter the style of play with Umraniye still on the front foot and Ankaragucu defending desperately.

7 minutes of extra time was given by the referee and we were all tensed up.    The Ankaragucu defence was hoofing the ball anywhere to clear their lines and there lay the problem.    If they had tried to bring the ball out of defence and keep possession we might have had a different result.  

Back to Korcan again and he must shoulder some of the responsibility for the equaliser which came in the 4^th minute of time added on.    After a faultless display for 94 minutes he could only parry a shot and the rebound was tapped in by Rangelov.   It was a cruel ending for my Man of the Match, but in all honesty when the ball was crossed from the right Korcan should have been protected and Rangelov not given the chance to pounce on the rebound.

So, as I said at the beginning of this report, it is going to be a very interesting run-in to the end of the season.   Rize must be favourites to be crowned champions, but 2^nd place is still up for grabs, but ....... and it’s a big but .............. Umraniye is in the driving seat.

Therefore, it is now imperative that Ankaragucu win their last 3 matches and then pray that Umraniye screw up in their three remaining matches.

All eyes now on next Sunday when Ankaragucu is at home against Gazisehir (3 points behind Ankaragucu) KO 3.30.      Same day Umraniye travel to Balikesir (still fighting for a play off place) KO 6pm.

Let battle commence !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim