ANKARAGUCU ESCAPE FROM IZMIR PROVINCE WITH ONE POINT !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Kaleci Kanka Tansu and I met-up at The Anasson Bar and we both breathed a sigh of relief at the final whistle.   What a difference a week makes after last Monday’s demolition of Kasimpasa.   However, all credit to Akhisar who belied their league position and took the game to Ankaragucu throughout.   Ankaragucu can consider themselves lucky to escape with a point, and at this stage of the season, every point becomes valuable !

Akhisar    0               ANKARAGUCU     0

Team – Altay, Kulusic, Pazdan, Moke, Sedat, Djedje, Kitsou, Canteros, Sacko, Boyd and Orgill

Substitutes used – Mehmet Sak, Ilhan and Aydin

The first chance of the match fell to Ankaragucu in the 7^th minute when Sedat nicked the ball off an Akhisar player and sent in an inviting cross which was missed by everyone !

Djedje was obviously targeted as the dangerman by Akhisar and he withstood some hefty challenges and tackles.  

A quarter of the match gone and Altay was forced to save four times from dangerous attacks.

In between, Boyd was unlucky to see his well taken free kick sail inches past the post with the goalkeeper well beaten.

Then 5 minutes before the break, Djedje received his first yellow for a seemingly innocuous tackle which the referee perhaps thought was Djedje taking revenge in retribution for the attention he had received from Akhisar !!      Shortly after that, Orgill received a yellow for  a high and dangerous tackle.

At the half time whistle Ankaragucu had conceded 17 free kicks to Akhisar’s 4 – at least the referee earned his bread today !!      So, going in at half time all square was fortunate thanks mainly to Altay’s heroics !

The 2^nd half was only 5 minutes old when Djedje received his marching orders.   He went in on a tackle with his boot up and can have no complaints.   Having received a yellow in the 1^st half, he has to be aware of the consequences of further misconduct, so disappointing for a player of his experience !

It was mostly all Akhisar from this point in the match with only sporadic breakaways by Ankaragucu.   Half way through the 2^nd half and Altay came to the rescue on numerous occasions to save goalbound shots.   Without question ........... the Man of the Match !

Just before the final whistle and Ilhan Parlak scored for Ankaragucu and went running off to the Ankaragucu supporters in the corner to celebrate.    BUT ......... the Akhisar players protested vigorously and the referee decided to look at the TV replay which quite rightly showed that Ilhan had controlled the ball with his arm before shooting !

Shortly after, Moke had a great chance to score but shot into the side netting.

90 plus 2 and another let-off for Ankaragucu when Pazdan was alleged to have hand-balled in the Ankaragucu box so the referee again consulted the TV replay.   I said ball-to-hand which was the correct decision and no penalty was given.    More sighs of relief !!

So, on reflection, a disappointing result for Ankaragucu, but if we take in the red card and the attacking attitude shown by Akhisar, we can be reasonably happy to have at least not lost all 3 points !

Next weekend is the home match against Erzurum, but not sure which day or KO time yet.   I will put it here in the comments section when known.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim