GENCLERBIRLIGI STILL UP FOR THE FIGHT !!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

Gencler may still be stuck in 3^rd bottom position in the league but nobody can accuse them of throwing the towel in.    They ran their socks off last night and should have beaten a poor Rize team more convincingly.    Anyway, the bottom line is ....... 3 points secured to keep them in the mix at the bottom of the league , but they take closer order with the other teams at the bottom.

 

GENCLERBIRLIGI                        2                     Rizespor             1

 

Team – Adiyaman, Johansson, Pehlivan, Diego, Mert, Piris, Soner, Candeias, Lima, Sio and Stancu

 

Substitutes – Syhan, Polomat and Mustafa

 

The 1^st half didn’t light up until the referee was looking at his watch and thinking about blowing for half time.     I kept thinking throughout the match ............. is this the Rize team that scored 5 goals against Konya last week  !!!       It was amazing to witness the disconnect between the Rize players as they stumbled from one mistake to another and looking like it was the first time they had played together  !!

 

Sio almost opened the scoring in the 37^th minute but his goal bound shot was well saved by the goalkeeper who managed to push his shot over the bar for a corner.

 

The most serious blunder from the Rize defence came in 45 plus 1 when 2 defenders left the ball for each other.     Soner, following up, said ........ thank you very much chaps .............. as he nipped in gratefully to steal the ball and pass across the area for Johansson to send a screamer into the top left.    

 

I doubt if the Rize Coach entered the dressing room at the end of this match   !!!

 

Gencler came out for the 2^nd half in full on attack mode as they searched for the 2^nd goal.     However, it was Rize who almost scored the equaliser with their 1^st serious attack of the match in the 57^th minute, but Jokovic’s shot went just past the post.

 

Gencler’s 2^nd goal came 5 minutes later with a fast break on the right.    The ball was played into Sio in the centre just outside the box and he let fly with a shot which took a cruel deflection off a defender to wrong foot the goalkeeper.

 

10 minutes later and Rize was back in the match when Samudio headed in from a corner.     Rize suddenly started to play with more urgency and if I was the Rize Coach I would be asking the players why this attitude wasn’t adopted from the outset   !!!

 

Gencler had 2 more good chances to wrap the match up near the end.    Firstly, Lima was put through one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but his angled shot was just past the post.      Then in the dying minutes a fast break on the right by Candeias who crossed into the box for Lima to hit his shot against the underside of the bar and the rebound was cleared.

 

As I’ve said many times, there are no easy matches in this league, however, some may be slightly easier than others   !!!

 

Gencler now have 5 matches left to rescue their season, but all 5 matches are against teams who will probably start as ‘favourites’, therefore Gencler will need more of the fighting spirit they showed last night.

 

Next up is an away match on Tuesday against 6^th top Hatay.

 

As always, watch this space for the outcome.

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim