A bit late, but good news nonetheless

Sorry about the lateness of this post but you have to remember that I used to work for the Turkish Daily News where we only reported on games the day after they occurred and therefore our readers wouldn't get their reports until two days after the match. In other words, this may be late but not it is still earlier than the TDN.

Having said all that you'll all be pleased to know that Genclerbirligi came away with a 3-0 away win to Konyaspor on Sunday. A fantastic result but according to Hurriyet it was an absolutely hopeless display and Gencler we were very very lucky.

The article reads as if our midfield was ripped apart with Konyaspor launching "wave after wave" of attacks. The defence was crap too with the woodwork saving us on a few occassions.

"Genclerbirligi must take a difficult lesson out of this," Atilla Turker wrote in Hurriyet. "Winning is not normally this cheap."

Well, point taken I guess. Good news on one front though was Isaac Promise was on target again with Turker writing: "Isaac created it himself, shot on his own, and was delighted with himself."

I'm delighted too and going by the last couple of matches it seems Promise is finally learning how to play.

The other goals in the match came from an own goal by El Saka and a penalty goal scored by Ugur Boral towards the end.

The win keeps Genclerbirligi in sixth place, five points behind third-placed Kayserispor (who won on the weekend) and one point behind both Trabzon (who won) and Besiktas (who lost).

Now on to Ankaragucu.

At about 3 p.m. on Sunday "No name" Gokhan Kanka rang me up asking if anyone was going to the match. I was out in the park throwing snowballs at Little Oz Kanka and Eski Kanka Jim was at work so the answer was "no". Point is Gokhan, the match kicked off at 2 p.m. Silly boy.

The match itself: Ankaragucu drew 1-1 at home to Denizlispor. A true relegation battle. Doesn't sound like it was the best match but then these tough survival matches rarely are.

I think the match can be summed up by Ankaragucu coach Hikmet Karaman who said his aim is to finish "next" season in a good position. Perhaps he meant winning the second division?

I have to agree with Eski Kanka that I was very happy to see the league leaders beaten by Ankaraspor, but I'm not sure Ankaragucu supporters should be so happy as Ankaraspor are also one of those teams fighting to avoid going down.

Ankaragucu are now in 11th place in the league, three points above Samsunspor and Malatyaspor in 16th, 17th and four points ahead of Diyarbakir who are coming last. There is still a long way to go however.

And that long way starts next week with the big one. Genclerbirligi versus Ankaragucu. Sunday 2 p.m. I'm definately going and I have a spare "kombine" pass for behind the goals with the Gencler fans.

Eski Kanka, I know that you are probably working but could you send out an e-mail saying we will meet at the Chopin Pub in Kizilay at midday.

So that's your lot for today, slightly late but most probably better than the report that will appear in tomorrow's TDN: "... and in other games played on Sunday, Ankaragucu drew 1-1 with Denizlispor and Konyaspor went down 3-0 at home to Genclerbirligi".

EDIT (Tues, 21 Feb): Oh dear. Just checked the Turkish Daily News this morning to find that they didn't even mention the scores for either the Gencler nor the Ankaragucu game. Only at this blog do you get the full story, a fair and balanced view of Turkish football.

2ND EDIT (Wed, 22 Feb): ooops. I'm feeling rather silly now as I have discovered that the TDN did publish the results of Sunday's matches. Not only that they did it on Monday. My original point still stands however as coverage of the Ankaragucu and Genclerbirligi games was merely the scores.