Glory days

Genclerbirligi 3 - Besiktas 0

Headed off to the Knight and Flight on my own Wednesday night. Ordered my beer and while the rest of the crowd were concentrating on darts I asked if we could put the big screen on.

Half way through my beer and about five minutes into the match Flying Dutchman Kanka showed up. Always good to have someone to talk to while the action on the screen was not exactly riveting.

But that is not quite what was happening. Sure the first half ended up 0-0 and it seemed that Besiktas weren't even trying but Mehmet Cakir did have a couple of bloody good chances which he should have put away. In both instances he was last on the ball, coming in from the right and instead of going straight at goal he tried to put it into the left corner. Needless to say both shots missed by millimetres.

Despite the fact that we dominated the half perhaps the best chance fell to Besiktas when someone or other got a shot on (perhaps it was a header) but Jesus reached out with his right hand and made a brilliant reflex save. Brilliant stuff.

And so at half-time it was 0-0 and having watched a million Gencler matches I was my usual pessimistic self. We had had plenty of chances but hadn't capitalised.

Second half though and it was time to party.

Flying Dutchman Kanka made the point that Besiktas were going for it. Not that any of their attacks got anywhere near the goal, but they were pressing forward, leaving huge gaps at the back.

We were playing brilliantly. Passes were sticking, we were running fast and the Besiktas keeper was looking harried.

Then we got what we were waiting for. Mehmet Cakir made a short pass to Mehmet Nas just outside the box. Nas played it wonderfully, right foot on the ball, back in with the left foot and then a lovely little pass back to Mehmet Cakir. Cakir again tried to beat the keeper's right hand but unlike his two previous attempts this one was just on target. 1-0.

With the goal the patrons at the Knight and Flight clearly knew they had a couple of Gencler fanatics on hand. The odd Besiktas supporters in there gave us the eye, but we were not to be silenced (thanks to the fact that the owner of the place is a good mate - despite his obvious personality flaw of being a Galatasaray supporter).

Still high-fiving in the American way when the second goal came in.

This one was again brilliant. On the break Cakir had got it down on the right of the Besiktas goal. He could have tried to cross it in to the strikers ready in the box (who were covered by Besiktas defenders) but he waited a second and sent it back to the edge of the box right in the middle where Engin Baytar running in at full tilt smashed it into the back of the net.

I'd had a few beers by this stage and that was clearly the reason why I fell off my chair.

Bloody hell. 2-0 up against Besiktas and by God we were playing a million times better then they were.

Lightning struck again just a few minutes later when Baytar had a shot which came off the post. Just a few feet into the field of play and Okan Ozturk found himself facing the wrong way from the goal and tried to back heel it into the goal. This attempt was saved off the line by a Besiktas defender only for it to fall straight to Draman Haminu who smashed the thing to kingdom come. 3-0.

Dancing and shouting at the Knight and Flight and who should walk in? Why it was of course Sir Eski Kanka himself. He took one look at the screen (and the score) and started his familiar line of "Ankara, Ankara".

So it was at the 64th minute mark we were 3-0 up.

It was at this point of the match when Besiktas had perhaps their best chance but Jesus made an excellent save with his wedding tackle. Play was stopped for at least five minutes while the physios did whatever was necessary to get Jesus and his tackle good again. I would go into details but there are they make me cringe just thinking about it.

Three-nil up and clearly not needing any more goals we brought on Isaac Promise. Needless to say, the few opportunities he had were wasted.

All up a fantastic performance. Our defence was very solid, Risp in particular was great, and we ran fast creating opportunities all over the place. Have to admit though, Besiktas were crap.

Sir Eski, Flying Dutchman and myself then played a few games of darts (Sir Eski Kanka whipped our arses) and we then cheered away as Kayseri E.spor smashed up Galatasaray 4-1. What a great night.