Mid-winter blues

Just to give you a feeling for the atmosphere at the match... A couple of photos taken by Gencler fan Onur Aydogan which were posted on the Alkaralar website.

After last week's brilliant victory over Trabzonspor this week we had a clear opportunity to get out of the relegation zone but instead let our chances go by.

Istanbul BBS 0 - 0 Genclerbirligi

I listened to part of the match on the radio but with the scores at 0-0 near the end of the half I decided to head off with the rest of the family to some Christmas carols. It is some measure of how depressed I am with Genclerbirligi this season that I didn't urge the taxi driver to turn on the radio and nor did I rush home to find out the result.

Not many other people could be bothered with this match either. The radio announcer said he could count six (yes, six) fans at the match being played in the 80,000 capacity Beyaz Fil Olympic Stadium. Although he did admit that he could hear singing and that anyway the lower stands can't actually be seen from the radio booth.

Still, what the hell is the point of Istanbul BBS playing their games at an enormous stadium a million miles away from the heart of Istanbul.

Football-wise... well, no exciting goals to describe, no red cards, no fans... hiç, zip, nothin'.

One thing though it looks like Aussie Nicky Carle is on his way out. He is apparently looking for a transfer and hasn't played in the last two matches.

All is not looking good at Genclerbirligi. So it is lucky that we have an easy match next week at home... Versus Fenerbahce.