ANKARAGUCU - UNGRATEFUL ?

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Call me ungrateful if you will. But, if this is Hakan Kutlu's reward for the supporters (as mentıioned in my previous post) then ...... yes ...... I am an ungrateful whinging "bustard" (Maniac Kanka' new name for me , and his spelling !!!).

ANKARAGUCU 0 Konyaspor 3

I call yesterday's performance woeful or am I expecting too much ? No excuses from me about the absence of Kirita, Erdogan and Said. The first team squad can surely deliver something better at home. Can't they ? Or am I asking too much ?!

It all started so well. Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I met in the Cappadokia and were joined by Kaleci Kanka Tansu and Libya Kanka Gokhan. Off we went to the Stadium in high hopes, particularly for Libya Kanka (one of the original kankas from 1999) attending his first match for a few years.

I had a premonition that things were going to go wrong when Battle Damaged Kanka and I reached the entrance of Gate 8 after 15 minutes queuing to be told that the gate had become unserviceable. So, along to Gate 9 we trooped to wait in another queue. We finally made it into the Stadium 5 minutes into the match and joined Maniac, Yankee and Rip Off.

I forgot about my premonition because it was all ANKARAGUCU with Konya defending well. A great passing movement between Bebbe, Gokhan and Duruer after 10 minutes almost unlocked the door but only found the side netting.

Gokhan then had two long range efforts which went close and I was beginning to think that this was another day when the visiting goalkeeper (Oguzhan) was going to receive my Man of the Match award !

Another great chance on the half hour mark when a left wing cross came in from Gokhan to the back post area. Duruer cut it back in front of goal but somehow Oguzhan scrambled it away to safety.

Going in at half time was therefore a big disappointment, but with the propect of attacking the Gecikondu end in the 2nd half I was still full of optimism. I have a strong feeling in my lower reaches that İ've said that a few times this season and been proved wrong !!

So it proved !!!

Konya started to play a bit now and were keeping possession well in midfield. The ANKARAGUCU defence was being stretched with Konya coming more into the match with their dangerous breakaways.

Then, on the 50 minute mark as we were waiting for ANKARAGUCU to wake-up, came another fast break down the right wing. Ilkem and the Konya attacker, Sedat, were chasing the ball together when Serkan has a rush of blood to the head and came sprinting out to "help out". He collided with Ilkem and ...... thank you very much said Sedat .....popping the ball into the empty goal !

ANKARAGUCU was looking ragged now and the passes were just not sticking. Possession was being squandered on a regular basis and the defence was looking very shaky with El Yasa the only defender worthy of a mention.

The 2nd goal arrived with 15 minutes remaining and again it was a quick break out from midfield with the ANKARAGUCU defence nowhere. Sedat again chased the ball on the right side of the penalty box, Serkan came out to narrow the angle and ......... whooooosh ......... he shot at the tightest of angles with the ball almost out of play to score via the underside of the bar.

Fantastic goal, and cue ..... time to change the singing towards Cemal Aydin and shout for his resignation .......... not again .......... it is getting boring !!!

I suppose I should mention ANKARAGUCU's powder-puff attack force today. Yes, true, there were a couple of efforts by Bebbe, but Oguzhan in goal was never going to be beaten even if the referee had allowed an extra hour of time added on !!!

5 minutes to go and the Stadium began to empty but there was still time for Konya to do more damage on Rip Off Kanka's favourite number 90 when a long range effort from Murat Hacioglu took a deflection off one of the defender's and sailed in over Serkan for number 3.

Cue .... lots more singing from the Konya supporters who had turned out in impressive numbers.

Not a happy bunch of kankas then as we headed for The Lacivert to drown our sorrows.

Hakan Kutlu has much work to do this week to sort out the rabble called our "defence". Also, come back Kirita and Erdogan ..... all is forgiven !!!

Before closing, mustn't forget to mention that I counted 4 occasions during the match when Jaba got his head to the ball. You see, sometimes miracles do happen !!!

All the best from ungrateful and disappointed Eski Kanka Jim