Smelling relegation

Ankara weather is weird. I dressed up on Sunday expecting to half freeze in the 19 Mayis stadium and instead ended up getting a suntan. At least the weather was great, unlike the footy.

Genclerbirligi 0 - 0 Istanbul BBS

Spine, Guclu, Dan the Man and myself rocked up to the Chopin for pre-match beers stuffed ourselves with chewing gum and got into the stadium just in time for the national anthem. We were soon joined by Ertank and Alpine Kanka Wolfgang, whilst Young Alpine Kanka Chris had to stay at home studying for a school exam. Lucky kid.

Two halves of play in which we dominated, A few good shots and others that were pretty ordinary. As Hurriyet newspaper reported on Monday, "Gencler have forgotten how to win."

In fact we probably should have lost as Istanbul had a couple of clear cut chances that were only snuffed out thanks to great positional play by our keeper Recep.

After the match I went for a beer with an old friend Orcan and his mate Lars who had just finished watching his first match in Turkey. Lars reckoned we weren't too bad. For us though, it was just frustrating.

"You can smell relegation," said Guclu after the match. You certainly can.