ANKARAGUCU - LADY LUCK POSTED ABSENT

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

It was one of those nights in the 1st half when Ankaragucu did everything right, except score what should have been certain goals. I lost count of the times we were up on our feet screaming ........ goaaaaaaal .... only to see the ball whizz past the post or over the top or an Ankaragucu player mistiming his shot with the goal at his mercy. Lady Luck was most defo posted absent last night !

ANKARAGUCU 2 Istanbul BBS 2

Six stalwarts met up at the Chopin for pre-match 'refreshments'. Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Keleci Kanka Tansu, Connect Kanka Steve, Phillie Kanka Jamie, Maine Kankie Emma and yours truly.

Off to the Stadium then where we met up with Yankee Kanka and his brother Husso. Maraton was full and Kapali and Gecikondu were almost full, so lots of noise and a great atmosphere.

The line up included new signing Ediz Bahtiyaroglu from Ankaraspor who incidentally had a very good match slotting in as a stopper beside Santos as a replacement for the departed Bouzid. Also, on the subject of transfers, information is out that Faruk Bayer, a left winger, is coming soon from Sivasspor.

Last night's line up -
Serkan
El-Yasa, Ediz, Santos and Ilkem
Ceyhun, Barbaros, Semavi and Emre
Vassell and Bebbe
Substitutes used in the 2nd half - Iglesias, Murat Duruer and Metin.

The match kicked-off and we were just getting settled when Istanbul opened the scoring through Iskender. Whaaaaaaaaat ? The goal is still a blur because none of us were expecting it and it happened so quickly.

Ankaragucu then took control of the match and laid seige to the Istanbul goal, and as I said in the opening paragraph there were too many misses to count. Ceyhun, Bebbe and especially Vassell all missed golden oppotunities to put the match way out of Istanbul's reach.

However, as half time approached the breakthrough came, and a really fantastic goal it was too. Semavi broke away on the left, looked up and crossed an inch perfect ball for the incoming Emre to bullet a header past a helpless Oguzhan in goal.

Cue....... give us another one before the half time whistle. Grrrrrrr .... straight from the kick-off Istanbul attacked and with the Ankaragucu players still celebrating and dreaming of their win bonus, Herve slotted in No2. What a miscarriage of justice if ever there was one. Another classic example of not concentrating by the inconsistent Ankaragucu defence.

Istanbul came out for the 2nd half a different team and started to come more into the match and cause the Ankaragucu defence some problems. It has to be said that Santos was not having such a good match, especially with his clearances and distribution. This is the first time I've ever criticised him, so hopefully he was just having an 'off night'.

Bebbe was having a reasonably good game, and typical of him, chasing everything with that never-say-die spirit of his. Vassell was also looking good, except when he should have been putting clear cut chances away ! However, Vassell made up for his extravagance by scoring the equaliser 10 minutes after the re-start with a typical predatory strike. We were then forgiving him for his earlier misses !!

With Ankaragucu is full attack mode it was only a matter of time for the third goal to materialise....... or so we thought, especially after Herve was sent off for bringing Barbaros down with a nasty tackle.

Mmmmmm...... Istanbul pulled out some extra energy from somewhere and I have to hand it to them, they began to look really dangerous and looking the more likelier to score !

Then, bloody hell, what was Ceyhun up to ? The referee (and the less said about Mr Kamil Abitoglu the better !!!) waved the red card at him for something none of us could understand. Perhaps he said something ? Anyway, with our midfield general out of the action the team was rocking a bit and Istanbul siezed the initiative.

It was backs against the wall stuff now and all these misses from the 1st half were coming back to haunt Ankaragucu now !

5 minutes to go and more bad luck. Santos went down after making a clearance tackle and it looked serious. Out came the stretcher and off he went with what looked like a knee injury.

Down to 9 men and the last few minutes was nail biting stuff. However, Ankaragucu made it to the final whistle before any more disasters stuck, and how they must have rued their missed 1st half chances.

So, still waiting for that first win, but it is coming. We have to put last night's match down to .......... a bad day at the office !! Goals are coming, and with Ediz slotting in nicely at the back, we can look forward with optimism to the away match in Antalya in two weeks time. I am planning to be at that match and will give a full report.

All the best from 'still optimistic' Eski Kanka Jim