ANKARAGUCU EMERGE FROM THE RELEGATION ZONE .... SLOW, BUT SURE

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Further to last night's brief post ....

There were only TWO kankas brave enough to tackle the journey to Hell and back yesterday for the 'non-match'.

ANKARAGUCU 0 Gaziantepspor 0

'The Terrific Two', (Phillie Kanka Jamie and yours truly) met up in the Beer Bus and then took off to 19 Mayis to board our 'Great Chairman's' buses to Hell.

It was an unusually warm sunny day for March so I had to buy yet another Ankaragucu hat to protect my delicate skin from the UVs !

We entered the Stadium over an hour before KO and passed the time, among other things, of counting all the security guards in the Stadium. We gave up counting at 200, but there were certainly more than that !

As a matter of interest, we were wondering what their function is ? Apart from telling supporters (me included ...tut tut tut) not to smoke cigarettes in the Stadium, they did little else. Phillie posed the question ...... why did they not allow smoking in the outdoor part of the Stadium, but they allow it in the staircase which is an enclosed area ?! Answers not required !!!

There was a large crowd with all the Tribunes represented. We found ourselves surrounded by the Sokak Group and the least said about their behaviour the better ! A serious fight broke out in the 2nd half near us which took some considerable time for the Police to react to, with the 'security guards' standing in their appointed positions like statues oblivious to the chaos going on around them !

As for the match, the less said about that too the better !

The Ankaragucu line-up was -

Serkan
Geremi, Rajnoch, Muhammet and El-Yasa
Kagan, Hurriyet, Sapara and Murat
Vassel and Vitek

Substitutes used - Weeks, Bilal and Koray

Both teams huffed and puffed in the 1st half with Ankaragucu scorning a few reasonable chances. As for Serkan, he was a spectator for most of the half. The half time whistle came as a relief to the boredom.

The 2nd half was a different story. Five minutes in, and an Antep breakaway with a one-on-one situation developing and Serkan looking like the loser. However, Rajnoch chasing back hauled the attacker down as he was about to shoot.

Says I to Phillie .... 'it's a red card', and so it proved. It was about the only correct decision made by a poor referee, Abdullah Yilmaz, who lost the plot on numerous occasions with some strange decisions and his failure on a few occasions to play the 'advantage rule' when it quite obviously was on.

From this point in the match, Antep gradually took control and but for some great defending by the Back Three (minus Rajnoch), and heroics from Serkan, it would have been zero points !

Videk had a poor match up front and Vassell spent most of his time chasing lost causes. Murat Duruer was his usual self, ie, creating nothing and achieving nothing ! He was eventually moved back to defence because he was a waste of space up front !

When Weeks came on for Vitek halfway through the 2nd half there was at least some urgency in Ankaragucu's play, but with 10 men defending one point, he had no support up front when he broke away. The Antep defence had an easy task sweeping up the few breakaways by Ankaragucu.

The final whistle was a relief, and Ankaragucu continue their slow, but sure, climb out of the relegation zone. However, on this poor performance I am not very optimistic about next week's visit to Galatasaray.

Philly mentioned that he and Connect Kanka Steve would try to attend this match while they are in Istanbul on other business. It will be on Sunday KO 7pm. As for the rest of us, we will watch it in The Beer Bus.

Well, one thing is for sure ............. Ankaragucu can't possibly play any worse than the did against a very average Antep team. Galatasaray will certainly be asking more questions than Antep !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim