ANKARAGUCU 'STEAL' TRABZON'S 61 PLATE NUMBER !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Headline nicked from The Hurriyet. Read on for explanation !

Trabzonspor is not top of the League without good reason, and Ankaragucu could be forgiven for going there last night with a defensive formation, but ....... they didn't !

A great all round team performance from Ankaragucu, with 1 or 2 notable exceptions, won a valuable point.

Murat Duruer was in the starting line-up ..... aaaaaaargh ..... !! Why ? I thought he had been transferred ?! However, he was substituted after 25 minutes after a mega cock-up which allowed Trabzon to score.

Trabzonspor 1 ANKARAGUCU 1

Team -
Bora
Ugur, Rajnoch, Zewlakow, Duruer
Guven, Gabric, Sapara, Adem
Metin and Serdar

Substitutes - Mehmet, Ozgur and Sestak

We met up in The Beer Bus Bar. Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Kaleci Kanka Tansu and I. We were also joined by Oz and Little Oz Kankas and Spine Kanka who left for the Stadium just as Trabzon opened the scoring.

Our initial reaction on seeing the starting line-up was ..... where is Vittek (I think he is still injured), where is Fatih Tekke (he didn't want to play against his old Club), why is Sestak and Keles on the bench (only Umit Bey knows the answer to that one) ?

The match got under way in front of a full-house and the noise from the Trabzon supporters was very loud, and why not when your team is poised to win the League !

It was all Trabzon in the opening minutes and on 12 minutes, Umut blasted over from a good position. However, Ankaragucu was defending well and trying to pass the ball out of defence (for a change !) and they were looking good.

It really wasn't a surprise when Trabzon took the lead on 20 minutes. But, the goal could so easily have been avoided if Duruer hadn't let Yattara go past him so easily. Yattara had all the time in the world to look up and cross in a low ball which was missed by Rajnoch and the incoming attacker. However, Ja Ja had made a run on the blind-side, by-passing Guven, and stroked the ball into the goal with Bora helpless.

For the remainder of the half, Bora pulled off some great saves and the defence held firm with Rajnoch and Guven in particular in great form.

Trabzon finished in control of the half but with Sapara's goading, Ankaragucu was still making forays into the Trabzon half and they looked dangerous when they did this.

Into the 2nd half and cheers from the kankas when Sestak came on to replace Serdar. Actually, in my opinion, he should have replaced Metin who was running around like a headless chicken in the first half !

Trabzon started the 2nd half as they had finished the first, ie, on the attack. But Bora made some outstanding saves from Umut (twice) and Burak.

10 minutes in and Ankaragucu was starting to look dangerous with Gabic and Sapara in particular taking more control in midfield. Sestak was looking menacing up front and this was more like the Ankaragucu we know.

Then it happened on the 61st minute. Remembering that 61 is Trabzon's plate number, and that Gabric is a Trabzonspor 'olde boy' ....... a great breakaway down the left by Sestak. He looks up and crosses the ball in to the unmarked and incoming Gabric. A fantastic header to equalise and Ankaragucu was back in the match.

Both teams were now full-on in attack and Bora (no doubt .... Man of the Match) was again in fine form to thwart efforts from Umut and Ja Ja.

At the other end, Sestak and Zewy went close to finding the winner.

Into time added on, and between Bora, Ugur and Rajnoch, they saved any last minute tragedy of Trabzon snatching a winner.

So, as I said earlier, a great all round team performance. With Vittek and Tekke waiting for their chance it seems that happier days could be around the corner for Ankaragucu.

The next league action is on Sunday at home to Manisa KO 2pm. Prior to that though, there is the final Cup Group match away to Malatya on Thursday which Ankaragucu must win to qualify for the knock-out stage. KO time still unknown.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim