Karabuk take the North Anatolian derby

A pretty miserable day on Saturday for Ankara in general. The weather was cold and wet and our two teams both went down. From the reports below it sounds like Ankaragucu deserved it... Gencler did not.

Genclerbirligi 2 - 3 Karabukspor

There were long faces in the Beer Bus when Little Oz Kanka showed up right at the end of Ankaragucu's match. I don't think I've ever seen Sir Eski so depressed. A couple of drinks and it was time to go. For an idea of just how crap the weather was Spine decided he was going to stay in the pub. Oh well, Little Oz and myself went off to find a taxi.

Just about to drive off and Spine jumped in the front seat. Apparently he had received a lecture from Sir Eski. Good stuff Sir!

Raining away when the match started off and it took the players from both sides quite a while to get used to the ball either stopping dead or skidding off. The wet ground did mean we got to see some good slides though.

The footy wasn't great but then Zec somehow got clear. For some reason he didn't have a shot when he seemed to have plenty of time. Instead he passed to Mununga who did have a shot, saw it rebound back and then had another go. This time it was in the back of the net. 1-0 up and Mununga got a big shout out from the crowd following his first goal for the club.

Time for Little Oz Kanka to go to the loo and so I missed the penalty call against us. Going by the fact that none of our lot said much I'm guessing it was only fair. 1-1 and it stayed that way till half time.

Hopes were still high. Gencler appeared to have been playing the better football but we were leaving some gaps at the back... and there were some wayward passes with Jedinak in particular not seeming to be in form.

And then 50 minutes in they scored from a corner. Arggh. Plenty of time though and Gencler went on the attack.

This was good stuff. We were all over them and at times we played some very attractive football. At times our finishing was rubbish, other times we just weren't getting lucky, especially when the referee refused to give us a penalty.

Still hopes were high and it finally came in the last minute. We had a corner and our keeper Serdar came up in an attempt to be a hero. The ball didn't go anywhere near him but a scramble in the box ended up with the ball in net. I had no idea who scored and only later learnt it was actually an own goal.

The crowd was going wild, the Gencler players were estatic and then... I have no idea what happened. Karabuk scored in the 93rd minute. Punch in the guts... evil, evil stuff.

Ankara derby this weekend. Unfortunately Spine and myself will be visiting the Bizanslar but I'm sure the rest of the Kankas will be up for it.