Gencler go down at the last

It didn't really matter for either team but a decent crowd came out on Saturday night to see Gencler take on Galatasaray only to see us stuff up at the end.

Genclerbirligi 2 - 3 Galatasaray

Little Oz Kanka, Flying Dutchman Kanka, Miss Apples and myself showed up nice an early at the Beer Bus and then squeezed in with a bunch of Alkaralar as we taxied off to the stadium.

Whilst the atmosphere wasn't as fun as last week, no one really cared that much about the result but it was our last home match for the season and we wanted to see Gencler go out with a win.

It was not to be.

In the first half Galatasaray were absolute crap and it was no surprise when Emre scored in the 27th. It was a bit lucky really. Orhan had a shot which Emre managed to deflect past the keeper. Still it had us on our feet.

Some silly defending resulted in us conceding not long before half time. Still, most of us were confident we could win it.

Second half and Galatasaray stepped it up a bit but still we were optimistic. Then just a few minutes in and Galatasaray scored what was one of those "oh dear" goals. Galatasaray's Culio had a shot from just outside the box. Ozkan jumped high got a hand to the ball which hit the crossbar bounced in, and then out. Well done to the referee because it certainly looked like a goal from where we were. At the same time though it was one of those things that the ref could so easily have got wrong.

Two-one down but still we reckoned we could get it. And our hopes were high when Emre scored his second. I'm not exactly sure what happened as I was lifting Little Oz Kanka in the air so he could see. All was good in the world and then.... the ref killed us off.

I have no idea why but Jedinak, who had a poor game overall, was given a yellow in the first half for almost nothing, and then he was given a second yellow for a "foul" in which there was absolutely no contact at all. I'm not sure what the appeals process is for these things but they certainly have a good case if they do try and get the decision overturned.

Much cursing later and then our keeper made the mistake that cost us the match. The ball was sent in and Ozkan failed to keep control of it only to allow Colin Colin Kazim Kazim to poach the winner. The Galatasaray fans started swearing at us and so we ended the match with the good old chant "Hepiniz Istanbul cocugusunuz"