ANKARAGUCU - WELCOME TO THE 'REAL' WORLD HAKAN KUTLU !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

'Prodigal Son' Hakan Kutlu returned to Ankaragucu in a different time zone to what he was familiar with ! Gone are the glory days of the Ankaragucu days of yore when they took on the might of Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Cup in the early 2000s. This is 2011 and he faces an uphill struggle to keep his beloved Ankaragucu in the top tier !

Ziya Dogan took the poisoned chalice and now it is in the hands of Hakan Bey, and who can envy him his task after yesterday's performance ?! He would probably be reflecting at the end of yesterday's match that the team he played in would have won 8-0 with the likes of Kennedy, Augustine, Hakan Keles, Niyazi et al. However, that's how many genuine chances Ankaragucu passed up yesterday and a result that may come back to haunt them at the end of the season !

Ankaragucu 0 Gaziantepspor 0

Huso Kanka, Battle Damaged Kanka Damon, Cider Kanka John and I met up in The Stadium and we were initially entertained by the boisterous Antep fans before Gecikondu decided to join in the singing and drown them out.

It was a familiar line-up apart from the recent 'leaves which fell off the tree', ie, Weeksie and Tisdell (the last 2 foreigners of the team) !

Ozden
Kagan, Aydin, Ediz and Ishak
Guven, Hurriyet and Murat
Serdar and Turgut
Keles

Substitutes used - Umut and Atilla

It was pretty much a non event until the 20th minute when Murat was put through, but instead of opening the scoring, he shot past the post. Sound familiar ?

10 minutes later, and with Ankaragucu enjoying the lion's share of possession, it was Turgut's turn to pass up a chance when he shot tamely at Karcemarskas when a goal was the easier option !

5 minutes before the interval and Ozden still hadn't been called upon to make a save when he might easily have been caught out when the impressive Olcan's shot went just past the post with Ozden struggling to cover it.

It was more or less one way traffic in the 2nd half towards the Antep goal, and Turgut should have opened the scoring within one minute of the resumption when he was put through, and instead of blasting the ball into the goal, he flicked it past the post.

5 minutes later that man again Turgut was put through with an excellent pass from Murat and he screwed the ball past the post when it was too easy to find the back of the net. Cue ....... kankas look at each other in astonishment !!!

5 minutes later Ankaragucu almost paid the price of carelessness when Antep's No9 was presented with an open goal on a rare attack, but he somehow got himself in a tangle of feet and ball which gave the defence that split second to clear.

Into the 60th minute and some really fine footwork from Turgut allowed himself to make space for his angled shot which came back off the bar with the goalkeeper beaten.

At this point Hakan Kutlu made a strange decision to substitute Turgut for Umut. Whaaaaat the f.....k I was shouting ?! He was the only player who looked capable of breaking the deadlock and Guven (who had a shocking match) stayed on much to my disgust !

5 minutes to go and it was all Ankaragucu pouring forward desperately seeking the winner. Serdar sent over an inviting cross which Atilla met well, but it was saved the the keeper.

Ankaragucu left holes in the back and were almost punished when a saving tackle from Hurriyet spared the blushes with the clock ticking down to the 90th minute.

There was still time for Ankaragucu to pull the rabbit out of the hat, but Murat had the miss of the match when he found himself in front of goal with only the keeper to beat, but guess what ................. he missed !!!

The final chance fell to Guven when he headed over from a free kick.

So, 5 points lost against a very poor Antep team. Hakan Bey, you have to impress on the players that the round leather thingie must go between the sticks and not past or over !!!!

Man of the Match goes to Ishak who had a great match and completely bamboozled the Antep defence with his surging runs upfield from defence. If I was Hakan Bey, I would put him in midfield alongside Hurriyet as an attacking midfielder !

Now for the last match in this half of the season away to Kayseri on Wednesday KO 6pm. Not sure where we are watching that one with the Fener match KO at the same time. Probably in The Red Lion Club, but watch this space.

It goes without saying that the result of the match in Kayseri will speak volumes about Ankaragucu's chances of mounting a challenge in the 2nd half of the season.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim