ANKARAGUCU ENDURES ANOTHER REALITY CHECK

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

There was another 'love-in' at the 19 Mayis Stadium yesterday, when first Gecikondu welcomed their old favourite, Jaba, (but significantly not Tita !) back to Ankara prior to kick-off, and then the large Antalyaspor supporter contingent (300) started singing Ankaragucu songs much to the delight of the Ankaragucu faithful !

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I met up in the Stadium. As usual, Gecikondu was full and in good voice throughout. Maraton and Kapali had a disappointing turn-out.

A few new 'young boys' in the team, who it has to be said, looked out of their depth. Only Bayram, Aydin, Ishak and Veli seemed to know what they were doing. No criticism intended for the remainder of the team who gave their all for the 90 minutes.

Ankaragucu 0 Antalyaspor 3

Team -

Bayram, Veli, Aydin, Umit, Ishak, Muhammed, Mert, Serkan, Bilal, Gokhan and Sinan.

Substitutes - Hasan, Atilla and Orhan

The writing was on the wall from as early as the 8th minute when a culmination of errors in defence allowed Mehmet Eren a 2nd bite of the cherry to score a simple goal in a calamitous goalmouth melee.

From this point on it was all Antalya playing some nice footie and giving Ankaragucu the run-around. In the 21st minute from an Antalya corner a header was sent goalbound with Bayram well beaten, but a headed goal-line clearance (couldn't see who) saved the moment.

However, it only delayed the inevitable until the 33rd minute when Antalya put the game beyond Ankaragucu. From a well taken free kick, Bayram came for it but didn't connect with the ball which fell kindly for Kerem to tap-in.

Half time came with the Antalya goalkeeper, Omer, still to join the action ! In fact, he only had one save to make in the match on 55 minutes which didn't trouble him unduly.

Coincidentally, during the half time break Damon and I were discussing footie tactics in general and I was extolling the virtues of the cut-back and how difficult it is to defend against. Then, in the 60th minute Antalya gave a classic example of just such a move.

The ball was brought down the righ wing, and the attacker dummied his cross, continued to the goal line, looked up and sent in a great cut-back for the incoming Tita to fire in and kill the match stone-dead.

To their credit, Ankaragucu kept plugging away but getting nowhere near to Omer to cause any damage. Antalya continued to dictate play and it took another goal-line clearance from Veli on 77 minutes to deny Antalya a 4th goal with Bayram beaten again.

I did say that the Ankaragucu 'boys' gave their all and they were rewarded at the end by Gecikonduc calling them over to be applauded for their efforts. All well and good, but to be brutally honest this Ankaragucu team will have a mega problem in the Bank Asya League up against the likes of Konya, Bolu, Karsiyaka, Denizli to name but a few !

Ankaragucu will be away in Gaziantep next weekend. I think the match is on Friday evening but I'll confirm this in the comments section when the details are known.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim