BLESS HERVE TUM

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

On a bitterly cold evening last night, Gencler snatched a point from Trabzon.

Genclerbirligi 1 Trabzonspor 1

Spine's excellent report follows, and in typical fashion for him, he owns up to the fact that he didn't attend the match. Who can blame him in the sub-zero temperatures that are Ankara at the moment.

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I take back everything I've ever said about Herve Tum. The 33 year old Cameroonian striker has falsified every hypothesis I issued about him after making up my mind in the first 20 minutes of the season. If he's slow, it doesn't stop him being in the right place and if he has a poor first touch it hasn't prevented him from scoring goals with it, and with his shiny bald head. Bless him.

Thanks to Tum honors were even last night at 19 Mayis, as Cavcavbirligi drew 1-1 against Trabzonspor AS, the best performing football share on the Istanbul Stock Exchange this year. In the 89th minute he put away a goal following a scramble caused by a cross from Mehmet Akgun, according to match reports.

It's at this point I should note that I didn't see the game. We had the builders in on Friday and Mrs. Spine kept me at home vacuuming and dusting. I am entirely comfortable sharing this fact with the world wide web. When I was growing up, being a New Man was all the rage.

Tum's goal was a much-needed equaliser. Alan Carlos Gomes Da Costa, aka Alanzinho. had put Trabzonspor Kulubu, aka Trazinho, ahead in the 29th after what CNN Turk describes as “not tackling by three defensive players”.

Trabzon's erratically amazing Burak Yilmaz failed to convert a penalty in the 78th, and Zec missed a sitter in the 92nd that would have been a winner. Burak's failed penalty allowed Big Herve to slightly close the gap in the race for the Golden Boot award this season. Burak leads with 30 goals in the league this season, followed by big Herve with 14. This is not a situation I would have expected when I laid down my valuable opinion on Herve's footballing merits in September. (Fact fans, nine of Herve's goals came off his head, compared to only one from Yilmaz, according to data on the TFF website. And he's doing better for us than any of his previous teams in Turkey. At Sivas he scored 0.4 goals a game and the same at IBB – rounded to a decimal place. For Genclerbirliginho he's scoring every other game.)

So, a point at home against a side ranked third to our sixth. That's a sort of B or B- in my book. It just keeps us in contention for a place in the second playoff group at the end of the season. We need to finish eighth or above. At present the eighth-placed team have 43 points to our 45, with a game in hand as I write. There's a large pack on 43, including Bursa and IBB. In fact, it looks as if the race for that second playoff group could be the real drama at the end of this season.

In other news, Gencler lead the Gentlemenlik League by some way.

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Me says ...... well done Gencler. 3 points next weekend against Orduspor should cement their position for that play-off group !

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim