Yet another draw for Genclerbirligi

Six weeks undefeated for Genclerbirligi. Not too bad but four of those were draws - all of which we should have won. In the last three matches we have taken an earlier lead and then sat on it, only to see the opposition come back and score.

Sivasspor 1 - 1 Genclerbirligi

Friday night and head down to the Beer Bus to find out who is in the team this week. Upon entering it was pretty clear that Jimmy Durmaz wasn't going to be playing because he was there in the pub.

Nice fellow Jimmy. His old man is from Mardin and his mother from Lebanon. He was born in Sweden and has played for the national team.

Cengiz, Jimmy and Oz Kanka pre-match. Photo by Ural Nadir

The review of the match is going to be short. Mainly because it was so frustrating at the time and now is frustrating writing about it.

Gencler came out on the attack and was clear withing minutes that we were the better side. The first goal came with 15 minutes on the clock when Azo sent a nice ball to Tosic at the side of the box. Tosic cut it back for Zec who blasted it in.

Cheers at the Beer Bus and it was looking like Gencler were going to extend the lead; a bit different to the last few weeks where we hardly had a shot after taking the lead.

Shots were saved and our players were at least looking like they could score.

Then deep into the second half and I guess they started top think about defending the 1-0 rather than push for a second.

It was clear from the groans of all those at the Beer Bus that this was dangerous. According to Jimmy the problem has been recently that the back four have been playing too far back, (forcing the midfield to retreat as well).

Sivas started to look more and more likely to score. Then disaster. Sivas had the ball outside of the box near the corner and sent in a high cross/shot. It was going to go out but Ramazan jumped high to his left and just got a hand on it deflecting the ball just a touch... onto the post and in. An own goal.

Arrgghhh

So another draw. We should be battling for a European place at the moment, instead we sit firmly in the middle of the table.