Genclerbirligi grab an away point

Genclerbirligi could have got it. A bit of luck and a bit of urgency at some points and yes, we could have won it.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 1 Galatasaray

The TFF are a bunch of jokes. This year there are bans for away fans if the supporters have been mucking up. Seems reasonable except for the fact that in the past this was a major money spinner for teams like Gencler.

So, the Saatlı away end at the 19 Mayis Stadium in Ankara was closed. Of course, that just meant that all the Galatasaray and Fenerbahce fans in Ankara who have Passolig cards simply bought tickets for Maraton. They vastly outnumbered the Gencler fans because most of us are boycotting this year. Even with the huge numbers of Galatasaray fans Maraton wasn't full. I would say that the numbers were down by about 70 percent compared to last year's Gencler v Galata match.

So it was down to a packed Su'dem pub to watch the match. Friday night, beers flowing, a big rowdy crowd singing away. Excellent fun.

Kick off and er... not a lot. Galatasaray seemed to be intent on keeping it slow and we weren't really penetrating.

Then in the 19th Galatasaray had a counterattack and scored in a one-on-one with Ramazan.

Slowly but surely the crowd at the Su'dem was getting restless. We had a couple of shots on goal (both brilliantly saved by the Galatasaray keeper) but we should have had a lot more.

It wasn't until the 72nd minute when Berat got a brilliant cross in and my favourite Romanian, after Dan the Man of course, headed it in.

We had a few more chances but failed to convert. There were some heart in mouth moments towards the end but finally the whistle went. Genclerbirligi can be pretty pleased with the result.