Rightio 1-0

I normally try to start a match report with a very short description of the state of play. But the police decided to kettle us in. Why? More at the end.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 0 Osmanlispor

This was an unusual match. Not least because I hadn't even had a touch of alcohol before kick off.

Osmanlispor are a new club. They used to be known as Ankaraspor. ie. they are the team of the Ankara Municipality... ie Melih Gokcek.... the long-term mayor of Ankara whom none of us on this blog would ever doff our lid to.  

So the Osmanlispor team got about a thousand fans into the match. Mmmm. Okay, well done. But going by the stuff they were singing these were actually Ankaragucu fans. I wonder how much they were paid to support Osmanlispor.

Time for the national anthemn and the Alkaralar fan group unfurled their respectful banner recognising the deaths of 100 people in the bombing of the peace march two weeks ago. One banner said "Peace will win". Another banner merely noted the time of the morning blast "10:04am".

... According to all evidence at the moment, the suicide bomb was the resonsibility of ISIS. Some 100 people died in the attack...

Just a couple of days later Turkey was about to play Iceland in an important Euro qualifier match.

One minute's silence was called for before the match kicked off. The minute's silence lasted about 20 seconds. Just listen to the video. The people of Konya deserve to hang their heads in shame. Thing is, whilst I agree with the last statement, amazingly so does Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Turkish fascists.

No one was questioned or arrested for this gross disrespect of those who had died. The thing is.... this is right. You can be a complete and utter bastard and that is completely fine.

So... Our Alkaralar fans wanted to mark the deaths of the 100 people in a way slightly more respectful than the Konya wankers.

When the national anthem started our friends unfurled their posters. The protest was silent. It was all over by the time the national anthem was finished. The banners were; "Peace will win" and "10:04".

The police then decided to come up and take away such disgraceful banners. Of course, the Gencler fans handed over the banners. A few minutes later a few of the police came back. Apparently they started to ask about how our friends got such innocuous banners into the stadium. According to the cops, we have to submit every and all banners to them before a match.

The police didn't say that today's banners were illegal. They just said that they weren't vetted.

EDIT: Saturday night: The police later took into custody and then fined the Alkaralar fans who held onto the "Peace will win" sign to the tune of  250-plus lira.

There was some football at this stage.

It was 90 minutes in and we were ahead. Then our shout went out.

"The Ottomans were destroyed. The Republic was established."

And we shouted it again, and again and again. "The Ottomans were destroyed. The Republic was established."

And so the match was over and it was announced that the Osmanlispor supporters would have to wait as we were going to be let out first.

Dennis, Alex and me were on our skids as we need to get to the Red Lion Club for the rugby.

We got to the exit and then couldn't get out.

The riot police had formed "a cone" outside the exit. Hundreds of people were trying to get our and the Turkish police, full riot gear, shields the lot, were funnelling all these hundreds of people into a single file. It was as if they wanted a fight. And that may well have been the point. As we were sequestered like cattle everyone was singing songs about the not so legal goings on of Melih Gokcek.

This was the first time I have ever experienced the riot cops being employed in this way. Is this a new way of dealing with us? Is this the new way of intimidation?