When a point is hardly worth it

Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of Genclerbirligi fan Elvin Buğra Arslan (19) and to all who were killed in Sunday's bomb blast. 

You know that your team is doing well when you draw with Galatasaray and still leave disappointed.

Genclerbirligi 1 - 1 Galatasaray

A glorious day meant that all three Kankas who went to Sunday's afternoon match walked down to Kizilay. It had been ages since we had met up at the Beer Bus pre-match and it was good to see that beer and kofte are still a perfect match.

In the stadium and a decent turnout for Genclerbirligi, although nothing like pre-Passolig days. Galatasaray would normally have completely sold out the away end but this year it was less than a quarter full.

Having won six out of our last seven matches confidence was high that we could take down the Istanbul giants. Possibly for the first time ever, Genclerbirligi were actually the favourites according to the UK bookies.

And so the match kicks off, the crowd were in good voice and... arrrggghhh We started missing sitters.

Campos was the first... the easiest of along the ground passes and he simply stumbled and failed to get a shot off when just a yard or two in front of goal.

Some luck for us when Hopf somehow managed to keep the ball out for what should have been a Galatasaray goal and then Stancu was brought down in the box.

Amazing really. Three penalties in three matches. Stancu stood up and sent the ball straight down the middle.

Galatasaray started to wake up a bit which of course gave us plenty ıof counter attacking opportunities for the rest of the match. Not that we capitalised on any of them. The worst, by far, was in the second half when Aydin Karabulut, who had an otherwise excellent game, managed to get totally clear and then totally failed to even have a shot when he was right in front of goal. If couldn't buy scales big enough to weigh the groans of disbelief and utter frustration from just me, let alone the rest of the Gencler fans.

Either before or after that Galatasaray where given a penalty for handball in the box. 1 - 1. A few more chances for both sides and that is how it finished.

We could have had it, but at the same time we could have been beaten. So I guess we have to be satisfied with the one point. We left Alex downtown and Spine and me headed off to watch the last 30 minutes of the Scotland - France match. It was then that we heard the sound of the explosion. All of the Kankas got home safely. Sadly the same can't be said for all the Gencler fans.