At least it wasn't a draw

Am I allowed to complain after a 2-0 victory. Of course I am.

Genclerbirligi 2 - 0 Karabukspor

Listen very carefully Turks. It may not be as hot as it should be in late September but it sure as hell isn't cold! Just put a jumper on. You aren't going to die.

Admittedly, I wouldn't reccommend that everyone follow Alex who decided to show up wearing shorts. Others more sensibly dressed at the Alerta pub were Spine, me and a new English fellow named John who bought a Passolig card "because I'm writing a book about Turkish football".

At the stadium we met up with Kevin and then Dan the Man and his son. Quite a nice little group of kankas.

Football kicked off and well...

... and then in 11th minute the Karabukspor Number 11 lashed out and punched one of our players right in the nuts. Ouch. Our man went down and the referee had no hesitation in pulling out a red card.

Kevin and John wonder what the hell is happening. Oz Kanka
puts money on another draw. 

Big cheers from the crowd and time for us to sit back and win in easily? Nope. Gencler then proceeded to make very hard work of it all. We just couldn't go forward. Our back guys were staying back and we were sending in crosses way too early. Considering we had the vast majority of the possession and we were a man up we could hardly get a shot off.

Still, it was surely only a matter of time before Karabuk's brilliant defence cracked. It was just seconds after the second half kick off and Aydin Karabulut played it down the right, he had just come on as a substitute. We had players running in fast and I think he got a cross or a shot off. The Karabuk keeper dived to his right but only managed to palm it off to Landel who fired it home.

Time for a walkover.

Er... no.

Genclerbirligi now decided to play some of the most inept rubbish I have seen from them in a long time. You know those times when a crowd starts to get very antsy when the team are through the motions... that was the second half.

Luckily we were put out of our misery towards the end when Irfan Can Kahveci cam on and slotted home the winner...

So, we got the win and we got to fifth place, somewhere we
haven't been for a long time.

But for me the man of the match was a fellow called Dany Nounkeu, the No. 13 defender for Karabukspor. He was brilliant in spoiling so many chances, he completely nullified Stancu and time and again won the one-on-one battles. He was excellent.

So, Dany, time to get your agent to earn his keep and get him to flesh out your Wikipedia page.