GENCLERBIRLIGI TAKE THEIR EYE OFF THE BALL !!

 

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

Gencler was guilty of taking their eye off the ball last night after seemingly having all 3 points sewn up at half time.

 

This was a classic ‘Match of Two Halves’ if ever there was one.    Having dominated the 1^st half, especially after their first goal. Gencler construed to gift the impetus to Sivas in the 2^nd half when they really should have had it sewn up with more goals in the 1^st half.

 

GENCLERBIRLIGI             2                      Sivasspor        3

 

Team – Nordfeldt, Johansson, Pehlivan, Diego, Polomat, Piris, Soner, Candeias, Stancu, Yilmaz and Lima

 

Substitutes – Yildirim, Sio and Ayite

 

It took until the 20^th minute for the first real action to occur.     Yalcin was on course to open the scoring for Sivas but Nordfeldt pulled off an excellent save to deny him.

 

That was a wake-up call for Gencler and 3 minutes later Lima let fly with a thunderbolt which the goalkeeper turned round the post for a corner.

 

From the corner, Diego rose unchallenged to head into the top right from the centre of the 6 yard box.

 

It was all Gencler at this stage with Sivas still apparently in shock mode, and 12 minutes later it was 2-0 with the goal of the match.    Johansson picked the ball up at the half way line and drove forward waltzing through some feeble defending and let fly just outside the box with a bullet which gave the goalkeeper no chance, although he did manage to get his fingertips to the ball.

 

Riza Calimbay, the Sivas Coach, obviously gave his team a roasting at half time when they came out all fired-up.

 

10 minutes in and Felix had the goal at his mercy but tapped the ball weakly at Nordfeldt instead of blasting it in, and 5 minutes later Erdogan had his goal bound shot saved by Nordfeldt.

 

However, it was no surprise when the Sivas goal arrived in the 77^th minute.    A cross came in from the right and Felix rose unchallenged to power in a header.

 

The equaliser arrived 6 minutes later when a cross came in from the left and Kayode slid in at the near post ahead of several defenders to poke it in.

 

That was it, or so I thought, with the match into time added on and both teams seemingly settling for a draw.      However, with almost the last action of the match there was a break by Sivas with passes going from left to right and into the centre of the box.      The final pass into the box was side-footed in by Polomat in his effort to clear the danger for a corner.    A sad moment for the normally reliable Polomat   !!

 

Gencler are still stuck in 19^th position in the league (3^rd bottom), but only 6 points behind Ankaragucu in 14^th position.      So, with 7 matches left until the end of the season, the relegation dog-fight will continue.

 

Next up is another ‘6 pointer’ with an away match against fellow strugglers Kayseri on Tuesday, followed by a home match against improving Rize on Friday.

 

As always, watch this space for the outcome.

 

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim