ANKARAGUCU DO THE NECESSARY !!!

 

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

 

No4 of 5 Stadium Bans tonight in an empty Eryaman Stadium   !!

 

Probably not Ankaragucu’s best performance of the season tonight, but they had the determination to grind-out a win to collect 3 vital points in their bid to push further away from the relegation area.

 

So, Ankaragucu move up to 9^th in the league, but as I have said here before, they are still not in the ‘comfort zone’ with only 6 points separating them from 4^th bottom Club Pendik   !!

 

I should also mention that Bahadir had another of his ‘in form’ matches with a series of excellent saves, with another factor being the wayward shooting by the Gumruk forwards.

 

ANKARAGUCU             2                   Fatih Karagumruk            0

 

Team – Bahadir, Kitsiou, Radakovic, Mujakic, Hanousek, Efkan, Pedrinho, Morutan, Ali Kaan, Renaldo and Macheda

 

Substitutes – Tolga, Atakan, Bajic, Mert and Tasos

 

Gumruk was first to threaten in the 7^th minute when they had a corner on the left.    It was met by an attacker in the 6 yard box who’s goal bound header was instinctively saved by Bahadir with the palm of his hand and the ball cleared.

 

A few minutes later, Pedrinho did well to attack on the right and cut the ball back into the danger area, but a defender managed to knee the ball out for a corner.

 

Then in the 24^th minute Ankaragucu took the lead.     Renaldo made a telling pass from the left to just outside the box in the centre.    The ball was helped forward to Ali Kaan who’s shot was parried by the goalkeeper straight back to Ali Kaan who made no mistake with his 2^nd ‘bite of the cherry’  !!

 

9 minutes later Renaldo was put through in the box but his scuffed shot was easily saved by the goalkeeper.

 

3 minutes later and it was Bahadir to the rescue when he made an acrobatic save from a goal bound header.

 

Approaching the half time whistle and Renaldo had a great chance when he received a great pass around the half way line.   He left a defender in his wake as he made for the box, but before he could pull the trigger, he lost control of the ball and the chance was gone.   

 

Into the 2^nd half which was only 10 minutes old when Bahadir made yet another crucial save when he tipped a shot over the bar which looked like it was heading in just under the upright.

 

Then, halfway through the 2^nd half Ankaragucu bagged their 2^nd goal.    It arose out of a defender’s blunder on the right of centre and the loose ball was picked up by Macheda who drove forward and let fly with the ball heading inside the left post.

 

Approaching the final whistle and Bajic had 2 chances to put the icing on the cake, but firstly,his header was saved by the goalkeeper with his outstretched leg, and secondly, he blasted well over the bar from a good position in the box.

 

Next up for Ankaragucu will be ‘the acid test’ when they travel to take on Fenerbahce on Sunday evening 28^th January.      It will no doubt be a searching test for the Ankaragucu defence, but with confidence high at the moment, there is every chance that Ankaragucu can spring a surprise   ?!!

 

As always, watch this space for the outcome.

 

All the best From Eski Kanka Jim