Heard this one before?

It was a while ago but @SpineSideburn told me he was sick of reports which basically said, "we played well but still lost". I'm afraid this is one of those reports.

Kayserispor 1 - 0 Genclerbirligi

It was Muzo and Aylin's baby's 1st birthday on Sunday. So naturally we all went to the pub to celebrate. A few beers and we got the James Cook Pub to put the match on the telly. No sound though as this was a baby birthday party.

And bang. We started off great. In total control and shots happening from the off. We were totally confident and then the pub changed to the Man. City - Man. United match. Quickly got them to turn back and then a minute later they went back to the English stuff.

This time we couldn't get it back. No one in the James Cook wanted the English stuff but there were a bunch of Poms at the pub next door who wanted it. Seems as if the pubs illegally share the Lig TV subscription. Arrgghhh.

We left, of course, and by the time I got home and turned on the radio we were one down just after half-time. Damn it. Still Gencler attacked and attacked. We had umpteen shots either saved, hitting the post or just out.

And that was how it ended. Frustrating.

Ankaragucu vs Bucaspor match preview !

Ankaragucu travel to Izmir at the weekend as they take on Bucaspor hoping to restore some pride after the 5-1 defeat in Ankara. With the team almost certainly heading for league 2 Manager Mustafa Kaplan will need to start building for next season. Last weekends 1-1 draw at relegation rivals Kartalspor leaves Ankaragucu with a mountain to climb if they have any chance of survival.

Even the most optimistic Ankaragucu fan will concede the season is over, in order to stay up Ankaragucu would need to put a run of consecutive wins together, something which they haven't done for over 2 years. Bucaspor find themselves just outside the play off positions and have only lost 1 out of their last 5 games.

Mustafa Kaplan has some very promising young players in Emre Tasdemir, Gokhan Akkan, Hasan Ayaroglu, Enes Kubat, Koray Kantemir to name a few, if he can keep these players next season they will be more than good enough to fight for promotion. The likes of Timur Ozgoz, Gokhan Akkan, Bayram Olgun, Kaan Kanak are all out of contract and to lose any of them will be a huge blow. Mehmet Yiginir claimed today the fight against the struggle continues on his twitter page.

Bucaspor have some dangerous players in their squad, Mehmet Batdal and Mohamed Dahmane destroyed the Ankaragucu defence the last time the two sides met, both are the type of player who either look unstoppable, or they have never played football before. The Ankaragucu defence will need to show concentration for the full 90 minutes and avoid errors like the goal last week at Kartalspor.

The talent in the Ankaragucu starting line up isn't that far off the teams above them, the problem is to many costly errors in defence and poor finishing has let them down. With the team being so young it lacks in experience. Enes Kubat has come into the team and looks a really good player. He brings pace to the team and is also good on the ball. In the last couple of years its all been doom and gloom around the club, but the scouts and coaching staff can hold their head high with the job they have done with the youngsters at the club.  Hasan Ayaroglu and Emre Tasdemir have both been called up to the International youth side.

Unfortunaly i cant see anything other than a Bucaspor victory in this one, the players should just go out and enjoy themselves between now and the end of the season. One thing that surprised me, Mert Erdogan has been axed as captain and Gurkan Alver who has only been involved in 11 games is the new club captain.

ANKARAGUCU 'ACCEPTS' ONE POINT ?!

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Headline nicked from The Hurriyet newspaper, and if its to be believed, it doesn't bode well for what's left of this disappointing and frustrating season.

Kartal  1    ANKARAGUCU   1

Team - Bayram, Bilal, Volkan, Kaan, Aytac, Mehmet, Gurkan, Timur, Enes, Gokhan E and Serkan

Substitutes used - Orhan, Gokhan A and Mert

Enes put Ankaragucu ahead on the 11 minute mark and Eser equalised just before half time.

So, the bottom line is that Ankaragucu remain 9 points adrift of 4th bottom Kartal and failed to grasp the nettle yesterday.

At this stage of the season 9 points is a vast chasm and Ankaragucu will now need a miracle to bridge it, and as we all know, miracles are in short supply these days !

Not good reading I'm afraid, but that has generally been the situation for us Ankaragucu reporters (and supporters) over the past 2 seasons.

What next ??!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU - THE ACID TEST !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

I've lost count of how many times I've said ..... 'this is a MUST win match' ..... over the past few years, but you are going to hear it again !

Ankaragucu kick-off their away match against 4th bottom Kartal today in just under 3 hours time and it really is a 'Six Pointer'.    Kartal is 9 points ahead of Ankaragucu so this really is a MUST win match and Ankaragucu's last chance to stay with the bottom pack to fight it out over the run-in.

In other words, the Acid Test for this young team who have given their all this season.

I will be out on other business today and will be unable to put anything up here until tomorrow, so please check 'livescore' at about 3pm (Turkish Time) for the result.

Bellshill Kanka Nadeem is still 'over the Pond' and we wish him a speedy return to the Blog.

C'mon Ankaragucu ...... givvuzzzz something to cheer about today !!!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

ANKARAGUCU - RELEGATION BECKONS

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Apologies for delayed report this week, but as I said a few days ago, all three Ankaragucu reporters were tied-up on other business this weekend.

Not much I can say that the headline doesn't say !!

ANKARAGUCU  0   Sanliurfa   1

Team -

Bayram, Enes, Volkan, Aytac, Mehmet, Kaan, Serkan, Bilal, Gokhan, Teoman and Timur

Substitutes used - Hasan and Umut

According to the Hurriyet newspaper, the Man of the Match was Urfa's goalkeeper, Atacan, and that was probably due to the fact that he saved a penalty from Timur !

Urfa scored their goal through Kivanc near the end, which must have had a devastating effect on the young Ankaragucu players who perhaps thought that they were at least going to win one point.

As it is, after Kartal won their match today, Ankaragucu is now drifting further away from the 4th bottom team and are now 9 points adrift.

As Nadeem and Damon mentioned recently, we are all resigned to Ankaragucu's relegation to the 2nd League (Beyaz or Kirimzi) at the end of this season.    The main concern now is ........ how many players will be left (if any) to form a team next season ??!!

Not a happy report.   However, if you would like to be cheered-up a little, then go one post back and read Oz Kanka's report of Gencler's victoreeeeeee

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

1,000 home goals as Genclerbirligi rout Mersin

I had no idea until after I got home but it seems as if Ermin Zec today scored Genclerbirligi's 1,000^th home goal. Useless statistic? Yes. Do I care? No. All I gave a damn about was the result and that has brought a big smile to my face. 

Genclerbirligi 3 – 1 Mersin Idmanyurdu

Last week I was out bicycling around, soaking up the sun around Eymir lake. Watching the ducks frolic about and generally being thankful for the man-made climate change that had turned the usual dog-days of February into an idyllic spring festival.

All that has changed though and so it was with gloves and scarves and jackets and thermal underwear and other stuff that @Spinesideburn and Bernard joined me at the Beer Bus for today's match.

Oz Kanka and Bernard pre-match. Photo by @Sidesideburn

It was a pretty decent crowd considering the temperatures and the opposition. The same sort of match a couple of years ago would have got us a few hundred supporters, today there were a few thousand.

Onto the match and well.... er... 

Mersin seemed to attack at the start, but nothing really eventuated. Gencler sort of passed it about a bit but didn't look too sharp. Bjorn had a decent chance at about the 13^th but it was converted for a corner.

It was all a bit “meh” even though we started to dominate the half. Then the spark that the match needed come from a corner from Tomic in about the 32nd which found Bjorn's head and was in.

One-nil up and half-time came around. The consensus was that the match wasn't the best but we certainly deserved to be ahead.

Second-half and we put the knife in.

Except for some strange refereeing decisions, cards to Aykut and Ante could prove to be annoying later on, we were pretty much in control. Then a free kick outside the box that was beautifully taken by Jimmy and beat the keeper.

Not that much later Ermin Zec was brought on and within seconds he latched onto a defensive mistake near the half-way line, ran through and struck it left-footed just inside the left hand side of the box... the keeper had no chance.

Half-time and the mood is confident. Photo by @Spinesideburn

Three-nil up and still a good 30 minutes to play. I reckon we should have scored some more but... well... I don't care we were still 3-0 up.

Sort of towards the end Mersin were awarded a penalty (I'm not sure if it was deserved) and they finally got onto the scoreboard. Mersin kept up the attacks and Ramazan was finally forced to make some saves but generally Mersin didn't look very threatening.

And so Gencler stay in the hunt for that glorified place that is ninth on the table.

All up a great Sunday.  

Ankaragucu vs Sanliurfaspor match preview !

This weeks match preview is a couple of days early as i fly out to New York tomorrow :-). Ankaragucu host Sanliurfaspor on Saturday afternoon and will be hoping to restore some pride after a disappointing performance at Manisaspor last night. Manisa showed exactly why they are at the top of the table with a deadly performance and winning 4-0.

On paper no one would have predicted that Ankaragucu could have beaten Manisa, but after two excellent performances against Adanaspor and Karsiyaka many believed Ankaragucu could have taken a point from the game. It wasn't to be as an early mistake from Bayram, was followed up by poor defending and Mert Erdogan being sent off giving the visitors no chance of taking anything from the game.

Mert Erdogan will miss Saturdays game through suspension and will be disappointed as the replay showed the Manisaspor player taking a dive for Merts second yellow. The good news is that Timur will return to the starting line up, Ankaragucu missed his running and experience up front last night. Young Umut Nayir looks a long was off being ready for first team football.

The Ankaragucu team need to go out and just enjoy their football from now until the end of the season. Any hope of survival is over as there is nothing to show that this young team can go on a run of wins to climb the table. A win here and there isn't good enough and the gap is to big for Ankaragucu to pull back. Some important players like Bayram Olgun, Mehmet Tasci, Timur Ozgoz and Gokhan Erdogan are all out of contract at the end of the season too.

The visitors Sanliurfaspor are starting to put a decent run together and are still hoping to make the play off places. They will have to do without former Ankaragucu winger Tonia Tisdell who is suspended after being sent off during the weekends 1-1 draw at Kartalspor. They can still however rely on the midfield powerhouse Alfred Sankoh and another former Ankaragucu winger in Serdar Ozkan. Teteh Bangura signed for the club from Bursaspor during the transfer window and will also be a threat.

It looks like Mehmet Tasci will also miss the match for Ankaragucu through injury, so there could be a place for Emre Tasdemir who attracted interest from Galatasaray, Bursaspor and Trabzonspor in January. This will be the first Ankaragucu match i have missed on TV for a few years, ill be hoping for a nice surprise when i check my phone in New York.