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.

ANKARAGUCU LOSE THEIR WAY !

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Ankaragucu’s impressive start to the season came to a grinding halt this week with TWO defeats, and so it seems that The Coach, Ismet Bey, must go back to the drawing board to rectify the situation.

Inegolspor   1                  ANKARAGUCU    0

Last Wednesday, Ankaragucu crashed out of the Turkish Cup, losing 2-0 to 3^rd Division outfit Darica, and the kankas thoughts after that defeat was a shrug of the shoulders and that Ankaragucu could then concentrate their efforts on promotion at the 3^rd time of asking back into the PTT League.

However, there seems to have been little response from the players in Bursa today with the strikers firing blanks again.

Bellshill Kanka Nadeem and I couldn’t find a link to watch the match, but Maniac Kanka Harun told me on fb that, from what he saw, it was a poor match with Inegol scoring the

So, the situation now at the top of the league is that there are 6 teams on 9 points each !

Hopefully Ankaragucu will put this behind them and get back on track next weekend against Gumushane, otherwise we may have a crisis on our hands.   Yet another season in this ‘effin’ division is just unthinkable !!!

Watch this space as the story unfolds.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim

Ankaragucu vs Inegolspor match preview!

Ankaragucu travel to Inegol this weekend as they take on Inegolspor tomorrow looking to make it 4 wins in a row. The home side have had a tough start to the season losing 1 and drawing 2 of their opening 3 games. That said, Inegolspor are always a tough opponent for Ankaragucu who will know they need to be at their best if they are to return to the capital with 3 points.

The game will be shown live on Canal 16 with a 4pm kick off Turkish time, so a chance to see the team in action again is a nice surprise for me who will be cheering on Rangers against the sheep from Aberdeen at the same time.

It's expected that Ismet Tasdemir will keep faith with the same side that has won all three of their opening games this season. That means Mehmet Tasci will keep his place at centre half while Enes Kubat gets the nod ahead of last weeks goalscoring hero Murat Yilmaz.

Emre Okur will be the man to watch for Inegolspor after scoring 2 goals from his first 3 goals. Ankaragucu should have to much quality in their side not to win this match, Erhan Senturk, Emre Sahin, Enes Kubat, Omer Bozan all have the quality in attack to cause problems for the home side and will be looking to attack straight from kick off.

Let's hope we have another weekend of celebrating an Ankaragucu win, and good luck to Queen of thr South and Rangers our brothers from Scotland!!

Darica Genclerbirligi 2-0 Ankaragucu

Ankaragucu suffered another early exit from the Turkish Cup as they lost 2-0 at Lig 3 side Darica Genclerbirligi. A number of fringe players were given a chance to shine but instead they suffered an embarrassing defeat.

The good news is that Ankaragucu can now concentrate on the League campaign and their bid to gain promotion to the PTT Lig.

Genclerbirligi still undefeated... but not brilliant

It was a better Genclerbirligi this week than last week's very disappointing
draw with Alanya, but it was still a draw and well... there is something missing

Konyaspor 1 - 1 Genclerbirligi

A sunny Sunday afternoon and nothing better than sitting outside and watching some footy. The Alerta Pub was packed and the mood was one of fun. Some of the kankas to take advantage were Spine, Dan the Man, Flying Dutchman Kanka and Alex. We also met a new kanka in Jimmy, a bloke who has just arrived in Ankara and has already said we may well get a season ticket.

Footy-wise it was ... well, not brilliant. The referee was rubbish and the Gencler players just weren't getting into it. Konya were clearly tired after their mid-week Europa League match but we were finding it difficult to get through.

Finally though Serdar Gurler got on the end of a long ball. He controlled it brilliantly and took a shot. GOAL!!!

The crowd at the pub erupted and then we went back to averageness.  

Until towards the end when Konyaspor started to really go on the attack... and our defence was lacking. Then it looked like we could have the winner. A ball was put in front of Stancu with just the keeper in front of him. His first touch was atrocious though and it was groans all round at the pub.

Just a few minutes left and arrrggggghhhhhh. Konya got through after some sloppy defence. Another draw.

Another bloody draw

Yep... another bloody draw

Konyaspor 1 - 1 Genclerbirligi

mmmm

More later

ANKARAGUCU – NEVER SAY .......... NEVER !!!

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

This being the 2^nd of our 5 match Stadium Ban, we were unable to watch the match.   However, Maniac Kanka Harun was able to watch bits and pieces on a poor feed which he was able to find and perhaps he can add something to this report in the comments section.

ANKARAGUCU   1        Karsiyaka     0

Just as we were resigned to a stalemate, up popped Murat Yilmaz to score the winner in time added on.    Admittedly, I’ve been critical of Murat in the two matches I’ve seen him play, but in my defence, I did say that it was early days and I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.   He is a tall striker and he obviously must use his height to thwart opposition defenders and use it to his advantage.   Maybe that’s what he did today ??!!

So, well done Ankaragucu, and with Hatay also winning, and the others around us losing, this leaves Hatay and Ankaragucu on top of the league with 3 wins out of 3 each.

Next up is the Turkish Cup match away to Darica on Wednesday followed by an away league match next weekend against Inegol.

Here’s hoping the team can keep up the momentum and ................. consistency !!

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim