ANKARAGUCU SHOW NEVER-SAY-DIE SPIRIT AGAIN

Greetings Kankas and Kankies.

Battle Damaged Kanka Damon and I met up at The Beer Bus Bar arriving in a serious downpour which thankfully subsided for us leaving for the Stadium.

We met up there with Maniac Kanka Harun, Yankee Kanka, Huso Kanka and Rip Off Kanka Erman. An almost full stadium of Ankaragucu supporters with the 'away' end empty by order of the Police to protect these 'naughty Es-Es supporters' from the revenge of the Gecikondu Boys !!!

ANKARAGUCU 2 Eskisehirspor 2

Team -

Ozden
Ugur, Zewlakow, Rajnoch and Klukowski
Serdar, Aydin, Kagan and Ozgur
Vittek and Fatih

Substitutes used – Mehmet, Turgut Dogan and Murat

Ankaragucu was first to threaten when Ozgur was put through with a one-on-one with the 'giant' Es-Es goalkeeper, Ivesa, but he got to the ball a split second before Ozgur to clear.

Eskisehir was coming more into the match as the game swung from end to end. Ankaragucu's cause was not helped by giving too many free kicks away in the danger area, but thankfully most of them were either over, past or well dealt with by Ozden.

Ozgur was buzzing, Vittek making some deft flicks and passes and Rajnoch putting himself about and joining in with the attacks when possible.

However, it was Eskisehir who opened the scoring after 35 minutes. A breakaway and the cross was inch perfect to allow Burhan to slot in with Ozden left exposed by poor marking.

5 minutes later and the deserved equaliser arrived. A period of sustained Ankaragucu pressure from a corner and the ball was slung over a 2nd time from the right and there was Fatih perfectly positioned to volley in a superb goal into the top right hand corner with Ivesa posted absent !

So, half time and all square which on the balance of play was about right.

However, just before half time Zewlakow limped off to be replaced by Mehmet, and then on the stroke of half time Fatih was stretchered off but was able to walk down the tunnel. Mehmet was also stretchered off later in the match and Battle Damaged Kanka reported this morning that Mehmet's injury is serious and will have him out for 5 or 6 months !

Incidentally, while Mehmet was on, he had a solid match in midfield (Bellshill Kanka Nadeem to note !!!).

Into the 2nd half then and it was still an end to end type of match. However, the calamity of the match came in the 70th minute. A bullet of a shot came in from an Es-Es player at least 30 metres out which Ozden did well to parry. Unfortunately, the rebound fell into the path of the incoming Batuhan who shot at the unprotected goal. The ball hit the post and screwed back into play which gave Batuhan a second bite of the cherry. He managed to get a foot to the ball in the melee that followed and the ball trickled in for a goal. A terrible goal to concede but a few centimetres to the left and the ball would have gone out of play after it hit the post. Bad luck.

Ankaragucu pressed forward in search of a 2nd equaliser and on 73 minutes Vittek missed a sitter from a perfect cross from Ozgur. But he made amends one minute later when he sent a great pass to Serdar. With defenders closing in on Serdar, he looked up, saw a space a curled a left foot shot just inside the left post with Ivesa too slow to react. A clinical finish and well worked goal.

It was all Ankaragucu now and Serdar should have had a penalty when he was deliberately pushed in the box. A clear case of the referee chickening out on his duties !!!

Into the last 5 minutes and Vittek had a shot which hit the bar and went out of play, and Murat hit the post when he tried an angled shot. Es-Es was hanging on now and they were the more relieved to hear the final whistle.

Man of the Match award goes to Ozgur who gave the Es-Es defence a torid time. He never stopped running and gave 100% from start to finish.

So, a great fighting display from Ankaragucu and Mesut Bey will be hoping some of his 'walking wounded' will be fit for the visit to Gaziantep next Sunday.

All the best from Eski Kanka Jim