it had a scoresless draw written all over it. frustration, frustration, but then oktay pulled off one of our best goals this season. we needed the three points if we are to keep up our challenge for a european spot. in the end we got them.
genclerbirligi 1 - 0 gaziantepspor
it is bloody freezing in ankara at the moment and there was no way i was going to the stadium for tonight's match. a few mad people did, such as ertank, thijs and charlie, but there is no way i was heading off to stand in minus 5 degrees on a wednesday night.
so instead little oz kanka and myself headed off to the red lion club to watch the match on the telly. spine joined us a bit after kick-off but there wasn't a lot to say of the gencler team.
with cem can out thanks to a red card in our last match, new signing ersin martin was given a chance. it was good to see aykut back in the starting eleven and despite his nine or 10 goals this season i was happy to see herve tum left off the squad.
it all started fairly well with gencler seeming to be the better team but then spine showed up at the 20th minute mark and we started playing complete rubbish. a million long balls to no where, and some desperate scrambling defence. antep should probably have scored but for some great work in goal from ramazan.
we had the odd chance but it didn't really look like either team was going to score. and so the first half ended 0 - 0.
with cem can out thanks to the red card, hursut was given the captain's armband for tonight. too much pressure?
"it's the same as when they gave botham the captaincy," said spine, referring to something that the yanks amongst us will have no idea what he is talking about. "or flintoff for that matter," i replied.
hursut was really out of sorts for most of the match.
at the same time though, he is a player who you cannot hold down and who tries his best at all times. he is still, by far, my favourite player in the side.
both teams went for it in the second half and both were unlucky not to score. gencler though seemed to really pick themselves up once ermin zec was brought on mid-way though the half.
zec himself didn't seem to be doing that much but the team lifted with the attacking option. then in the 78th minute oktay on the left, just inside the box, jinked his man and sent the ball flying. the diving gaziantep keeper almost got to it. what a goal! bloody brilliant.
we had to defend a bit towards the end but in the end the three points were ours. we deserved it and our hunt for a european place continues.
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