By Richard Beale…
Tatlısu suffered their third successive defeat and were no match for an Ötüken side who adapted to the conditions better on their home patch.
Result: ÖTÜKEN TKOSK 3 TATLISU SERACILAR SK 0
Sunday, May 12: BTM League Group 5 : Ötüken Sahası
Where is Ötüken you may ask, it was a first visit for me to this country village which is roughly in between Iskele and Famagusta.
Yes, it was a little bit of a culture shock, the surface turned out to be of dried soil/ gravel/ weeds and dust! One Stand offered protection from the warm sun, more importantly, they had a little stall that was selling lamb kebab and really ice cold drinks (not alcohol!). The kebab and water went down well at half time.
Ötüken are used to playing on this surface, Tatlisu were at a disadvantage. On this type of surface you encounter uneven bounce, accurate passing is a No No and with a stiff breeze blowing down the pitch that didn’t help as well.
Ötüken dominated the opening 20 minutes, creating a couple of chances. Their best opportunity came in the 17th minute when after good work on the right by Mehmet Buram putting over a perfect cross Hürkan volleyed over from a good position.
It took Tatlısu 23 minutes to create a chance when Musa sent in a low drive from outside the box that the Ötüken goalkeeper Adem dived and pushed the shot away for a corner.
Tatlısu Ramazan put in a hopeful shot that brought Adem to his knees.
In injury time of the first half Ötüken scored direct from a free kick taken near the left touchline by HAŞİM BÖLEL beating Sinan in the Tatlısu goal. HALF TIME : 1-0
Tatlısu were rocked when they conceded an early second goal in the 55th minute. A cross from the right was met by ÇAĞAN SÖZGEN, his first effort was blocked by Hakan but the Ötüken player made no mistake with the rebound. 2-0
60th minute and it was 3-0, Tatlısu lost possession in midfield, Ali cross from the left was met first time by HÜSEYIN YEŞİLBAŞ whose shot flew past Sinan.
Tatlısu lost their centre back Barış with what looked like a serious ankle injury to make it a further bad morning for them.
The nearest Tatlısu came to scoring was when Ramazan tried a shot from 30 yards that grazed the Ötüken crossbar.
Ramazan was Tatlısu’s best player in what was a very disappointing performance from the team.
For Ötüken HAŞİM and HÜRKAN BÖLEL both very experienced players were impressive. FULL TIME SCORE: 3-0
