By Richard Beale ……
While the rest of the island welcomed the recent rains, in the village of Görneç there was a different kind of downpour – goals, goals and lots of goals.
Details: GÖRNEÇ KSK 0 DÖRTYOL SK 8
Saturday November 20: AKSA League 1: Gornec Üç Şehitler Stadium.
With Esentepe having played on Friday evening this match gave me the opportunity to watch my other two favourite clubs – Görneç and Dörtyol.
Normally the Uc Sehitler Stadium nestling in the Beşparnak Mountains offers tremendous panoramic views across the Mesarya Plain but on this Saturday is was more like a cold, windy, rainy November afternoon in the UK. I did question my sanity as a warm fire, watching the Premier League on the telly looked a better proposition – still I have been watching live football all my life so what’s a bit of rain and wind!
Just a few facts about the two teams, Dörtyol have come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, having gained promotion to League 1 two seasons ago. Dörtyol is a soccer crazy village, which has thriving academy teams, they seem well organised and a well run club, currently lying 3rd in the League – punching above their weight for such a small village team.
Görneç are normally a middle of the League team relying on mainly home grown players. Something happened in the summer, they nearly went out of existence, lost most of their established players. Now the team is mainly made up of youngsters with a few “old heads’, they are bottom of League 1 without a win. Things look bleak for them, but more importantly, they are still alive, fighting for their lives, the season is long, in football things can change around so quickly.
Görnec goalkeeper HASAN BİLAL saves but is beaten in photo right.
Just a brief match report when you are down on your luck, as Görneç are, for this match they were without their leading goalscorer and talisman ABDURRAHMAN BENGİ, (injured) and two of their most experienced players MEHMET INCE (injured) and LEVENT AKÇAGİL (suspended). They could only field 3 replacements on the bench, they lost the toss and kicked off into a very strong breeze, it may not have been raining but it soon was raining goals as Dörtyol stormed into a 5 goal lead in the first half. Görneç long serving and experienced Goalkeeper and Captain HASAN BİLAL made some good saves, to keep the scoreline to five as Görneç struggled against the wind to get the ball out of their own half. HALF TIME SCORE: 0-5.
What do you say to your team in the interval when you are 5 goals down – maybe play for pride and damage limitation. Sod’s law during the break the strong wind subsided as well but full marks to Görneç, heads didn’t drop, they rolled their sleeves up and competed for the first 20 minutes of the half. Midfielder 19 year old ERTUNÇ SAYINER was everywhere for Görneç, he looks a very talented player, very comfortable on the ball, one to watch for in the future. Winger MEHMET ÖZSOY, who is very, very quick also played his part in Görnec’s mini recovery.
It was not to be, with Dörtyol midfielder AYBERK PAYAŞ, becoming more and more influential more goals were sure to come. Dispirited more heroics in the Görneç goal by HASAN BILAL, 3 more goals were put past him, all scored by the League 1 leading goalscorer the wonderfully named BERKANT ISTANBUL, who added to the penalty he scored in the first half to make it 4 goals for the match. AYBERK and BERKANT seem like a “smash and grab” combination – remember Warboys and Bannister any of you Bristol Rovers supporters!.
Also must mention Dörtyol Captain SELKAN DENİZ, midfielder, who was very influential as well, helping himself to a first half hat trick.
Nice touches — Dörtyol player MURAT consoles HASAN and right 4 goal BERKANT ISTANBUL gets a kiss from his girlfriend !
Dörtyol go marching on sending their fans home happy, for Görneç nobody likes a beating but while there are points to play for- hope is eternal. FULL TIME SCORE : 0-8
DÖRTYOL GOALSCORERS: MELIH GÖK (9). BERKANT ISTANBUL (25 pen, 63, 81,85), SELKAN DENİZ (37, 40, 45)
Click here to hear news and reviews from Northern Cyprus
