HALİL penalty gives Onur no chance
By Richard Beale….
After going 7 matches without scoring a goal, it only took a minute for Esentepe to find the back of the net then the floodgates opened with a deluge of goals.
Result: ESENTEPE KKSK 4 GIRNE HALK EVİ SK 2
Saturday August 3: Friendly Match : Esentepe Erdal Barut Stadium.
At last a pre-season win, a deserved win, as soon as the opening goal went in, you could see the confidence surging back into the players and especially in the first half Esentepe created more goal chances than did in the entire previous 7 friendly matches.
The goal drought ended for Esentepe to be precise after only 38 seconds from the kick-off a through ball found SEMIH ARSLAN who finished cooly pass the advancing goalkeeper. For a moment it took a while to register, we were stunned Esentepe had scored a goal! 1-0
3 minutes in it was 2-0, a surging powerful run down the right by Mustafa ended in a perfect cross that was met by a superb KAAN GÖRNEÇLI İheader that gave Serhat in the GHE goal no chance. 2-0.
GHE was shocked, we were shocked Esentepe were steamrolling forward at every opportunity, backs Mustafa and Emek were getting forward, and the home team had control of the midfield with Emre full of running.
The GHE goalkeeper Serhat pulled off a string of fine saves as it could have been easily 4-1 at the break. GHE chance came in the 23rd minute when Hüseyin flicked a through ball past the advancing Esentepe goalkeeper Onur only to see the effort hit the right-hand post.
Onur in fact had a fine match, especially commanding in the air grabbing perfectly GHE crosses and corners.
HALF TIME SCORE : 2-0
GHE made a number of changes during the break and these had an immediate effect starting the half very positively. They reduced the arrears with a fine goal in the 47th minute through a close range first time volley by HÜSEYİN KÖLE. 2-1
Esentepe were still a threat now relying on breakaways, in one such raid in the 54th minute, Salih found Kaan on the right whose hard shot was deflected onto the left-hand post by the GHE goalkeeper.
Esentepe restored their two-goal advantage in the 62nd minute with a clever goal from ESER KAN. Eser provided the pass that sent Semih into the box, his shot hit the advancing goalkeeper, rebounding back too near the touchline where ESER seeing the goalkeeper stranded and the goal unguarded, sent in a low precise shot into the net. 3-1.
GHE kept pressing and was awarded with a second goal in the 70th minute when Devran upended Tahir in the box and HALİL scored from the resultant penalty. 3-2
Esentepe sealed the match with a very rare goal from midfielder TUĞRA KİLİÇ fastening onto a Mahmut pass to finish cooly.
FULL-TIME SCORE: 4-2
SUMMING UP: GHE will be Esentepe first League opponent when the season opens on September 23/24, I will snap your hand off for a similar score!
This was the tonic Esentepe needed, heads were beginning to drop, and now the monkey is off their back we can look forward to the last 2 friendly matches with some confidence, even though they are against Super League opposition.
I thought MUSTAFA SOYTÜRK was Esentepe’s best player, the youngster is so strong and fast GHE had trouble in dealing with his surging runs down the right. Onur in the Esentepe goal was strong and commanding. Emre ran and ran, tackled strongly in midfield. Kaan showed some lovely touches and scored a superb goal. Tugra coming on as a 65th replacement made his presence felt. The green shoots are growing again!
ESENTEPE TEAM: Onur (gk) ; MUSTAFA , Şenol (Okan 57), Devran, Emek (Nersin 57) ; Salih (Şahın 70), Emre, Kaan (Tuğra 65) : Deniz (Eser 23), Semih, Dursun (Mahmut 45).
