Souness not pleased as Blackburn hit for three

Genclerbirligi 3 Blackburn 1

It was meant to be the supporters bearing gifts, not his team.

Two goals from Souleymane Youla and another from Josip Stoko gave Genclerbirligi the advantage in Ankara in the first round first leg of the UEFA Cup..

However, Brett Emerton’s consolation could yet prove crucial in the second leg in two weeks.

With England facing Turkey on October 11 in Istanbul, the fans knew they were in the spotlight. Blackburn travelling army were greeted by dancing girls and a band when they arrived in Ankara yesterday.

Bowls of fruit and parcels of Turkish Delight were handed out to let them know how welcome they were.

However, Blackburn manager Graeme Souness was not in party mood and rounded on his players after they returned to the dressing room.

Souness said: “We didn’t play in the first half. We only started in the second half and by that stage we were 2-0 down.

“I thought some of our players approached the game thinking it was going to be easy and we just didn’t perform.

“Defensively we conceded three very poor goals. We got ourselves back in the game at 2-1 and at that point I thought we would go on and make it 2-2. But then we conceded a very poor third goal.”

Souness said he thought his side should have had a couple of penalties. However, he is refusing to give up yet on their hopes of reaching the second round.

Souness said: “I thought we maybe should have had a penalty when Ciccio (Corrado Grabbi) was pulled down and Steven Reid maybe should have had a penalty too.

“Maybe their second was off side but that’s secondary in my mind.

“The number one thing is we didn’t defend well and we didn’t start right. But the tie is not over. There is a hard 90 minutes for both teams to come.”

Blackburn paid for their sloppy play by conceding two goals in a minute shortly before the interval.

Skoko opened the scoring in the 42nd minute by lobbing Friedel from 30 yards after the goalkeeper had headed out a long ball launched by Ozkan. Then Souleymane Youla added a second goal soon after with a shot into the corner, after being released by Baris.

Blackburn boss Souness decided to switch things around at the start of the second half, bringing off the ineffective Jansen and replacing him with Cole.

Blackburn got themselves back in the game after 56 minutes following a flowing move. Gresko picked out Cole, who cleverly released Brett Emerton. The Australian winger made no mistake from close range.

However Blackburn’s joy last only three minutes with Youla outstripping Amoruso for his second goal of the game.

Blackburn kept pushing forward but were unable to get that second goal and now face an uphill task in the second leg at Ewood Park on October 15.

GENCLERBIRLIGI: Tokgoz (Botonjic 45), Daems, El Saka, Ozkan (Akin 89), Youla, Bozkurt, Skoko, Tandogan (M’Bayo 79), Mercimek, Baris, Balci.

BLACKBURN: Friedel, Neill, Amoruso, Babbel, Gresko, Emerton, Tugay, Baggio (Reid 69), Thompson, Jansen (Cole 45), Yorke (Grabbi 69).