By Chris Evans

A healthy crowd of fans, including women, children and expats, saw Didim miss the chance to continue its unbeaten home form as it lost to an 88th-minute goal against 10-man Orduspor on Sunday afternoon.

It started as a strong performance, but ended with the team looking a little lost as it failed to break down a stubborn opposition before being hit by a late sucker-punch.

It took just 11 minutes for Didim to have the ball in the back of the net following a cleverly worked free-kick. The final header at the far post was ruled out offside, which seemed an eyebrow-raising decision. Didim was showing control, but was guilty of overplaying at key moments. It felt as though a goal was inevitable. It just needed one chance to be created.

On 28 minutes, the pendulum swung firmly in Didim’s favour as Huseyin Furkan Uslu was sent off for a second yellow card. In truth, it could have been a straight red, anyway. It caused uproar amongst the Orduspor coaches and set the tone for the unpleasantness that entered the game, which meant it wasn’t the last time the referee would flash the red card.

Didim seemed initially to dominate against the depleted opposition, seeing an excellent sliding block prevent it from taking the lead moments later. The team started to lose its shape a little after that, as it worked out how to play against a team with a man down.

A great through ball saw Didim keeper, Kemal Mert Ozyigit, dash from his line and bravely make the save at the feet of the onrushing opposition striker. Didim learned from the error and dominated the final minutes of the half as first Burak Goksel smashed a shot off the outside of the post and then Gokberk Efe just failed to control the ball when almost put clean through.

For some reason, a different Didim team came out in the second half and seemed to lack direction and a game plan. 5 minutes into the second half, the warning shots could be seen as Ozyigit had to be alert to tip a bouncing ball away for a corner. The most Didim could offer was a long-range shot that sailed harmlessly over the crossbar.

The 62nd minute saw tensions boil over as Didim was about to make a substitution. An Orduspor coach was enraged by an incident on the pitch. He couldn’t keep his temper and left the referee with no choice but to send him off. It took an age for him to walk back to the changing rooms where he could be seen hanging out of the window, shouting instructions to his players.

The game became scrappy, with the only excitement coming when Didim flashed a shot just wide of the far post in its only real attempt of the second half up to that point. The display was summed up 10 minutes from the end, when even the stretcher bears had a moment. It’s amazing how quickly an injured player can recover when he sees the stretcher bearers fall over and drop the stretcher whilst running onto the pitch.

Abdullah Sogucak made an excellent run, skipping past 2 defenders on the wing before putting an excellent cross into the middle which saw the Orduspor goalkeeper have to make a full-length save to keep out the resulting header. Moments later, Didim’s keeper matched his opposite number, turning the ball away after a free header.

As the game neared full time, Didim was hit by the sucker punch and its failure to convert chances. A through ball put Orduspor’s Emre Gemici clean through. He made no mistake in rounding the keeper and slotting into the empty net. It caused mayhem on the Orduspor’s bench as they celebrated as though they’d just won the world cup.

Didim had no response as the game came to a close and the unbeaten home run was ended. Certainly a game it should have won, but maybe Ozyigit being the best player on the pitch in the Didim goal tells its own story. He’d had a patchy start to the season, but is now looking like a very decent player.

Didim’s next home game is in the Ziraat Turkish Cup on 31 October at 1330 against Adana.