Fenerbahçe's strikers too good for Konyaspor.

Even with a performance far from its best, Fenerbahçe did not sweat too much in the 4-1 win over Konyaspor in the Turkcell Super League game yesterday. Former Fener player Ceyhun Eris caused a little scare, but a pair of three-minute salvos was enough for the win.

ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

The first time Fenerbahçe came close to breaking the deadlock was when Brazilian Deivid De Souza found his compatriot Alex De Souza just outside the box with a timely pass in the 31st minute. Alex took a dribble and shot but put the ball just wide.

A hard-battling Konyaspor barely gave any other chances to Fenerbahçe in the first half in yesterday's Turkcell Super League game and hoped to benefit from counter attacks led by Murat Hacioglu, Erman Özgür and Ceyhun Eris, a trio of midfielders who all have had their chance on title-chasing teams Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor in their careers.

It was one of them, Ceyhun, who scored the first goal of the game in the opening minutes of the second half. The 31-year-old made the score 1-0, but the goal came from luck mixed with skill more than his will to prove himself to his former team.

Ceyhun took a shot from outside the area that hit the post before hitting goalkeeper Serdar Kulbilge's back.

The veteran midfielder occasionally scored goals from long-range efforts when he was playing for Fenerbahçe. However, he was moved out of the club after the 2002-2003 season and mostly remembered for the quarrel with then star of the team, Ariel Ortega, in a game against Diyarbakirspor.

Fenerbahçe coach Zico's move was to put Semih Sentürk up front, replacing Selçuk Sahin in the 53rd minute. Semih who has a reputation for changing the course of a game coming off the bench did it again. First, he lurched into the penalty area to touch Deivid's pass into the net in the 58th minute. Two minutes later, he converted another move by the Brazilian, who found the 25-year-old in a one on one with Konya keeper Damir Kahriman, rolling the ball into an empty net.

Fenerbahçe laid back a little after getting the score, and two late Mateja Kezman goals in counter attacks were the icing on the cake. In the last goal, the credit went to Claudio Maldonado, who landed his first assist for Fenerbahçe after taking the pitch during the January transfer window.

Meanwhile, Kasimpasa maintained its recent form with a 1-0 win over Istanbul Municipality yesterday. This was Kasimpasa's fifth win of the season, three of which have come in the last five weeks.

Coach Ugur Tütüneker said he was happy for the win, but not with the performance.

“I am not satisfied with the way we played today, but my players battled and we won,” he said. “We have been battling hard in the last seven or eight weeks and will do our best to avoid relegation.”