Blomstermåla IK v Bäckebo GoIF, Swedish regional division 5

 

Blomstermåla IK 1-6 Bäckebo GoIF
Swedish regional division 5 (Småland south-east), tier 7
Thursday 6 August, 19:00 kick-off
Blomstermåla Idrottsplats, Blomstermåla
Crowd: 75

Moving from the atmosphere and intensity of the Danish top league (see previous post on Brøndby) to the tranquility of a village in the south-east of Sweden is the sort of contrast I love.

Blomstermåla is a village north of Kalmar in south-east Sweden with about 2,000 inhabitants. It has been the home of furntiture factories and a sawmill and grew up thanks to the coming of the railway. The railway station is still in operation in contrast to most villages and towns round here. Its football club, Blomstermåla IK, were founded in 1928 and in the seventies had a short stay in the second tier of Swedish football but since then have played in the lower leagues and a couple of seasons ago were at the bottom of the local division 6 (the lowest league in this part of the country). However they have rebuilt and are now sitting comfortably in the middle of the local division 5. This is my second visit to this ground.

Today's visitors are from the village of Bäckebo, out in the forest to the west. They have had a couple of very succesful seasons and are now top of the league and undefeated after 13 matches - an impressive achievement for a village with a population of 230!

The league has only just resumed after the July break and the hosts will be anxious to recover some pride after losing 0-5 at home last Saturday. For Bäckebo this is their first game since the end of June.

The ground

This is a lovely ground that has echoes of more prosperous times. The west side features a clubhouse, kiosk and changing rooms plus a small section of terraced seating. The east side has a long section of wooden terracing with a nice club badge in the middle. In the south-east corner there is a beautiful old entrance gate which is no longer used but also recalls more successful times. There is a wooden fence around the pitch but no floodlights.

Beautiful iron gates

The game

This was not a good evening for the home side as Bäckebo ran away with a tennis score win. It could easily have gone into double figures as the visitors missed plenty of clear chances. But they keep their unbeaten record and look set for promotion.

The visitors pressed from the kick-off and went one up after only 8 minutes with a fine shot from the edge of the box from midfielder Herman Hallberg. Four minutes later the visitors doubled their lead from a penalty kick from Douglas Bjerkland. I must admit I couldn't see what the penalty was for since I was at the other end of the ground. Bäckebo had several more clear chances after that but couldn't hit the target. Slowly Blomstermåla began to find their feet and made a few chances of their own and in the 19th minute they pulled a goal back. Jakol on the left passed into the box and in a goalmouth scramble William Axelsson poked the ball past the keeper and along the goal line, maybe over it. The referee awarded a goal though in higher levels it would have gone to VAR. Just when I thought we might have a contest on our hands Bäckebo stepped up a gear again and extended their lead just before half time with a lovely curving free kick from the left of the box by Herman Hallberg, probably my man of the match.

Blomstermåla's goal as the ball heads over the line, just.

After the break it really was one-way traffic and the visitors galloped away with an emphatic victory. The fourth goal came after 71 minutes when the ball was teed up in the penalty box for Simon Hammenstrand to fire home and he got a second goal two minutes from time after he beat the keeper to a through ball and poked it into the net. Then in added time we even got a sixth goal with a header from Edvin Gottfredsson.

That's two heavy defeats in a week for Blomstermåla and they will need to shore up the defence to keep their mid-table position. Bäckebo looked strong and had several skilful players. They look like a side who will be in the title hunt in the autumn.