Torsås-Norra Tång v Rockneby IK, Swedish tier 7

Springtime here in Sweden means the return of football and especially the local leagues that I find myself increasingly attracted by as a welcome alternative to the billionnaire playground of the big leagues. Today's match is from the depths of the 7th tier, Division 5 South East Småland and features a merged club Torsås-Norra Tång. Mergers have become a necessity in the lower leagues as a lifeline for clubs that can no longer survive on their own. In this case the village team of Norra Tång merged with the club from the neighbouring small town of Torsås. They merged about 6 years ago and share the home matches between the two grounds and the season opener was scheduled for the tiny Norrvallen ground in Norra Tång rather than the larger ground in Torsås. Last season Torsås-Norra Tång fell a few points short of a promotion play-off place whilst Rockneby finished a few points clear of the relegation zone.

Since Torsås-Norra Tång can be abbreviated to TNT there are no prizes for guessing which ACDC song they play when the teams run onto the field!

The ground

Norra Tång is hardly a village, more of a hamlet, and the ground is set on the edge of a forest. Entry was 50 kronor (£3.90). A very basic but typical Swedish lower league ground with a nice clubhouse, a kiosk and not much else. Most people sit on the clubhouse side. The far side has the dugouts with corrugated iron roofs and there are ancient long benches on the top of an old railway embankment. I spent most of the match on that side since the evening sun was in the eyes of everyone on the clubhouse side. The kiosk offered the usual selection of hot dogs (grilled on the barbeque outside), coffee and sweets but unlike the big clubs they managed to get me a cup of tea so full marks for that. There was even a match programme - an A4 sheet folded in the middle but again, better than clubs in the higher leagues.

The match

A 1-1 draw was not really a fair reflection of the match. The home team should have won clearly after dominating the second half. TNT played in all black whilst the visitors from Rockneby (a few miles north of Kalmar) played in all green. The guests started very well and took an early lead when Ali Hussein easily stroked the ball into the net after some poor defending. I feared a rout but TNT held on thanks to a few nice saves from their very young keeper, Bertilsson. The hosts slowly began to push forward but didn't really threaten till after the break when they stepped up a gear and had lots of half chances but without anyone being able to get that final touch. The after 75 minutes Filip Johansson pushed through the defence and slotted the ball home for the equaliser. The finale was tense with plenty chances but no goals, though Rockneby thought they'd got the winner with a break away only to see the linesman's flag in the air.

Final score: Torsås-Norra Tång 1 Rockneby IK 1

Crowd count:80.

Memorable matches - Arbroath v Dundee 1977

 

I've been to many Arbroath matches over the years but the one that stands out was actually a defeat. It was on 12 March 1977, a Scottish Cup quarter-final against local rivals Dundee that finished 1-3 in front of a massive crowd of 9,558 at Gayfield. In the previous round we had knocked out Premier League Hibernian after a famous replay win at a wet and windy Easter Road in Edinburgh that I also attended. If we could beat Hibs then we could also beat Dundee who were only 3 points above us in the old First Division table (equivalent to today's championship).

I travelled up from Edinburgh with my Dad with high hopes and we stood near the harbour end of the ground as the photo above shows. It was amazing seeing the ground absolutely packed . Arbroath had a good side in those days with players like John Fletcher, Jimmy Bone, Tom Cargill and veteran Gordon Marshall in goal. As for Dundee they had a promising young lad called Gordon Strachan who proved to play a key role in the away team's victory as well as former Celtic star Tommy Gemmell and top scorer Billy Pirie who had moved from Arbroath the previous season.

The game got off to the best possible start when Tommy Yule put Arbroath ahead in the first minute and the Arbroath end went wild. Thoughts of potential semi-final opponents went through my head but Dundee set about creating pressure and it paid off in the 24th minute when that man Strachan slotted in the equaliser from the edge of the 6 yard box. Arbroath played very well holding out Dundee and making a few chances for themselves. With only four minutes to go and a replay at Dens Park looking very likely the deadlock was broken by Strachan with a neat dribble on the left, a cross and a free header into the net by Eric Sinclair. Two minutes later Sinclair headed home another cross from the left to seal the victory. I was still proud of the fighting performance Arbroath had made and if we had just converted one of our chances (Yule hit the post for example), who knows.

One thing is certain - that was the biggest crowd at Gayfield in my lifetime and is not going to be improved on now, unless they rebuild the whole stadium. 

Here is a video of the game though sadly only showing the Dundee goals and giving the impression that it was one way traffic.

Östers IF Växjö v Trelleborgs FF, Swedish tier 2 (Superettan)

After 55 years of going to football matches I am now starting a blog about it. I have been reading other ground-hopping blogs and realise that maybe my travels could be of interest. Please read more about my background under the tab About this blog.

The honour of the first post on this blog goes to Östers IF from the city of Växjö in south east Sweden, about 100 km west of where I live. This was my first visit to the Visma Arena in Växjö (pronounced "vecksher") despite living only an hour's drive away for the past 22 years. Östers IF and my home town team Kalmar FF are of course local rivals but the Växjö side have been absent from the top flight since 2015 so there have been no derby matches since then. The rivalry between the two cities, Växjö and Kalmar, is echoed in ice hockey where Växjö are one of the top teams in the country whilst Kalmar are two tiers below them. Öster were a major power in Swedish football during the sixties, seventies and eighties, winning the championship four times with many of their players winning international honours, notably goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli, who was one of the heroes of Sweden's bronze medal winners in the 1994 World Cup in the USA. The team are one of many "sleeping giants" in Swedish football having been down in Division 1 (3rd tier) a couple of times in recent years. Last season they made the play-offs to the top tier (Allsvenskan) and hopes are high this season to finally return to the top flight. They'll have tough competition though with teams like Sundsvall, Helsingborg, Örebro and today's opponents Trelleborg in the mix. 

The ground

Öster play at Visma Arena with a capacity of 12,000. The stadium is part of an impressive sports complex that also includes the ice rink, the old football ground, Värendsvallen (now used for athletics), an indoor football hall plus indoor athletics and training grounds. The stadium was opened in 2012 and the record attendance came in the very first match, against local rivals IFK Värnamo, 12,173. Ice hockey is definitely king in Växjö these days and football has been in its shadow for a while. 

The ground is fairly functional with no particularly unusual elemants. Good views from all sides and cover all round. I managed to sit on the sunny side and despite remembering to take sunglasses I still had difficulty with the sun in my eyes most of the time. The catering at Swedish grounds is extremely unimaginative and Växjö is no exception. Hotdogs, coffee, fizzy drinks, crisps or chocolate and that's it. I keep asking for tea but they just look surprised and say no. Lower league grounds are actually much better. At a few wee grounds someone has actually run off to find a tea bag for me while another unearths a kettle and starts boiling water! More of that in future posts.

The match

It was nice to see both teams playing in their true colours with Öster in red tops and blue shorts and Trelleborg in blue and white. No weird second, third or fourth kits. In the shelter of the stadium the sun was very warm and I regretted my cautious choice of thick jersey and winter jacket.

The game was a cracker with the home team winning 5-2 after going behind early on. Öster kicked off the season with an impressive 1-0 win away to relegated Helsingborg and a decent crowd of 5,112 gathered today to see if another three points could be gathered. A gallant band of 25 away fans had made the journey upp from the south coast.

Öster started comfortably enough but in the 10th minute a Trelleborg break-away saw Filip Bohman run unchallenged from the half way line to slot home the opening goal. Poor defending basically but it didn't take long for the home side to make amends when Adam Bergmark Wiberg equalised from the spot. There were chances at both ends but then shortly before half-time Öster moved up a couple of gears and scored two goals in as many minutes. First, Jesper Jonasson Westermark scored at close range after a shot had been parried by the away keeper and then Niklas Söderberg stuffed in a shot from a few metres out to make it 3-1 at the break.

The second half had hardly started before Mouhammed-Ali Dhaini pulled Trelleborg back into the match after some complacency in the home defence but on the 55 minute mark Adam Bergmark Wiberg got his second of the day with a stunning free kick straight into the far right corner of the Trelleborg goal and that basically sealed the deal. In added time a fifth goal for Öster by Bonnah put the icing on the cake and the fans headed happily homewards in the early evening sun.

Final score: Östers IF 5 Trelleborgs FF 2

Verdict

A very enjoyable start to my Swedish season on unfamiliar territory but I really should try to make a return visit before long, especially if Öster continue in this form. They will meet sterner tests over the season and maybe need to tighten up in defence but I wish them well and look forward to seeing them in a derby match next season.