Frem

Ground: Valby Idrætspark

Visits: 1

Date: 10th September 2016

Match: Frem - Hvidovre 1-1 (2. Division, pulje 1)

Attendance: 1 111

With temperatures reaching 25 °C the second week of September was a really nice one in southern Sweden and Denmark. I was looking at going to Holbæk on Friday evening and then the local derby between Frem and Hvidovre on Saturday afternoon. As I was invited to attend my former star pupil´s dissertation on Friday afternoon I of course had to cancel the Holbæk game. The dissertation took 3,5 hours but my former pupil handled it with elegance and is now a doctor in mathematics. Anyway, the football was on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 3pm) at Valby Idrætspark. Normally I can go by train from Kristianstad to København H and then change to a local train taking me to Ny Ellersberg, the S-tog station closest to the ground. Rail works in Sweden meant I had to go by bus from Kristianstad to Malmö and the onwards to Denmark by train. The home journey was even more complicated with me having to use four different trains plus a bus service. The journey went as planned though and 90 minutes before kick-off I was outside Valby Idrætspark. The turnstiles opened at 13.50 and since a ticket bought on-line meant a free beer I had for once bought my ticket in advance. Valby Idrætspark has a capacity of around 10 000 and 4 300 can sit in the big seated stand in the west side of the ground. Some of the seats were in a poor condition but with crowds of around 1 000 I guess there is no need to replace the broken seats. Last year 2 500 turned up for this local derby and I was hoping for a similar attendance this sunny Saturday afternoon.

For some reason unknown to me the vocal Frem supporters were in different stands. Plenty of flags but not as many fans as I had expected. The official attendance was given as 1 111 and maybe the weather was too nice. There was a cooling-break in both halves and in Scandinavia in September that must be quite unique. Hvidovre were the better team for most of the 90 minutes but it was Frem who would score the first goal 1-0 at half-time. In the second half it was only a question of when Hvidovre would equalize. The equalizer was scored in the 62nd minute but despite several good chances the game ended 1-1. That is a result Frem should be very pleased with. The top four (out of eight) teams in the three 2. Division groups go to the promotion round and I am convinced Hvidovre will be among those teams. Frem are fifth at the moment and plenty of important games ahead for them. My journey back home went, despite all the changes, as planned. At 17.06 I left Ny Ellersberg and 20.32 I was back home in Kristianstad again. The coming weekends I will be playing table-tennis but hopefully an interesting game in three weeks time.