Österlen FF

Ground: Skillinge Idrottsplats

Visits: 1

Date: 5th October 2014

Match: Österlen FF - IFK Malmö 2-1 (Division 3 Södra Götaland)

Attendance: 810 (All-time attendance record for Österlen FF)

In 2010 Branteviks IF and Rörums SK merged and formed a new club, Brantevik/Rörum Österlen FF. In time for the 2014 season Skillinge IF joined the merger and the club is now called Österlen FF. Home matches in the first half of the season are played at Branteviks IP and after the short summer break the club will play at Skillinge IP. Österlen is the southeastern part of Skåne (Scania in English), which itself is the most southern county in Sweden. In the winter time the area is a bit quiet but from Easter onwards Österlen is one of the most visited parts of Sweden. Plenty of people from Stockholm etc have summer houses in Österlen and having been here many times myself it is not difficult to understand why.

I visited Branteviks IP in May and I wanted to visit Skillinge IP as well this year. I noticed Österlen FF would play IFK Malmö in the last round of Division 3 Södra Götaland and took a gamble and "saved" my visit for that match, hoping it would be a promotion decider. IFK Malmö were leading by five points with three matches to go but dropped points and when both teams won last weekend my gamble had paid off. Yesterday in Osby the weather was glorious and the attendance was more than 1 000. I didn´t expect that many for today´s match but the weather was (yet again) fantastic and as kick-off approached Skillinge IP filled up. Skillinge IP was a pleasant surprise, it is a really nice ground situated only 200 metres from the Baltic Sea. In October that can be a disadvantage but thankfully there were plenty of trees protecting most of us from the wind. In total 810 turned up for this promotion decider and plenty of those were from Malmö. Österlen FF needed to win this match to gain promotion to Division 2 and already in the 12th minute they made it 1-0. Both teams then had their chances but still 1-0 at half-time. IFK Malmö started the second half very well and equalized in the 50th minute. The visitors from Malmö seemed to be in control of the match and I was confident they would win this match. A couple of substitutions from Österlen FF changed they game though. They came close a couple of times and in the 87th minute they scored the winning goal. The IFK Malmö goal keeper shouted "My ball" but the ball bounced over him and gave the Österlen player an open goal. Some very nervous minutes followed but Österlen FF hold on to their lead and will play in Division 2 next year. IFK Malmö still have the chance to go up through the play-offs but today they didn´t care about that. Huge disappointment in the away camp.

skillinge