Saxemara

Ground: Hejan

Visits: 1

Date: 29th April 2017

Match: Saxemara - Ronneby BK 1-2 (Division 3 Sydöstra Götaland)

Attendance: 652

When Ronneby BK were promoted to Division 3 at the end of last season I realized I should do my best to visit Hejan in Saxemara for the Ronneby derby between Saxemara and Ronneby. The village of Saxemara is situated a few kilometres west of Ronneby and I guess the club attracts many of their playes from the western parts of Ronneby. Between 1995 and 1997 Saxemara played in Division 2 but in recent years they have played in Division 3 and 4. Jan "Lill-Damma" Mattsson was top goal scorer in Allsvenskan three years in a row (1973-75) and as a youth player he played for Saxemara. It takes around an hour for me to drive to Saxemara and at 13.00 I parked my car outside the ground. I arrived an hour before kick-off but there were already plenty of people at the ground and it was obvious this was not going to a normal Division 3 game. The sun was out as I arrived but during my stay in Saxemara the weather was changeable to say the least. The ground has a few stands on the west side and behind these stands there are also plenty of good natural viewing spots for fans. According to a local I asked before the game the best attendance for this derby (in Saxemara) is 928 and I was curious to find out how many would turn up today. As the game kicked-off the queues to enter were still quite long and the official attendance was later given as 652, a very good crowd for level 5 football in Sweden.

Ronneby have started the season with two wins and Saxemara have lost as many games. In the first half Ronneby were the better team but it was still 0-0 at half-time. In the 58th minute the visitors manged to score though and celebrations among the supporters from Ronneby. Saxemara equalized, from a free-kick, 12 minutes later and I expected the gamed to finish 1-1. There was to be some late drama at Hejan in Saxemara though. With five minutes to go the home goalkeeper was sent off and in stoppage time Ronneby scored the winning goal. I was standing behind the goal when the goal was scored and to me it looked like an offside goal. Ronneby BK hold on to the three points and are now top of the table. Saxemara are in the relegation zone but hopefully they can start to pick up points.

West side

West Stand

North End

East side

Dug-out

East side

South End

Long queues at the entrances

Players and officials entering the field

Kick-off

West side

Fans

View of play

East side

View of play

Pano