I had the absolute pleasure of going to Fortuna Dusseldorf v Vfl Bochum on Monday night – you could sit or stand, drink beer whilst watching the game and there was no tacky music drowning any atmosphere building up before the kick off…so guess what? The atmosphere during the game was blinding, there’s a lesson to be learned here but it’ll not be learned by our FA, that’s a definite.
In stark contrast Hamelin is a sleepy town in the centre of Germany most famous of course for the Pied Piper story (and there are references to this all over the town) but not famous for football or football stadia for that matter. The Wesserberglandstadion has one stand, the other 3 sides are grassy banks with terracing built in to the hills, weird doesn’t even come close! Having said that, what it lacked in facilities it more than made up for in hospitality, we arrived in Hamelin parked the car up close to the ground, walked straight in through the open gates expecting orders to leave, only to find as warm a welcome as you could possibly imagine, top stuff Hamelin, vielen dank!
The line up before the game provoked much head scratching on the grassy banks with Mig in goal, Bardo and Rico right and left backs, Ferdinand and Laing as centre halves a midfield four left to right of Vaughan, Colback, Gardner and Elmo with Sess behind Dong-Won up top.
I know O’Shea, Brown and Gyan were missing and I know its pre season but it seemed, well, just a bit weak.
The first half began brightly enough with Dong-Won looking sharp and he was unlucky on more than one occasion, not least when he did well to control a high through ball but then lost his footing when seemingly clean through.
Kieran looked enterprising down the left and tested the Hannover keeper with a fizzing 20 yarder (from his right peg anarl) although he was given no support out wide by Vaughan.
Colback did a great job just playing things simply, closing down and occasionally switching play with some delicious cross field balls, you can’t panic the lad and I really hope he fulfills his undoubted potential with us.
We played some good football without really threatening their goal, they did precious little until a long ball was called for by Mig (we heard him from the terracing), it was never his ball and the striker promptly rounded him and slid the ball home – stupid mistakes cost us dear and this needs to be rectified before the season starts.
2 or 3 minutes later we were 2 down when some neat build up play found a Hannover player on his own in the area, his drilled shot was on target however Mig should have saved it in my opinion.
Wholesale changes were not made at half time and the trust Bruce handed his starting line up eventually reaped rewards when, following a defensive mistake Sess finished neatly, 2-1 now, game on.
Wickham, Catts and Larsson came on soon after and we played some decent stuff. Wickham was unlucky when he was pulled back by his shirt when through on goal and Larsson dragged a right foot shot wide when handily placed. It looked distinctly possible that we might nick a draw until we switched off after a free kick down the left flank, affording the Hannover striker the time to turn and fire home from inside the box. Disappointing defending again, will we ever learn? Full time 3-1 to Hannover 96.
Man of the Match: Jack Colback
Moan of the Match: 2 matches played and 2 half arsed attempts (and that’s being kind) to come and applaud the fans who have spent hundreds of pounds to travel across Europe, ha’way lads show a bit of thanks…please
On to Munchengladbach for Saturdays final leg of the tour, with a 54,000 stadium and well over 1,000 SAFC expected, I’m looking forward to this one. In the meantime its bratwurst and altbier all the way 🙂
Cheers
Paul
TAFKARLC