IF Brommapojkarna 2 v 1 Halmstads BK

Sunday 2nd August 2009
Allsvenskan (Swedish Premier League)
Grimsta IP, Vallingby (Western Stockholm)
Attendance: 1708
Admission: 120 SEK
Programme: 20SEK

The first game I took in during my summer holiday was at Vallingby, a western suburb of Stockholm, which was a 45 minute tube ride away from central Stockholm. Blessed with gorgeous summer evening sunshine, Grimsta IP is located in the middle of a park which makes for a wonderfully green and tranquil setting, even if it's hard to believe that this small, homely ground hosts top-flight football. Brommapojkarna is a strange club - this is only the second season they have ever been in the Allsvenkan (Swedish Premier League), the ground only has a capacity of 7,000 (even that seems a tad ambitious to me) and with attendances ranging from just 1500 to 3000. Yet Brommapojkarna is apparently the largest club in Europe in terms of youth teams and players associated.

Both sides were in the bottom half of the table, but this was an entertaining game, played at a much slower pace than I am used to in England although the warmth probably was a factor. Brommapojkarna took an early lead on 4 minutes, which they doubled on the half hour, and were full value for their comfortable half time lead. They continued to look comfortable in the second half, missing some guilt end chances to score a third, but Halmstads pulled a goal back with quarter of an hour to go, and then had numerous chances to equalise, but Brommapojkarna held on to take an important win to keep them comfortably away from the relegation zone. An enjoyable start to my short Swedish (Stockholm) tour

.