East Thurrock United 2 Dulwich Hamlet 2
Saturday 28th July 2007
Pre-Season Challenge Match

Creeping suburbia upon one flank, the fiery plumes of Corringham’s refineries the other, but ‘twixt these twin Gates of Hell lies Rookery Hill, a green oasis presided other over by country church and clapboard pub. Constable country amidst urban invasion.
For the second time in a week Dulwich more than matched opponents from a higher level, but despite drawing this match with the Ryman Premier Division Rocks, the Hamlet must feel a touch aggrieved that they did not make it a victory for the bulk of the chances in a high paced game fell the way of the ebullient boys in Pink and Blue.
As early as the third minute, it became apparent that the hosts would be vulnerable in the air at corners as, barely challenged, Helder Valdes rose on the edge of the six yard box to meet a pinpoint delivery, a forceful downward header bouncing wide of the far upright. Ten minutes in and Shawn Beveney, belligerent as ever, muscled his way through a brace of defenders 5 yards goal but from an angle slammed a drive in the side netting of Jamie Riley’s goal.
With buzzy wingers Craig Braham and Phil Williams nipping at their flanks and the uncompromising attack force of Beveney and Daniel Morris battering through the middle there was little respite for an overworked home defence boasting amongst its ranks that much travelled scourge of attackers, Steve West. The burly veteran was often keen to pass on the wisdom of his years none more so than when Riley hesitated to advance to intercept a through pass bound for Morris, West providing a timely hoof to safety thus denying the rampaging Hamlet forward.
More than half-an-hour had elapsed before the Rocks truly threatened, a free kick curled in slipped from the grasp of Hamlet custodian Sheikh Ceesay, the ball dropping invitingly at the feet of Scott Holding but Ceesay recovered his ground to spare his blushes, dropping to the floor to beat out the home forwards crisp low strike.
Half-time beckoned, the chimes of country church bells ringing through the air almost as to signal doom for the hosts. A Hamlet corner, the delivery once again on the mark, this time it was Morris leaping for the ball. His marker floundering, Morris met the ball crisply, a header drawn from the textbook and with Riley rooted to his line the ball was sent hurtling into the roof of the net. Fair reward for 45 minutes of endeavour and industry.
Beshadowed by their guests, second half brought more promise for the Rocks but not before they had weathered an early assault from the Hamlet. Morris might have added to his strike moments after the restart, denied at the death as the goal ranged before him. Beveney too looked for goal galloping away from the lethargic rearguard in pursuit of Veli Hakki’s through ball, Riley reacting with alacrity to save the day.
The traditional pre-season ritual of a raft of substitutions came and went. For the hosts it was of theirs that would prove first to bear fruit. A quarter hour remained on the clock. Ben Boyce burst into the box, a lunging tackle sent him crashing and the man in black at last had the opportunity to award a spot-kick. The burden of responsibility fell upon the shoulders of Scott Holding, regular penalty taker for the Rocks last term, but a low effort proved unsuccessful, Ceesay calling his bluff and blocking the attempt. All in vain though for first to the rebound was Kris Newby, a false start perhaps to cover so much ground so quickly but it mattered not a jot to him as the loose ball was tucked past Ceesay.
Parity lasted just six minutes as Hamlet regained that hard-won lead with a goal laced with grace and power. A slick ground pass from Hakki found Anton Innocent dashing down the right wing, the substitute lashing over a low cross towards Morris who his foot in front of West’s to send the ball crashing home beneath the crossbar of Riley.
Victory though would be denied the Hamlet as with four minutes remaining on the clock, another of the Rocks’ replacements, much travelled Keith Martin held off his marker on the edge of the six yard box before turning and drilling a ground singeing strike beneath the body of the diving Ceesay. It was all hands to the pumps as East Thurrock spent the final throes of the game on a desperate quest for the winner but already the Hamlet supremo, Craig Edwards, is instilling his never say die attitude into his charges. Like soldiers prepared to die for their leader, Hamlet hassled and harried the Rocks’ attack, almost succumbing at the death when Martin threatened once more but ensuring battle honours were shared.

Team: Sheikh Ceesay; Stuart Boothe; Harry Vitalian; Stanley Muguo; Shane Mangodza; Helder Valdes; Craig Braham; Veli Hakki; Daniel Morris; Shawn Beveney; Phil Williams

Subs used: Dave Walters; Benson Kpaka; Cedric Kobongo; Anton Innocent; Alex Watson; Ricky Dobson

FC Honka 0 FC Haka 2
Veikkausliiga (Finnish Premier Division)
Wednesday 25th July 2007

The contrast could not have been greater as the next stop on the whirlwind tour of the Finnish Veikkausliiga brought your humble scribe to Tapiolan urheilupuisto, the Tapiola Sportsfield, home of the Honka, a team famous for as much for its lack of achievement in more than half a century of existence. The faint waft of pine on the breeze, the forest air of Lahti had given way to Tapiola, a stark modernist outpost of Helsinki. The vast bowl of Lahti’s home replaced by the Tapiolan urheilupuisto’s temporary stands arrayed around the playing field in front of the commune’s main attraction, LänsiAuto Areena, home of the Espoo Blues ice hockey team. Still the club’s owners are ambitious; two years previous they easily climbed out of the Ykkönen (First Division), their new moneyed proprietors having financed the construction of a squad to do just that. Haka’s pedigree is much richer; nine championships, a dozen Finnish Cups and regular European competition for the past decade.
If the setting was somewhat ramshackle, the welcome was far from that. A willowy blond Finnish lass on the turnstiles in impeccable English suggested an away supporter’s entrance fee, apt as your correspondent had travelled much further than the gaggle of FC Haka followers tucked away in a corner behind the far goal. Perhaps they should have been joined for in a game that was never dull, but never exhilarating; they were to be the happier. By 13 minutes the scoring was over. Toni Lehtinen gave Haka the lead in the 9th minute courtesy of Valeri Popovitch assist, returning the favour four minutes later as he set up Popovitch to add a second four minutes later as the defence went missing in action. Honka dominated, the roar of a passionate 4,000+ crowd ringing in their ears but found the Haka defence resilient, barely testing the visitors’ Russian ‘keeper Alexander Dovbnya, who was more troubled in fending off the taunts of the Honka “ultras”, proud of their team’s purebred Finnish heritage.
Honka assaults, both footballing and verbal, failed to break the resistance of the Haka defence and so I bade farewell to Finnish football for the moment with defeat for this evening’s adopted team. Should you pass this way groundhopping do it soon for if Honka’s ambitions of European endeavour come to fruit the delightfully make-do-and-mend urheilupuisto of Tapiola will revert once more to a green sward in front of the ice hockey arena or become the bed from which a new home of the Honka will arise?

Honka: Tuomas Peltonen; Ville Jalasto, Tuomo Turunen, Hannu Patronen, Janne Saarinen (59 Hannu Haarala); Rami Hakanpää (65 Joel Perovuo), Roni Porokara, Nicholas Otaru (78 Vesa Vasara), Tero Koskela; Peke Huuhtanen, Aleksandr Kokko.

Haka: Alexander Dovbnya; Juuso Kangaskorpi; Jarkko Okkonen; Pietari Holopainen; Cheyne Fowler; Jani Kauppila; Mikko Manninen (Sebastian Strandvall 73); Kalle Parviainen; Toni Lehtinen (Janne Mahlakaarto 89); Valeri Popovitch; Mikko Innanen (Jarno Mattila 84)

Goalscoring:
FC Haka 1-0 Toni Lehtinen 9th minute
FC Haka 2-0 Valeri Popovitch 13th minute

Attendance: 4211

FC Lahti 4 IFK Mariehamn 1
Veikkausliiga (Finnish Premier Division)
Monday 23rd July 2007

Having arrived a trifle hung-over after a night’s late carousing and an early departure from Tallinn, your humble scribe docked in Helsinki harbour with his intended game at FC KooTeePee, a two hour bus away in Kotka looking decidedly not worth the journey. A quick perusal of the train timetables at Helsinki’s wondrous Art Deco rail station revealed that Plan B was well in hand. A hundred kilometres and an hour’s journey to the North lies Lahti, birthplace of Finland’s first, perhaps only footballing superstar, Jari Litmanen. Through rocks, field and wood the train rushes north, then towering out of a forest, a mighty ski jump, taller than any tower in this country where paucity of population makes the high rise obsolete.
With more than an hour to kill, the ski jump draws my attention before I search for the football ground. Unfortunately, or fortunately perhaps, mighty ski jump and quintet of siblings ever decreasing in size are the focal point of Lahti’s sporting arena but at their base the Lahden Stadionilla, home to athletics in summer and Nordic cross-country skiing when the snow blankets the country. Tonight FC Lahti are at home and with the television cameras in attendance, it is also a hearty welcome for Lahti’s favourite son.
There may be more picturesque settings for sporting arenas, San Marino in the shadow of the mountain and the castle, the Estadio Municipal de Braga blasted out of Portuguese rock but then this scribe has never partaken of their beauty. The Lahden Stadionilla nestles in a hollow amidst pines, 'neath the shadow of those mighty ski jumps, perhaps the perfect place to spot Moomins in the wild!
Though as a nation the Finns are fans of physical endeavour, football ranks low in the sporting hierarchy, the league dominated by the big money Helsinki sides such as HJK and MyPa. Tonight’s combatants occupy lowlier rungs. The visitors IFK Mariehamn hail from the Swedish-speaking autonomous region of Åland, some miles off the west coast. Consequently their support is thin on the ground, following your side over land and sea made less tempting by IFK’s bottom spot in the Veikkausliiga, a solitary win to their name. Not that Lahti have the big backing, struggling in the lower reaches albeit of a 14 team league. A noisy contingent give the impression of a fullish main stand, though the open side across the way is only dotted with supporters, in reality the attendance is just 1560. Still for the €12 admission, the entertainment is full value. 21 minutes Lahti take the lead as comedy keeping gifts them the evening’s opening goal. Sent haring away down the left, Berat Sadik’s shot low towards the foot of the near post looks an easy gather for IFK ‘keeper Antti Kuismala, but the ball squirms through his hands, through his legs and pops out the other side into the net. The hapless ‘keeper is spared the agony of seeing his howler flashed up on the big screen as might happened with the crueller Sky cameras but his embarrassment is clear for all to see.

Momentarily play is interrupted as from nowhere appears a young gentleman sans clothes. Bemused players watch as the yellow jacketed stewards as whom there seems an overabundance set off in pursuit of their naked quarry but after a Keystone Kops-esque chase up and down terrace, the young scamp evades his hunters, disappearing over a fence.
The players seem intent to usurp the naked intruder’s antics with some of their own and as half time approaches a player is sent sprawling in the box as the ball pings about following a close range block from the keeper. A red card brandished and as Peter Blomberg trudges dejectedly to the dressing room IFK are down to ten men. The spot kick from Rafael through is poor and Kuismala gains a modicum of redemption diving to batter the ball out. That save becomes a lifesaver as the ten men of Mariehamn seem to have lost the negativity that blighted their first half performance, Lahti forced on the back foot until in the 59th minute, the diminished opposition grabbed an equaliser their devil-may-care attitude deserved. Tommy Wirttanen delivered the cross and, stunning the hosts, silencing the noisy hoard, Jani Lyyski rose highest to bullet a header home. The revival lasted a mere two minutes. Kalle Eerola, whose pass had set up the opener, this time played provider for Janne Moilanen, his finish crisp and precise giving Kuismala no chance. After 77 minutes a cracker from distance by Ville Taulo lit up the gathering twilight, the local hero and man of the match, beating the dive of Kuismala with a sizzling volley from fully 30 yards.

Five minutes from time, the last vestiges of Mariehamn resistance were crushed as Taulo sent Rafael away on the left, the Brazilian slotting the ball beyond the reach of Kuismala inside his near post. By now little rain was dulling the evening twilight, Midnight Sun, Northern Lights, Santa Claus on Summer holidays or wild Moomins would have to wait for another day but for such a setting perhaps the Groundhoppers Code of one game per ground might be dispensed with.

Teams:
FCL: Michal Slawuta; Kalle Eerola (Eero Korte 72); Pyry Kärkkäinen; Heikki Haara; Mikko Hauhia; Christian Sund (Joachim Lindholm 87); Berat Sadik; Rafael; Konsta Hietanen (Pekka Kainu 57); Janne Moilanen; Ville Taulo
Substitutes not used: Saku Pesonen; Niko Leppänen; Tommi Vartiainen; Kaarlo Rantanen

IFKM: Antti Kuismala; Kenneth Knudsen; Mats Gustafsson; Peter Blomberg; Jani Lyyski; André Hansell; Mika Niskala; Daniel Ahnström; David Carlsson (Justus Vajanne 82); Andreas Björk (Erik Sandvärn HT); Tommy Wirtanen (Patrik Rikama 72)
Substitutes not used: Anders Överström; Amos Ekhalie

Memorial to the unknown skier?


Mural on th side of the stand at Lahden Stadionilla


Lahti Main Ski Jumps


What a setting!








Pictures fail to give an idea of the true height of these things.




Another way in - one of several that avoid paying - remarkably few do






Finnish Military Memorial


Another one - interesting motif on the right!




Siiri Rantanen

In the and of the Midnight Sun the floodlights were on at 6:30 in the evening!






















Don't look Ethel!


Guess what happens next