Saturday 26th May 2012 ko 14.00

Division 2 Södra Svealand

KB KARLSKOGA FF 1 (Pénzes 50og)

ENSKEDE IK 2 (Olsson 8 Andersson 52)

Att 94 (h/c)

Entry 60 sek

Programme FREE

Lottery 20sek

Team sheets FREE

From Karlstad it was a short, well 70 km drive east to Karlskoga and a Division 2 encounter. It was a real shame to leave Varmland with its lakes and head east, but in all honesty the scenery was no worse in Svealand! The reason for the choice of fixture was that Kim Hedwall is now working with South Stockholm based Enskede. They looked a good outfit on the 2011 Swedish hop and it would be interesting to see how they had progressed.

Karlskoga is best known as the birthplace of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the owner of several armaments firms, some of which are still in business  (for example Akzo Nobel) today. He used his fortune to posthumously institute the Nobel Prizes of which all but Peace are awarded in Stockholm. Annoyingly the museum was closed!

Still, I suppose the stadium bearing his name is the next best thing, and its huge! Nominally it holds 10,000 but I would have though far more could be accommodated. It is of course far too big for a 4th tier club, and the club played the first few games of the season on a 3G pitch within the complex. As a club Karlskoga’s main claim to fame is that Sven-Göran Eriksson and Tord Grip both played for the club in the early 1970s, the latter as player-coach. Incidentally the KB bit stands for Karlskoga/Bofors, Bofors merging into the club in 1963. The city’s ice hockey team still plays as Bofors.

I had a chat with the manager, who admitted to being nervous at the side’s prospects that afternoon. He had reason too, with Enskede second in the table behind Carlstad United and Karlskoga in mid-table. With Carlstadt at home to Nyköpings BIS Kim and I had half an eye on the scoreboard with the score being relayed in real-time!

The visitors made the perfect start too, albeit with a massive fluke. Mattias Olsson crossed from the right touch-line, and home keeper Joakim Fromholdt looked horrified as the effort sailed over his head and into the top left corner! The lack of a celebration from Olsson spoke volumes.

The rest of the half saw Enskede in full control but creating few chances. The hosts looked to be a decent side, but despite forcing a series of corners didn’t look like troubling the visiting defence.

All that changed in the 50 minute. A free was awarded to Karlskoga 25 yards out on the right. This was whipped in by Johan Persson but it was Enskede’s Balàzs Pénzes who glanced his header in, albeit under extreme pressure from Karlskoga’s Henrik Andersson.

Parity didn’t last long. Enskede’s Modasa Zekria’s excellent deep cross from the right found Fredrik Andersson at the back of the box and his header beat Fromholdt easily. It proved to be the winner, and Enskede were able to maintain possession and stifle the home threat easily to close out the game.

There was nothing else to do but to follow the Carlstad game. That proved to be the real bonus for Enskede with the leaders losing, sending Enskede top. It was a happy Kim that drove the car back to Solna that evening.