Saturday 29th September 2012 ko 10.15am

Česká Fotbalová Liga

SK KLADNO 2 (Orolín 62 Tóth 76)

FK KOLÍN 1 (Novotný 60)

Att 275

£1 = 29 Czk

Entry & Programme 50 Csk

Badge 40 Csk

Teamsheet Free

It seems that if you own a SatNav, the world ends at Germany’s eastern edge! Lee had brought his SatNav for the weekend’s driving, but the Western Europe map installed, did not include the Czech Republic. We’d printed off maps from the internet, but when Lee upgraded the car so the 4 of us could give Stuttgart-based Andreas a lift, the built-in SatNav proved to be a godsend. It had ALL of Europe included, so long as you understood enough German to operate it!

From Regensburg it took around 90 minutes by autobahn to reach the Czech border. The first port of call was buy a vignette, allowing use of the Czech motorway system for a week. It’s advertised at €16, but here’s a groundhopping top tip, pay in cash, in Czech currency, as its cheaper. It seemed to us that paying in Euros acted as an ignorance tax. We stopped for fuel too, as that’s cheaper on the Czech side, and made our way via Plzen to the small city of Kladno, around 25km north of Prague. It had been 20 years since my last visit to the Czech Republic, and whilst the motorway was a massive improvement, the only other change I could see was the rash of Tesco stores in every town. I didn’t find out whether my clubcard was valid here!

Kladno is very much an industrial place, still with the factory in its centre, typical of the former Warsaw pact countries, with the big chimney distributing smoke to the suburbs. The Stadion Františka Kloze is part of a larger complex including ice hockey and tennis. It reflects the club’s past playing in the 1-Liga and 2-Liga for the majority of its existance, before being relegated to the amateur ČFL, or 3rd Division Bohemian League in recent years. There are 3 sides, all seated but the dominant feature is the main stand, towering above everything else, built as it is above the changing rooms and clubhouse.