Norsk Tipping-ligean avd.5, Saturday 19th July
My first competitive game of the new 2025-26 saw me in the beautiful country of Norway as I was back seeing family for three weeks, and my first game of the day and of the trip was over at a ground called the NSE-banen Midjord kunstgras, home of Brodd, and they were hosting a very local rival in the shape of Hinna in a Norsk Tipping-ligean Avd.5 contest, the third division, Norway's fourth tier.
Facilities in Norway are normally top notch, and this facility was no exception, two small stands on one side, and a big building on the other with a small seating area built into it, and at the back of that a nice small area inside with plenty of memorabilia and trophies on show from the clubs past, and also a nice tea bar selling hot dogs, pancakes etc, so a typical Norwegian set up you could say.
So good impressions then on my first visit then, and plenty of shaded area to sit/stand to keep out of the warm sunshine that was on offer here too, which certainly helped, but what about the game on offer here today?
Well, the two teams are only ten minutes apart on the bus (and a fifteen minutes walk from the bus stop!!!) but this was in every sense a local derby, there are a few of them in this division though seeing as these divisions are regionalised very locally indeed, both sides were inside the top six as well and only separated by goal difference, the hosts in sixth and the visitors in fourth at kick off.
Both were some way off leaders Vidar though, eight points to be precise, but a win for either side would not only put them above each other, but could potentially reduce the gap to the top in the process, and with fourteen league games still to come after this one, anything was still possible.
A good thing about this level in Norway is there is no entrance fee to watch the games, so that certainly helps too, the official crowd according to the website was 300, so not bad indeed for this level (I think!!!) although with no entrance fee I do wonder how they record such figures, I guess the old counting the crowd method is in full force!!!
So, how would the game go? Well, the first forty five minutes didn't yield to much in the way of goal mouth action, Brodd had a huge penalty shout which to me looked like a stonewaller, but the referee thought otherwise, which did eventually lead to the hosts manager receiving a yellow card a few minutes later in another challenge on one of his players, he was probably still seething from that non award.
Hinna themselves saw a decent effort blocked down the other end, and another opening fired way off target, apart from that there wasn't much else noteworthy to write about, so I was hoping for a better second half if truth be told.
It did look promising as well when four minutes into the second half Brodd edged ahead with pretty much the games first attempt on target, an attack down the right saw the ball cut back across goal for Martin Sveingard to side foot home first time from close range and give the home fans something to cheer, would that be the catalyst for am exciting free flowing attacking second period?
In a word, not really, Brodd did have some openings to double their lead but couldn't, Hinna didn't really offer much going forward at all, the hosts keeper, Erlend Jacobsen, had very little to do throughout the entire game, frustrating for their manager who was sent off near the end for saying something to the referee, clearly frustrations getting the better of him as his side were heading towards defeat.
The hosts then would go on to complete a 1-0 win and take themselves up to third in the table, three points above Hinna who dropped to fifth as a result, however with Vidar winning again, Brodd did not close the gap to the summit, and Hinna lost more ground too, it had been a rather scrappy well contested contest as is what normally derby games are like, but overall Brodd deserved it I feel, and a good way for them to return after the summer break.
Full time Brodd 1 Hinna 0
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