Norsk Tipping-ligaen avd.5, Friday 25th July
It was back to the Fourth tier in Norway again in my latest meanderings in the Stavanger area of the country, and it was the Sola Stadion that was my venue on a Friday evening as struggling Sola welcomed Torvastad to their facilities.
Now I have visited this place before albeit a few years ago now, and the complex that the ground sits within has had a few new facilities built in it, however the actual ground itself is pretty much how it was when I last went there, one big terrace being the only real view point on the side of a pitch surrounded by a running track.
There is still the big old wooden clubhouse in the corner of the ground with a nice cafe in it and seating area to enjoy whatever you purchase from there, although my cards refused to work on their card machine, so I had to go without the drink and crisps I tried to buy, the kind women behind the counter did offer me a free coffee, but I declined as was all caffeined out!!!
Anyway, what about tonight's teams, Sola are having a tough season to date, fourth from bottom and only a point above the drop zone having conceded forty two goals in their twelve games to date with no clean sheets, eight of those had resulted in losses too, so yea a tough old campaign as said, they were up against a side who although were only two places above were a big nine points further up the road, and if Torvastad could win this one then they would jump up to the dizzy heights of fifth place.
The first half certainly belonged to the visitors who carved out chance after chance but just could not find the net, they had certainly left their shooting boots back in the changing room that was for sure, and Sola were lucky to still be in the game at half time although they did manage a couple of efforts themselves late on in the opening forty five minutes, however how the game was still goalless was anyone's guess, and the visitors certainly left the field very frustrated they had not capitalised on their dominance.
Could they find their shooting boots in the second period, well Sola were certainly more of a threat in the early exchanges of the second period after riding that storm in the first half, but they could not find the target as well and find a goal that could have been so priceless for them in their battle against the drop.
Despite this though Torvastad were carving out more openings, but yet again they were found wanting when it mattered and lacked that cutting edge to breach a defence that on average were conceding 3.5 goals a game although this lack of cutting edge has been Torvastad's downfall this season, only fifteen goals in twelve league games thus far is a poor return, and on tonight's evidence I could see why they were only averaging 1.25 goals per game.
In fact in their last nine outings they had mustered six goals, yes six, and they were never adding to that this evening had they played till Christmas if truth be told, Sola themselves tried to catch them on the counter and notch what would have been a very rare win, but in the end the sides had to settle for a point, a point that could be very useful for Sola, and it was also a first clean sheet for them this season, so that's a positive for sure.
The only positive for Torvastad was they didn't lose, kept a clean sheet, and moved up three places to sixth with the point, but it really should have been more and they would have certainly left Sola with some regrets for sure, a good decent goalless draw though for us watching, so not all bad!!!
Full time Sola 0 Torvastad 0
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