Stripes News

A round up of the weekends action.

The second round of matches have been completed in Div 3 Östra Svealand and Botkyrka team Konyaspor seem to be taking things in their stride with another impressive victory on Friday night.

It took the home team 35 minutes to break down a resilient Stripes side at Alby IP, Cuckovic getting the first counter followed by strikes from Sacko and Smailogic, the away side battled but were outplayed by their hosts. Andrew O’Sullivan got his second goal of the campaign late on.

Spårvägens bounced back from an opening day defeat to chalk up three points against Tyresö. Robert Irestams goal and a second half penalty secured the home sides first win of the season at Skarpnäcks IP.

Nabil El Mahi scored two goals in as many minutes to grab a point for Älvsjö after Tellus had taken a quick two goal lead thanks to strikes from Ian Mack and Tommy Höglund.

An interesting fixture was the one at Södertälje where much fancied Assyriska and Vagnhärads took a share of the spoils. The away side will be kicking themselves after failing to maintain a three goal lead in front of the days biggest crowd of 300 plus. There were no fewer than 9 yellow cards and a red distributed by referee Anders Engström in this enthralling fixture.

Enhörna scored four goals without reply last week but were on the receiving end of four this week as Huddinge ran out winners. The hosts lead the match after a 34 minute strike by Anton Eriksson but a quick double by Carl Major put Huddinge ahead at the interval. Gerrbrand and Gultikin made sure Huddinge took the points from a hard fought affair.

Mälarhöjden had a slender victory against fellow relegation favourites Panellinios in a match that saw no bookings and only one goal, Imran Butt getting the crucial goal with just seven minutes of play remaining.

Looking ahead to this weeks fixtures:

Thursday night sees the first fixture of the week and it sees Vagnhärads host Långholmen. The Stripes will be eager to get some points on the board after a dismal start to 2010 and the fact that they may be understrength for this match adds more worries for the trainer duo of Max Hallberg and Stuart Lascelles. Vagnhärads are a hard team to beat on their own patch so they will be favourites to take all three points.

The top match this week is Assyriska Ungdom against IFK Tellus, second against third placed respectively, this one could be another goal feast at Södertälje Arena.

This weeks fixtures

Vagnhärads v Långholmen 29/4

IFK Tellus v Spårvägen 1/5

Tyresö v Assyriska U 1/5

Panellinios v Älvsjö 2/5

Enhörna v Konyaspor 2/5

Huddinge v Mälarhöjden 2/5

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Div 3 Round Up

After a long winter break the 2010 season finally got underway for Div 3 Östra Svealand and the opening series of games provided a couple of surprise results. The most notable result being Huddinges 3-1 home defeat to Konyaspor, the home team have been tipped by many to win this seasons title but on this showing may struggle a little bit, this season Huddinge have a new younger look about them and are represented by their own talent within the club so inexperience could be the main factor for them. Konyaspor have recruited no less than six players from Serbia this season, two of whom have experience in the top league there and are confident of a top three placing, Burak Tutuncu netted twice in his sides victory.

It seemed a formality for IFK Tellus at Aspudden when they lead 3-0 at the break against newcomers Mälarhöjden, the visitors managed two second half strikes but by that time the scoreline was already 4-0 to Tellus, the other team to make the step up from division 4 were Långholmen and they too lost by a 4-2 scoreline after an entertaining affair at Essinge IP, opponents Assyriska shaping up to be one of the top teams this term.

Only one game was drawn of the six and that was at Tyresö where Älvsjö came from two goals behind to make it 2-2 at half time and that was how it finished in front of the days biggest crowd in the division.

Vagnhärads were the days other surprise package with a narrow victory over Spårvägen, Jesper Åslund grabbing the games only goal.

Sundays match saw Panelinios thumped by Enhörna at home, the match saw two red cards on the hour mark and a double by Mattias Lundberg. The four gaols conceeded with no reply means that Panelinios hold up the rest of the table.

This weeks matches kick off on Thursday when Spårvägen take on Tyresö at Kärrtorp and a share of the points is the likely result there. Friday night and Långholmen travel down the red line to Konyaspor and Alby and will be glad to come away with a point, Assyriska Ungdom take on local rivals Vagnhärad on Saturday. Huddinge face Enhörna in the pick of the matches and will have a point to prove. Two teams tipped to finish near the bottom of the table Mälarhöjden and Panelinios meet each other on Sunday in what should be a tough game for both sides.

Scot James

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LÅNGHOLMEN FC (1) 2

ASSYRISKA FF UNGDOM (1) 4

at Essinge IP 3pm 20100417

The crowd huddle together in the snow

A commendable second half performance by Assyriska ensured they headed back to Södertalje with all 3 points in the bag. A fine double by Ninus Chabo highlighted why he will be one of Assyriskas top players this season. One goal in particular comes to mind, when he latched onto the ball and deftly lobbed the ball over the advancing Långholmen first choice keeper Bergquist. His second and his sides final goal came in the 70^th minute when some neat football that moved quickly from one goalmouth to the other saw him chase in on Bergquist who was slow in coming off his line.

Långholmen put in a good shift in this game and dominated proceedings in the first half and were unfortunate not to have gone in ahead at the break. Andy O’Sullivan, whose name was chanted from the wall of snow that embodied the terracing throughout this match, had a chance to put his side ahead on 23 minutes but he failed to connect with a ball the came across the goalmouth from the left.

Assyriska opened their account for the season when Gerhald Forschelet steered home a header from an inswinging corner on 19 minutes, it really was against the run of play as Långholmen were by far the better team. At times the Långholmen defence looked a bit out of sorts and especially in the second half had a few problems containing the pace of their opponents.

True to Långholmens battling style it was heads up and on with the game and they were given the chance to equalise when a moment of madness by Assyriskas keeper saw his team conceed a penalty, referee Segerström awarded a spot kick after he handle outside the box and Långholmens Billy Harkness made no mistake when he blasted his opportunity high in the net to square the match.

It was from the 50 minute mark that 180 seconds changed the game, the Stripes were hit by a double sucker punch, Johan Teymur drove the ball home from just inside the box and two minutes later it was Chabo who did the damage.

Time and time again Långholmen fought on and even when the fourth went in they chased the game as if they were chasing an equaliser. Andy O’Sullivan who always believes in his goals showed he was indestructable when he battled in the box and forced the ball over the line from close in. On a different day it could of so easy have been a point at least for Långholmen, lessons will have been learnt from this match. Stuart Lascelles and Max Hallberg said that the main problem in the game was their side lost possession in key areas far too often , today it was the case and no doubt will be remedied in the coming weeks.

Långholmens next match is an away fixture to Konyaspor on Friday 23rd April with a 7pm kick-off at Alby BP.

Text Scot James

Images Per Hägglund

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Långholmen Fc go into the new football season competing in a very tough Div 3 and will be under no illusions as to what is needed to claim a safe berth in the division. Last seasons champions are not surprisingly favourites to make the drop back into division 4, but then again have been relegation favourites in respective divisions in the past 3 seasons.

The club has lost only two players to other clubs in the close season, Mattias Larsson has gone back to his old club Mälarhöjden and young starlet Anton Björlund has joined fellow division 3 outfit Bagarmossen.

New faces for this season include Erik Thorell, Vilhelm Sund, Karl Lykke Holm, Emil Helander and Nikos Gatzacias.

Another new face at the club is the stately figure of Max Hallberg. Mr Hallberg has a fine pedigree in Stockholms football and his knowledge of the game will be of great benefit to Långholmen.

Training and practice matches have been nigh on impossible for the Stripes due to the treacherous winter weather, so finding a right balance going into the first game of the season has been very difficult. First game opponents Assyriska ungdom have had no such problems, finding themselves in the fortunate situation of having some fine training facilities. The Assyriska team are regarded as one of the title challengers along with Tyresö and Huddinge and at the other end of the table newcomers Mälarhöjden and of course Långholmen are tipped as bottom placed teams. It is quite rare that teams coming up from 4 to 3 adjust to the the increased tempo of the game at that level, but Långholmen in there true spirit will be out to prove everyone wrong as they have done since their inception into the league in 2002.

The first game of the season takes place this Saturday at Essinge Ip and has a 2pm kick -off and there is no entrance fee.

Come by and cheer on Swedens biggest and most successful ex -pat football club.

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