Nowa Hutnik 0-0 Cracovia???, (half-time), att. c150
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| Welcome to ... |
Being based in Krakow
and having lined up the Krakow derby for my Saturday evening’s entertainment, I
was pleasantly surprised to find I could also fit in a third tier game
(Garbania Krakow) in nearby Nowa Hutnik, the Soviet realist new town built on
the edge of Krakow. I didn't expect
there to be a big crowd, but I'd hoped for maybe a thousand and expected
probably 250. With a 5:30pm kick off I
could see I'd have to miss the last half hour anyway if I was to get to Wisla
on time. I was in Nowa Hutnik around 4pm. Although I worried about buying a ticket (those
damned Polish queues and membership systems!), I thought I'd have a look in the
Museum of Communism in Poland. However, I couldn't find it so I arrived at the
Nowa Hutnik stadium early. It was deserted.
This was a worry.
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| Back of the Main Stand. |
The turnstiles facing
the main road looked unused in years. I
saw a young lad enter the main stand.
Maybe there WAS a game on. I had
a sniff around the surrounds, some giant sports centre with a multitude of perfectly
groomed football pitches and the odd artificial one. A middle-aged bloke played with his drone,
otherwise the deserted nature of the area was haunting.
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| Turnstiles nearest the main road. |
I walked back to the
stadium. Music was being played through
the tannoy. A sign! A couple of tracksuited individuals were on
the pitch. A sign! There was no-one in the stands. Definitely
not a sign.
By the time I made it
around to the main stand, I saw someone enter to the side of it. I followed and found myself one of half a
dozen people inside. With rain
threatening, I snuck into the upper tier of 3 rows and waited.
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| Inside the Main Stand. |
Soon, a team came
trotting out to perform the most thorough warm up I've ever seen. It was a
women's team. This was around 5pm and it
turned out the match didn't kick off till 6.
As I wondered who they were or who they were playing, the stand
gradually filled up and by kick-off I'd say there were 150 or so spectators.
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| The players warm up. |
The professionally
warmed up side in red (Cracovia?) were far superior, though the blues enjoyed
most support (Nowa Hutnik?). Certainly the
red centre forward who looked uncannily like Scottish comedian Kevin Bridges,
and played like another Scot, David Speedie. Coulda, shoulda, had 5, if only
she could shoot or head. Mind, she was captain
so there's no dropping her.
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| The teams line up. |
The blues had a
couple of moments on the break. Only the
linesman’s flag ruined a beautiful lob into the net. Both sides played a good
passing game, the reds just being that bit quicker. Somehow it was still goalless at halftime. The downpour was over and I could leg it to Plac
Centraly for a tram to the city centre, where I could get lost and arrive late
to the Krakow derby.
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| The sweep of the terrace. |
Nowa Hutnik
stadium? The main stand looks brand new,
maybe a dozen rows in the lower tier and an odd 3 rows in the upper, with a
small cantilever roof overhanging the upper tier. Opposite is an older stand, roof
propped up by stanchions. Behind each
goal was seating dropped onto an old terrace.
With the elliptical shape (though any track had long since withered) its
capacity is around 12,000.
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| Old scoreboard and terrace. |
I still haven’t found
out how many Garbania Krakow get in support, but the day after, Soccerway was
telling me they’d won 3-1 at Stadion Suche Stawy. Well, I was at Stadion Suche Stawy and can
confirm the teams I saw were mos’ def’ WOMEN.
(As a 'ps', a more recent claim to fame for the stadium is that it's where England held training sessions during their Euro 2012 campaign.)
The Damage:
Free ent
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| The view from the Main Stand. |
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| Welcome to ...(II) |
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| A modern turnstile lies behind the entrance. |
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| An aged and fading ground plan. |
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| The view from outside. |
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| Trees behind the goal. |
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| Back of the scoreboard. |
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| Hutnik Nowa's social club. |
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| The view from the lower tier. |
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| Welcome to...(III) |
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| Seat patterns. |
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| The Main Stand. |
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| Dilapidated stadium entrance. |
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