Hellerup

Ground: Gentofte Stadion

Visits: 1

Date: 20th October 2012

Match: Hellerup - Lolland-Falster Alliancen 1-3 (2. Division Øst)

Attendance: 210

With the Swedish football season coming to an end I was hoping to visit one or two of the play-off matches in the lower divisions. For this Saturday my original plan was to visit the Division 2 promotion/relegation play-off between Prespa Birlik and Sölvesborg. That match was moved to Malmö IP however and I looked at fixtures in Denmark instead. When I noticed I could visit two matches in the Copenhagen area the same afternoon it was not difficult to make up my mind. First up was the match in 2. Division Øst between Hellerup and Lolland-Falster Alliancen (LFA). Kick-off for this match was at 13.00 and at 15.00 there was then the 1. Division match between Brønshøj and Hobro. The two grounds are about a 15-minute drive from each other. Being in Denmark earlier than expected I actually visited the ground for the second match first. I knew I would arrive about 5 minutes late for this match but when I arrived by 11.45 I could park right outside the entrance to Tingbjerg Idrætspark. After taking some pictures I then made the short drive to Gentofte Stadion, the home of Hellerup IK (HIK).

Gentofte Stadion has an all-seated Main (East) Stand with a capacity of 2 100. The far side is an open seated stand and the rest of the ground is made up of a grass bowl. The seats on the far side of the ground were so faded it was impossible to guess their original colour. In 1991 the by far most famous match at Gentofte Stadion was played. That day B1903 beat Bayern München 6-1 in the UEFA Cup in front of 12 000 spectators. Nowdays the total capacity of Gentofte Stadion must be around 10 000 but for this match only around 200 showed up. The visitors from Falster brought around 15 fans and they did their best to create some kind of atmosphere. At first they didn´t have much to cheer them up. It was 1-0 to HIK and they looked the better team. LFA manged to equalise in the first half though and when Hellerup then missed a penalty the momentum changed. In the end LFA won the match by 3-1 but there could have been more goals in this match. Plenty of chances were missed by both teams but I guess that is the reason they are playing in 2. Division and not in a higher division. After hearing the final whistle I quickly set off for my car and the drive back to Tingbjerg Idrætspark.

west stand