And We’re Off. FC Differdange 3-1 Bala Town

/ splodge68

Its been nearly 2 months since my personal 2014-15 ended at West Chiltington and like you dear reader, i’ve been getting the usual withdrawal symptons: sweaty palms, cranky moods, watching the clock on days fixtures and cup draws are released at certain times of the day.

Then one sleepless night it dawned on me. The qualifying rounds of the European competitions are played early so it was just sit and wait for the draw to come and hope there’s a tie that appeals and is doable and boy did this seasons draw hit the sweet spot.

At first it was going to be a summer holiday. 5 days in Luxembourg (I bet not many people have ever said that’s where they are spending a summer holiday) as Progress Niedercorn were also home to Shamrock Rovers on the Tuesday 48 hours earlier, but alas UEFA have decreed their home ground not suitable for hosting UEFA football so it was switched to the Stade Municipale de la Ville de Differdange. Like some groundhoppers I’m not a lover of revisits but there are exceptions to every rule but a municipal stadium twice in 48 hours? No thanks.

But no matter, my travelling companions and fellow Fareham Town fans Beaky and Mad Mick were still up for a day and a bit trip to kick off our respective seasons.

All the usual checks and travel tickets bought and checks about getting in on the day or having to order match tickets in advance & we were on our way. Thanks to the French sailors striking we were faced with an early dilemma as our obvious route to the Channel Tunnel was blocked thanks to Operation Stack on the M20, but a detour saw us make it with time to spare and set off. Upon reaching Calais it was clear the problem the other side of the Channel was as bad as it was ours and it wasn’t until we reached the outskirts of Lille that any resemblance of a lorry park on the other side of the road ended.

First stop at lunchtime was the small relatively unknown town of Ciney whose claim to fame is the largest cattle market in Belgium. After getting our Euros from an ATM (I find I get a better exchange rate this way) I headed back to the car to move it to somewhere more suitable whilst Beaky and Mick headed for a bar in town.  Bad move. They are currently pedestrianising an a small area and despite several attempts in following the 1 way system and signed diversion route I kept ending up the same the wrong side of the railway line. Frustrated I gave up the ghost and headed to our 2nd definite port of call – the supermarket and agreed to meet them there. DelHaize is a nationwide chain and they sell plenty of different Belgium beers at dirt cheap prices. Put it this way 24 bottles and a decent sized piece of Cheese made by my favourite trappist brewery Orval and I still had change from €30.

With my  home beer crates now re-stocked and with temperatures in the high 30’s I found a bar 2 doors away and waited there for the deadly duo and as you do, had a gorgeous bottle of Ciney….. in Ciney.

Upon there return and a further beer for them we set off to find and look at the ground of the local football club Football Union Wallonie Ciney. Better known as RUW Ciney they ply their trade in the Belgian 3rd division and with plenty of terracing and a wooden stand we saw enough to whet our appetites for a trip for a game one day. It is after all closer to our South coast base than the North of England and beyond.

With that we headed further down the A4 and into Luxembourg the home of cheap fuel at still under £1 a litre, stopping off enroute to take a peek at Progress Niedercorn’s 1 stand effort and that of 2nd Division club US Sannem. A small area of cover equivalent of what would pass Step 6 and 7 here was all we could see through the gates.

It was just over 2 hours to kick off so we headed the 2 miles further into Differdange and first port of call was a look at the Stade de Thillenberg the spiritual home of the Red Boys Differdange the bigger of the 2 clubs who merged in the early 2000s to create the new club and what a cracker it looked too. Whilst locked up, we could see a massive terrace, outskirts of a massive old stand, plenty of character and likely stories about the place to whet ourselves for a visit but as its now only used for youth football, not sure when that’s likely to happen.

We then made our way to the new Town stadium set in a massive sports complex and to be on the safe side bought our tickets before going back into Town for a bite to eat and before returning to the ground 20 minutes of so before kick off. A pretty non-descript ground. 1 large stand on one side with 2 rows of seats opposites which seemed to be populated by the home “ultras”

Quite possibly the only annoying thing about watching football in this part of the world is the token system to pay for anything you want to eat and drink. Instead of ordering your food or drink and giving the staff money, you have to find the person in the corner and buy tokens from them then hand the tokens to the person serving you! Pointless if you ask me but 99% of clubs I’ve been to in this neck of the woods do it, so who am I to argue what they all think is a good idea. What is also frustrating is that you can only ever seem to buy them in €5 denominations and with beers and soft drinks usually between €3-€4 a time you always either never have enough or end up having more left over than you intend to spend and yes I’ve got a card with €2 left on it for whenever Fareham make it to Europe and play Differdange!

As for the game, Confused or what to start with? Bala’s usual colours are Black and White and Differdange’s (from their website pictures anyway) are Red so when the Black shirted no 9 was allowed to waltz through from midfield and tap the ball home I thought Bala had got off to a stonking start with a crucial away goal. It was only when Rocky Sharpe & The Replays Gramalamadingdong stopped blaring out over the PA and I looked over at the scoreboard and saw it had been awarded to the home side did I have reservations about what I thought had happened. Perhaps it was a simple scoreboard operators error?

Nope. Suicidal defending giving the ball away far too easily saw Differdange left with a back post tap in on 7 minutes and once Rocky had told us once more how his girl was his and I looked over the see D03 2-0 Bala on the scoreboard I finally believed that Bala had got off to a stinker.

Midway through the first half the visiting supporters must have wondered what they’d let themselves in for as once more suicidal over passing when under pressure saw the hosts given a 3rd first half gift but from that point on, Bala visibly lifted. Despite the scoreline their supporters were still roaring them on and they pulled a goal back shortly before half time beating the offside trap and a crisp finish into the bottom corner.

The 2nd half was bitty and scrappy and certainly not helped by the official who allowed himself to be swayed over awarding free kicks one way or the other or showing a yellow card to an incumbent for a late tackle, and whilst for most of it Bala had few clear cut openings to cut the deficit, on this showing they showed me that with a bit of luck and composure next week they can overturn the 2 goal deficit.

With just 7 minutes left, the game exploded to life once more. Firstly a Bala player was shown a 2nd yellow card for a dive in the area. Thoughts around me were mixed. I thought it was a penalty, Mick said definitely not and Beaky… well was Beaky and didnt have a view on the matter. Within seconds Bala did have the ball in the net once more but this was disallowed for a foul on the keeper who to me simply looked like he completely missed his punch.

The fun didnt end there as first Bala missed a one on one before 2 late excellent saves at the railway end of the ground kept the scoreline at 3-1.

A good way to kick off the new season. The only downer being missing our scheduled train back across the channel by 10 minutes and having to wait 2 hours for the next one before finally getting home just after 6:30am

Match Details

Europa League 1st Qualifying Round 1st Leg

FC Differdange (Luxembourg) 3-1 Bala Town (Wales)

Att: 1223

Admission €15

Programme – No sign of anything

Beers €4, Water €2

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