The Södermalm Blues returned to the wilds of Northern Stockholm this week to the site of their most recent victory over the Stockholm Dynamite in Sweden’s Elitserien competition to take on SAFF upstarts the Dockers in Round 7.
Coming off the back of a victory against the Årsta Swans the Dockers would have fancied their chances at an upset in this one with a place in the preliminary finals on the line. However Söder, with an automatic place in the grand final up for grabs, were in no mood to be denied.
Another sunny day saw the teams take the field, Södermalm missing a couple of key players and Norrtälje buoyed by home numbers set this one up for a lively encounter.
As the game got under way Söder were in no mood to hang around and started well making good use of the footie through the midfield with solid handwork and hard running from Dylan ‘Warney’ O’Keefe and Gaelan ‘Dools’ Doolan to deliver service into the eagerly waiting forward line.
They were provided with support from a rucking committee of Matt Barton and Martin ‘Legs’ Winberg who stepped up in place of full time Ruckman Mick ‘Stan the man’ Larsson who was otherwise indisposed with an over exertion injury of the right metacarpals. Winberg specifically, worked tirelessly to be a pain in the neck to Dockers all over the field.
This wasn’t a walk in the park by any means though and the Dockers own Ruckman Buster Sund put on a domineering display at ball ups with his supporting cast including Ryan Tucker and Jeremy Darke swarming around the ball trying to feed off the scraps he served up.
Norrtälje remained competitive all day and gave an effort to be proud of, however with Mick Larsson popping up in the forward line, Jason Neindorf again on scintillating form and Max Larsson kicking goals off full back for fun Söder could not be restrained.
A game which saw all 13 Söder players kick goals leaves them atop the ladder with only Bromma to play in the SAFF.
Role on the Big Blue Machine.
