A rare Thursday night fixture found us taking a trip to FC Wohlen on this occasion in support of the real FCW, FC Winterthur.
Wohlen are perennial strugglers at this level, but they did survive the "Todessaison" (season of death). Last season, the SFL decided on a restructuring. The Super League was unaffected (of course) but the Challenge league was reduced from 16 teams to 10 meaning 6 teams were effectively relegated. You could really see the top flight of any league system agreeing to that!
In the event, the disqualification of Neuchatel Xamax from the Super League meant no team was automatically relegated into the Challenge League. So to keep 10 sides in the Challenge League, only 5 needed to be relegated. Wohlen finished 11th, so Xamax's demise was their saviour and they claimed the last place in the Challenge league instead of the last relegation spot to the First Promotion League.
So Wohlen do well to stay in the Challenge League but after visiting them, I couldn't help thinking they may have an uphill struggle to continue doing so.
Getting to Wohlen is about a two-hour train journey from where I live. Its not that its particularly far, more that its not on the mainline links but is on the commuter train network. So its 3 trains all with lots of stops. Fortunately, its much easier to get to from my work so I met up with the Winti fans, and Mrs. Duck at Dietikon, just one train-stop up the line from my work and so just had the final 1/2 hour of this trip to negotiate.
Once in Wohlen came the million dollar question. Where is the stadium? An initial enquiry by one of the Winti fans had us heading off in completely the wrong direction, but fortunately, one of the away-day veterans corrected us. First concern there, the locals didn't seem to know where the stadium was!
Go yonder young man, seek and ye shall find. So I went yonder. And a bit more yonder. When I was seeing corn fields on my left, I was glad I was seeing stadium lights in front of me.
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| First sight of the Niedermatten Stadium |
Curiously, there's a kids slide directly outside the ground. Nothing else, just a wooden fancy slide like those you see at service stations. This is a mistake. Wohlen should be getting the kids in the stadium to watch the football because an over-riding impression I had about their support was that they were aging.
The ground itself doesn't look much from the outside, but nor do many Swiss stadia.
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| Small - but clean |
When I say terraces, it would be more correct to say terrace. Just one step so you either stand on the top step, or the bottom step.
Another first impression was how clean everything was! Cleanliness is very Swiss, but this place looked new. Its actually only been open since 2004 but you wouldn't think it was that long. Everything looks like new showing that FC Wohlen are obviously very proud of this little stadium.
Points Time
Getting There
3 / 10. Its a bit of a palaver getting to Wohlen. No mainline trains so you have to find your way on S-Bahns (commuter trains) from either Zürich or Baden. It was also quite a walk from the station without any signage. I was wondering at time just where we were going. A signpost here and there would have been reassuring.
I've since found out that there's a regular taxi service (?) from the station. I've seen something like this before but haven't used it so can't be sure what it is. I think its a bus that everyone gets on. The driver then asks what stops everyone wants and you pay your fares accordingly but I'm not sure.
Friendliness
9/10. Lovely people. The staff of the refreshment stand were chatty and happy. A strange thing was that when we asked for the club shop, Wohlen fans looked at us quizzically. They don't exactly have a club shop. There's sometimes a stand just to the front of the ground but that night, it wasn't there.
We asked at the counter of the restaurant if there were any souvenirs available. The lady asked what we wanted and, bless her, she went racing upstairs to check if they had the little car-pennants we were after! Sadly, they didn't but very nice people all the same.
Safety
3 / 10. First point - No bloody high fences! In many ways I'd give them a big 10 just for that, but there are short-comings especially for a modern stadium.
One step on the terrace yes, but what a step! That step is 2 feet. Now think about quite a lot of elderly fans going around on crutches or walking sticks and someone could have a nasty fall. Forget the elderly, I felt it, bumping down that step. Also, the stadium does serve alcohol.
Finally, stadium capacity is quoted at 3734. With that number of fans present, as could be against a Super-League side in the cup and there could be crowd surges at worst and at least a little overcrowding that may cause people to fall down that step. It's far from good!
From a playing point of view, the edge of the playing field is too close to the fans. Great being right on top of the action, but at some point, a player will crash into the edge fences because there is practically no run-off.
View
6/10. Great from where I was, right at the edge of the pitch to one side of the goal but with 3500 in the stadium, I wonder how good those standing at the back would see with only two tiers of terracing?
Atmosphere
3 /10. But this is tough for Wohlen. The attendance for the game was 920, 120 of whom were visiting fans. Wohlen has a population of 14600 but has the only side in the Challenge League or above in the district of Bremgarten (population 70232). More of these people need to be attracted to football, though its difficult to see how. At 20 SFr (£13.25) for a standing ticket, its hardly breaking the bank so I doubt that cost stops the fans from coming.
So its must be simply absence of fans. Plus as I said, the fans they have seem to be aging. Wohlen have work to do!
On the night, as ever, the 120 Winti fans gave a good account of themselves. Plenty of flags and noise and there was this English guy giving sage advice to the referee from time to time! Sadly, I heard Wohlen fans twice, and one of those times was when they scored.
Refreshments
The standard 3 types of sausage, were tasty enough and again reasonably priced. For variation, a pork-steak sandwich was offered but sadly, they were all sold out before we arrived. Big shame.
The club do have a restaurant but unfortunately it looks like a works canteen (a very clean work's canteen). It really needs to have a pub atmosphere but doesn't come close. The refreshment stands and tents outside are better, but still missing that that feeling of a pub. I think trying to develop something like this will help the club on increasing the gates.
On my way out, I noticed some kind of crustacean was being served with pasta in the restaurant. I'm guessing shrimp or possibly even crayfish. It looked interesting and I may have been tempted had the time been on my side. Hardly football food though.
Redeeming Feature
Has to be the cleanliness everywhere. Its very impressive and pleasant.
Overall
30 / 60.
The Match
Hmmm. Spoken as Winti fan frustrating. I'm sure Wohlen loved it! It was a Carbon copy of the game at the Schützenwiese earlier in the season. Winterthur had the possession and proved themselves the better footballing side but Wohlen defended well and showed some quality on the break.
After just 9 minutes, the ball was poorly cleared by Winterthur and Freddy Mveng hit a low side-footed shot. From the moment he hit it I knew where it was going and despite the best efforts of Stefan Iten, I was right. Somewhat embarrassingly, that was Wohlen's first home goal of the season.
Winterthur pressed, but although you couldn't fault the effort, or the play, there was a spark that was missing. The ball was moving, but always that little bit too slowly. Patrick Bengondo came closest to equalizing but Gio Proietti saved well.
In the second half it continued with Winterthur playing the football, Wohlen defending well and at times looking dangerous when breaking. Fortunately, Winti prevented Wohlen from recording a memorable double when they equalized in the 77th minute. Loan signing Maurice Brunner managed to scramble the ball home saving Winti's blushes to an extent.
So 1:1, Wohlen moved onto 9 points, 4 of them won at the expense of Winterthur. Bogey team? Nah - the bogey team thread has yet to come, and you won't believe it!
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