It’s been another season to remember at Lyn 1896. Having won their 2. divisjon group in 2021, they are now chasing a second straight promotion – from the 1. divisjon to the Eliteserien. More than a decade after the club dropped out of Norway’s top tier, a return could be on the cards!
If you’re wondering how Lyn got into this position, you can find the most recent chapter of this story right here. When you’re ready, we’ll join Marit Enstad for the season finale…
SIX GAMES TO GO
Hei, det er Marit, and you join us at the business end of the 1. divisjon season. With six games remaining, we’re well on course to finish in the play-offs. We need seven more points at most to get the job done.
We also have a decent chance of automatic promotion – as long as we rediscover our best form and either Bodø/Glimt or Sandefjord stumble.
Here’s how we’ll finish off the season. We’ll make not one but TWO trips north, facing lowly Tromsdalen on 2 October and then 5th-placed Tromsø a fortnight later. Squeezed between that is a home tie against HamKam, who are stuck in the relegation zone.
Our final two games at the Bislett this regular season should pose different challenges, as we host an inconsistent Alta before a potentially huge meeting with Sandefjord. A season-ending visit to Fredrikstad could also be very significant, especially if the Aristokraten are still battling for a play-off berth of their own.
TROMSDALEN vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 25)
Our autumn run-in began at Tromsdalen, who’d started the season well before a seven-game losing streak plunged them into a relegation battle. Though they had recently stabilised under new manager Øyvind Leonhardsen, they still looked beatable at the TUIL Arena.
Then again, Dalen looked the more threatening side in the first half. Benjamin Zalo and Markus Frydenlund each had to make crucial blocks for Lyn before the woodwork narrowly stopped Erik Nymoen from making a breakthrough. Mads Sande then fired our first real chance wide just before half-time, when he was substituted with a knock.
It was more of the same in the second half. Though Tromsdalen had far more shots on goal than we did, nearly half of their attempts were blocked by Lyn defenders. Only midfielder Einar Iversen and winger Mathias Dahl Abelsen managed to seriously test our goalkeeper Eivind Aalvik.
At the other end, substitutes Jesper Sandberg and Yannis Moula each had shots saved by Marius Berntzen in the Dalen goal. Playmaker Fredrik Sannes went one better in stoppage time, firing a fantastic strike past Berntzen. However, we were denied a dramatic winner because striker Niklas Helgesen was apparently interfering with play from an offside position.
Our first goalless draw of the season didn’t damage our promotion credentials. For starters, leaders Bodø/Glimt also failed to break the deadlock at HamKam. Meanwhile, Sandefjord conceded an 82nd-minute winner to Fredrikstad, allowing us to close the gap on them by a point.
LYN 1896 vs HAMKAM (1. divisjon – Match 26)
A week later, the Bislett played host to HamKam, who were now looking very likely to be relegated after winning just four league games all season. The only team below them in the table was Florø, whose fate would be sealed during this weekend.
We attacked HamKam almost from the start, though it wasn’t until the 26th minute that we opened the scoring. Joackim Olsen Solberg tried to swing a free-kick to the far post for Eirik Haugstad, who was then pushed to the turf by opposing striker Ivar Sollie Rønning. The referee awarded a penalty, which our frontman Martin Trøen drove underneath keeper Eirik Nersveen’s dive.
Sollie Rønning redeemed himself in the 37th minute, after Marcus Mehnert gave away a costly free-kick 30 yards from goal. HamKam midfielder Peder Nersveen (no relation to Eirik) delivered the set-piece to Sollie Rønning, who ran past our defence and looped in an equalising header.
We struggled to retake the lead in the second half, and matters weren’t helped when Haugstad came off with an achilles injury after an hour. Eventually, in the 64th minute, Olsen Solberg produced another of his magical set-pieces. His corner into the six-yard box found Big Benjamin Zalo, whose header crashed in off the bar.
I later gave 18-year-old midfielder Reidar Huus his first league outing of the season. Huus would deliver a knockout blow to HamKam in stoppage time after they had threatened to draw back level. An excellent direct ball cleared the defence and found Trøen, who burst through to seal his brace – and a 3-1 win.
Curiously, neither Bodø/Glimt nor Sandefjord played their matches until Wednesday. The wait wasn’t worthwhile from our perspective, as Glimt beat Tromsø 3-1 and Sandefjord scraped past Bryne 1-0 to consolidate their top-two places.
We were now just one point off the half-century, and one win away from securing a play-off place at worst. Could we do it in our next away game – against out-of-form Tromsø?
TROMSØ vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 27)
Situated north of the Arctic Circle, the temperature in Tromsø was only -1 degree Celsius [so nowhere near as chilly as when Chelsea played there in 1997]. Despite that, the hosts froze completely in an away drubbing that saw them lose their top-six placing – and saw us confirm ours.
Things were relatively uneven until the 42nd minute. That was when Tromsø keeper Enock Mawete missed a header from Tobias Ødegård, leaving our other centre-half Zalo with an easy tap-in. We then raced into a 2-0 lead just over a minute later, when Adil Zahid‘s cutting pass was powerfully finished by Kot Chol Tafesse.
Our dominance of this match was confirmed after 54 minutes, when Trøen scampered after a long ball over the top from Gaute Høberg Vetti and drove it home. That was Martin’s 13th goal of the season… but it would also be his last.
Disaster struck just 45 seconds later, when Trøen twisted sharply on his knee in the centre circle – with neither the ball nor another player around him. Martin’s a brave character who doesn’t go down unless he’s seriously hurt, so we were very concerned when he stayed down. He was stretchered off a few minutes later, to a standing ovation at the Alfheim Stadion.
Helgesen came on for Trøen and wasted little time in completing a comfortable 4-0 victory. The teenage substitute latched onto a killer pass from Høberg Vetti and slipped in his third goal of the season – his first since scoring twice on the opening day.
Job done, as far as the play-offs were concerned. We could now try making a late push to overtake either Bodø/Glimt (1-0 winners at Alta) or Sandefjord (who beat Florø 2-1) in the top two. If we could win each of our final three games, the dream of back-to-back promotions would become reality.
Unsurprisingly, Lyn players made up most of the 1. divisjon’s Team of the Week. Our entire back four was joined by Høberg Vetti in midfield and Helgesen up front… but I was now more concerned about another striker.
FARVEL, MARTIN?
Trøen’s injury was as bad, if not worse than I first feared. I know too well that damaging your cruciate ligaments is devastating for any footballer, especially if it puts you out for the best part of a year. The physios say that Martin won’t be back in training until at least June 2023, by which point we’ll already have played almost half of next season.
This blow left us with only Helgesen and Marcus Mehnert as recognised strikers for the rest of this season. It also gave me a huge headache over Trøen’s long-term future, as his current contract expires on New Year’s Eve.
The logical woman in me doesn’t think it makes sense to give Martin a new €300-per-week contract if we couldn’t use him until the summer. Though we’ve now got €770,000 in the bank balance, we still aren’t in a position to just throw money at players.
The compassionate woman in me feels it would be heartless to ditch a club icon when he’s at his lowest ebb. After all, he’s been loyal to us for so long, so we should probably be loyal to him.
Also, a striker with Trøen’s natural talent and his consistent scoring record would be very difficult to replace. He scored 14 goals in 2019, 13 in 2020, 12 last year, and 13 in this. His complete record for Lyn is 52 goals in 102 appearances – more than one goal every two games.
So yeah… I don’t know what to do! But if this IS the last time we see Martin Wilhelmsen Trøen in a Lyn jersey, he will leave us as a huge favourite with the Bastionen. Takk, Martin.
LYN 1896 vs ALTA (1. divisjon – Match 28)
We were hot favourites to continue our good form at home to 11th-placed Alta. However, this was more of a struggle than we were perhaps expecting. The visiting defence made several big interceptions to frustrate our attackers in the first half, while Haugstad struck the post just before half-time.
Our backline was a bit shaky at times, but Aalvik was reliable as ever to keep Alta at bay. Opposite number Dani Mederos made some impressive saves of his own, and the travelling supporters would be hoping for a vital one in the 89th minute.
With a goalless draw looming, Haugstad won us a penalty after being rashly slide-tackled by Alta defender Henrik Dahlen. Olsen Solberg stepped up to take the spot-kick, narrowly drilling it beyond Mederos’ reach to put us 1-0 up late on.
We appeared to have won the game, but there would be one final twist in stoppage time. Our failure to clear Vebjørn Atle Skorpen’s late corner out of our box was punished when Dahlen powered in the loose ball from close range to equalise. Would those two dropped points be costly?
The good news was that Bodø/Glimt lost 2-1 at home to Fredrikstad, meaning we were now only three points behind them. The bad news was that Sandefjord recovered from 2-0 behind at Arendal to win 4-2, retake the lead, and go four points clear of us.
We now had to beat Sandefjord in our final home game to have any chance of leapfrogging them. If we didn’t, and Bodø/Glimt won at home to rock-bottom Florø, the top two would be promoted automatically – and we would have to rely on winning the play-offs.
LYN 1896 vs SANDEFJORD (1. divisjon – Match 29)
As expected, the new league leaders started the first half strongly, and we had to hold firm against their onslaught. When a counter-attacking opportunity arose on 31 minutes, though, we had to take it. Zahid’s searching pass sent Mehnert racing clear, and his thunderous drive gave us an improbable lead!
Less than a minute later, though, delight turned to dismay. Høberg Vetti was already on a booking when he clattered into Sandefjord winger Aron Elís Þrándarson, prompting the referee to send him off! We were one goal up but one man down!
Incredibly, Lyn’s 10 men emerged from the first half with our lead not only retained, but increased. Sannes’ 41st-minute corner was met by another magnificent header from Zalo, whose TENTH goal from centre-half this season put us 2-0 ahead!
Þrándarson did get one goal back from Sandefjord early in the second half, nodding in Aslak Witry’s right-wing cross. Aalvik then made a massive save to stop wideman Jonathan Bagger equalising before we restored our two-goal cushion on 65 minutes. Helgesen laid off a Tafesse cross to Sannes, who came forward to score his first Lyn goal from open play!
The visitors went all-out in the final half-hour, and when we lost concentration in the 76th minute, they took advantage. None of our defenders anticipated Niklas Vesterlund’s long ball into the box for Johan Andersson, who squared a delivery for striker Andreas Gundersen to finish.
Some of the Bastionen were perhaps fearing the worst, but despite constantly being under pressure, we somehow survived the closing stages. Aalvik was our hero, producing 13 saves in total to see off Sandefjord and claim a huge 3-2 victory!
With one game to go, we were one point behind Sandefjord – and three adrift of Bodø/Glimt, who’d cruised to a 5-0 victory over Florø. Glimt thus retook 1st place ahead of a final-day title decider at the Komplett Arena.
If we were to pip Sandefjord to automatic promotion, we needed to win our final league game at Fredrikstad – and hope that Bodø/Glimt avoided defeat away from home. If Sandefjord did win, we needed them to win big to help produce an eight-goal swing from Glimt to Lyn.
FREDRIKSTAD vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 30)
Fredrikstad were relaxed before kick-off. The Aristokraten had already secured a Playoff Semi Final against Bryne, whom they hoped to beat to 4th place and thus secure home advantage. We were rather more anxious, knowing that our promotion hopes were largely out of our hands.
As we struggled to withstand some early Fredrikstad attacks, bad news came through from Sandefjord. The hosts had gone 1-0 up after 17 minutes, meaning that a victory would not be enough to take us up as things stood.
We eventually settled down and began threatening our hosts. Just before the break, Tafesse produced one of his typical long-range finishes – a 30-yarder that Magnus Würtz couldn’t quite keep out of his net. We were ahead, and as long as it stayed that way, we still had hope.
12 minutes into the second half, a quick counter-attack saw us go 2-0 up. Tafesse took the ball into Fredrikstad’s half before crossing through space to Haugstad, whose square pass was then finished by Mehnert. We’d taken control of our game…
…and unfortunately, Sandefjord soon took control of theirs, moving 2-0 ahead with 20 minutes remaining. We now had to pray that either Bodø/Glimt produced a late fightback – or that we and Sandefjord scored another four goals between us.
After Aalvik brilliantly kept out some late attempts from the Aristokraten, we managed to put a third goal past them – in the 95th minute. Teenage winger Tor Gulbrandsen‘s cross was well volleyed by Tafesse to Mehnert, who headed in his second of the night to complete a 3-0 win. Was it enough?
There was no miracle at Sandefjord. Bodø/Glimt pulled one goal back in the 93rd minute but left it too late to snatch the league title from their rivals’ grasp. They still finished 2nd, beating us to automatic promotion by a goal difference of +4. We had to settle for the play-offs instead.
Here’s how the play-offs work. You’ve got two single-leg Semi Finals between Lyn (3rd) and Tromsø (6th), and between Bryne (4th) and Fredrikstad (5th). The winners meet in a single-leg Final, again hosted by the higher-ranked team. Finally, whoever wins that will face the Eliteserien’s 14th-placed team over TWO legs for a place in next year’s top flight.
Olsen Solberg would go into those play-offs on a high after being named as the 1. divisjon’s Player of the Year. The left-back had enjoyed a sensational first season at Lyn, producing five goals and 15 assists – and maybe he wasn’t finished yet!
LYN 1896 vs TROMSØ (1. divisjon – Playoff Semi Final)
Play-off matches were very different from league games, not least when it came to squad selection. I was surprised to read that I could pick any players I wanted, regardless of whether they were registered for the league phase. However, I could only name five substitutes rather than seven. [A possible bug there, Sports Interactive?]
Then there was the issue of pressure – and whether we could handle it. Sure, we were the form team in the play-offs, but we knew that just one mistake could ruin our whole season. We were also aware that only two teams had beaten us at home all year – and Tromsø were the second of them. (Hødd did it first, and they were now in a relegation play-off. Funny, isn’t it?)
Over 3,000 fans were in attendance at the Bislett, mostly expecting a home win, but it was Tromsø who looked more assured from the start. One-time Norway international Mushaga Bakenga had a couple of close-range efforts saved by Aalvik, who also denied the former Under-21s midfielder Daniel Berntsen.
As far as our attacks were concerned, Helgesen first threatened the visitors in the 32nd minute, drawing an excellent save out of Mawete. Trøen then hit the woodwork with a free-kick four minutes later – that’s the young Tromsø midfielder Frank Trøen (no relation to our injured top scorer).
We really could’ve done with Martin’s services, especially after Gutan broke the deadlock 12 minutes into the second half. Their hero was Sébastjan Spahiu – a 23-year-old Belgian winger on loan from Mouscron who lashed in a 30-yard gut-buster out of nowhere.
At 1-0 down with barely half an hour to go, I brought Høberg Vetti on to try and turn things around. Gaute’s creativity gave our attack a boost late on, but Mehnert was having no luck in front of goal. Marcus was stopped in the box by a crucial challenge from Mehdi Dioury in the 68th minute, and then thwarted by another fine Mawete save in the 80th.
No matter what we tried, there was no breaking through the Tromsø wall before the final whistle. Guten had learned their lessons from four weeks earlier, and they had shut us out to crush our promotion dreams.
Urgh. What an anti-climax. [And my dreadful play-off record on Football Manager continues. What is my life?]
LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
After falling at the first stage of the play-offs, we do have obvious regrets that we weren’t promoted automatically. Just one more point would have taken us into the Eliteserien ahead of Bodø/Glimt. That injury-time equaliser from Alta was such an important moment, as was throwing away a 4-1 lead at Hødd.
Moments like those make me question some of my players’ mentalities in big games. We won promotion from the 2. divisjon through having a much better team than everyone else. Getting promoted from the 1. divisjon will require more composure and resilience when things get difficult.
It’s easy to get downhearted after missing out on promotion like this… but we must stay positive. This was our first season back at this level, and to be honest, I would have been delighted with a solid mid-table finish. That we finished 3rd – as a semi-professional team, don’t forget – makes me ecstatic, and very excited for the future!
Our shoulders didn’t drop when we lost four of our first six games and dropped to 14th. Instead, the team came together and produced a run of 12 wins in 14 games to propel us up the table. Most of our midfield and attacking players who won the 2. divisjon title showed that they could continue performing at a higher level.
Ignoring the nine goals Hødd scored against us, our defence held up well, though we did lack some depth, which could’ve been useful later in the year. I also think the time has come to say goodbye to Oskar Hansen and Joakim Rishovd, and bring in some younger, better full-back options. After all, Olsen Solberg won’t be brilliant forever.
At youth level, the Under-19s recovered from a poor start and survived their first season in the National Championship. While our defence left a lot to be desired, Gulbrandsen and striker Anders Andersen each scored some vital goals to keep us above the bottom four.
The board have already agreed to improve our youth set-up by increasing the junior budget to a ‘good’ level. Over time, that will hopefully improve the general standard of those players who come up from the Under-16s.
Speaking of financial decisions, we’ll soon have another big one to make. After just one season in the 1. divisjon, are we ready to take that next step in the club’s progression – and turn professional?
We’ll find out the answer to that question in the Season Review, where we’ll summarise another thrilling season at the Bislett before looking to the future. That will go live on Friday at the usual time… but also keep a look-out for another blog post on Wednesday, where I will discuss something completely different.
“Takk for lesing!”
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