Things are never straightforward with Lyn 1896. If you thought they started last year slowly, then you must see what they were like in the early stages of the 2023 season. (You can read all about that in Part 2.)
After some tricky opening fixtures, though, Marit Enstad has got her team back on track as they head into the summer. Can they continue their steady rise up the 1. divisjon standings?
LYN 1896 vs SOGNDAL (1. divisjon – Match 9)
Hei, det er Marit, and it’s June [is Prince’s cousin still doing ‘horse’?]. We enter this month sitting 6th in the 1. divisjon after eight matches – only two points off the automatic promotion places.
This chapter begins at the Bislett, where we hosted mid-table Sogndal. Our opponents were the pre-season favourites to get promoted straight back to the Eliteserien, though recent form had been hit-and-miss. This was a real chance for us to take a big scalp.
Two more points were dropped at home, but we didn’t make a song and dance about failing to beat Sogndal in an exciting contest. Indeed, I was impressed by a lot of our play in the first half. The highlight came on nine minutes, when midfielder Jesper Sandberg powered in our opener after Eirik Haugstad‘s cross was poorly dealt with by a visiting defender.
Sogndal had to defend brilliantly to stop us pulling further ahead before half-time. Meanwhile, their attacking midfielder Sigurd Semlitsch threatened us a couple of times before equalising in the 62nd minute. It took a well-taken 25-yard strike to finally get the better of Eivind Aalvik in the Lyn goal.
Four minutes before the leveller, substitute forward Niklas Helgesen has spurned a great opportunity to put us 2-0 up. Another Lyn sub did find the net seven minutes from full-time. Unfortunately, Brage Karterud was offside when he volleyed in a follow-up from Kot Chol Tafesse‘s saved free-kick.
Nevertheless, a decent 1-1 draw moved us up one place to 5th… though we quickly slipped down again after sitting out the following week. Our home game against fellow high-flyers had been postponed until later in June due to international call-ups. Tafesse earned two more caps for Kenya (taking him up to 10), while Aalvik received his first call-up to the Norway Under-21s squad (though he didn’t play).
The Eliteserien’s reputation has slightly improved over the 2022/2023 European season. Norway’s UEFA club coefficient ranking has not changed, though, so we remain 19th as a nation – squeezed between Denmark and Sweden.
MJØNDALEN vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 10)
A fortnight after our last game, we roared back to life by heaping more misery on rock-bottom Mjøndalen and their under-pressure manager Sigurd Rushfeldt. Their defence was in such a state at the Isachsen Stadion that I wasn’t at all surprised they’d only won once so far this season.
The die was cast when each of our centre-halves scored from corners either side of half-time. Erik Haugland got us up and running in the 40th minute, applying a near-post finish to his partner Benjamin Zalo‘s flick-on from midfielder Adil Zahid‘s corner. Big Ben joined Erik on the scoresheet on 59 minutes, nodding in another impressive set-piece – taken that time by right-back Dariush Karimirouzbehani.
Come the 72nd minute, we were dominating in nearly all areas. Our third goal came with the help of a cross from left-back Andreas Uran that was poorly headed away by Mjøndalen counterpart Henrik Gulden. First to the loose ball was substitute middleman Mads Sande, whose drive left home keeper Jesper Granlund stranded.
‘De Brune’ finally woke up after that, and they pulled one goal back almost immediately. Aalvik made a rare error in misjudging the flight of Mathias Fredriksen’s right-wing cross, leaving Jonatan Braut Brunes with an open goal to head into.
Sande soon settled us down again by making sure that we romped to victory. Firstly, his 78th-minute ball over a hesitant home defence let striker Svein Melfjord in for his seventh goal of the campaign. Nine minutes later, Mads completed a 5-1 demolition with a second long-ranger, this time set up by 18-year-old Reidar Huus. His curling effort past Granlund earned him the 1. divisjon Goal of the Week award.
LYN 1896 vs SKEID (1. divisjon – Match 11)
Following a fourth straight away win, we sought just our second home victory this term. The TV cameras were at the Bislett to watch us host newly-promoted Skeid, who had defied all predictions to lead the division after 11 games!
Skeid gave a first senior start to 17-year-old left-back Morten Iversen. Just a minute after kick-off, though, Iversen was heading back to the dressing room, having been sent off for kicking out at Haugstad following a missed tackle! Thanks to probably the shortest debut in recent football history, ‘Oksene’ (aka ‘The Bulls’) had to play the remaining 89 minutes with only 10 men!
It should’ve been easy pickings for us after that, right? Oh no. Skeid actually had the better chances in the first half, with on-loan Toulouse winger Mamady Bangré and long-serving midfielder Hassan Mohamed Yusuf both hitting the woodwork. Thankfully, they were rather less dangerous after the break.
We endured a frustrating day at the other end, as most of our shots were either blocked or fired wide. Also, my gamble in replacing right-winger Haugstad with left-winger Karterud after half an hour didn’t pay off. Brage’s pace failed to seriously trouble Skeid’s right-back Ola Lønn Jenssen, who stayed calm and composed throughout.
We probably should have just continued attacking Skeid’s left flank following Iversen’s dismissal… but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Anyway, his replacement Matarr Kah deputised so brilliantly before himself being substituted that he was voted ‘man of the match’.
The full-time whistle blew with the scores still at 0-0, meaning that we’d still won only once at the Bislett in six outings this season. Would our seventh home game prove luckier when we took on Elverum in our rearranged midweek fixture?
LYN 1896 vs ELVERUM (1. divisjon – Match 12)
I… I don’t know why we’ve become so poor at home lately. We had a good record against Elverum before this game, but they changed that with a clinical second-half display – led by their 21-year-old striker Lasse Haus.
Things started to go wrong when Melfjord hooked wide a long-range effort from Gaute Høberg Vetti in the fourth minute. We continued to waste openings until seven minutes into the second half, Elverum unravelled us with a fantastic counter-attack. After Jonas Jacobsen got the ball out right, he cut a cross into our penalty area, where Haus got between our centre-halves to finish it.
Another Jacobsen cross caused further problems ten minutes from time. A horrible interception from Lyn right-back Markus Frydenlund went backwards, and Aalvik could only push the ball against the post before presenting Haus with a simple tap-in. It had been a disastrous day for us, and to make matters worse…
…we were now out of the play-off places. Our promotion charge was faltering, with the gap between us and the top two having increased to seven points.
And here’s why: our home record was the fifth-worst in the division. Our only Bislett victory from six league games had been a 1-0 against Arendal in April – and we wouldn’t have won that but for our opponents’ wasteful finishing! We would need to find a cure for our ‘home sickness’ soon if we were to stay in promotion contention.
Thankfully, our first game of July was away from home, against a struggling Alta side who’d so far only taken two league victories anywhere. Perhaps this match would see us return to winning ways…
ALTA vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 13)
…or perhaps it wouldn’t. We produced another pathetic attacking display in the first period at the Finnmarkshallen, struggling to hit the target with any of our shots. Helgesen did get the ball in the net after finishing a clever move from Fredrik Sannes‘ 24th-minute free-kick, but the offside flag went up against Niklas.
That was then followed by another second-half collapse, precipitated by Sandberg getting himself sent off. A couple of mistimed tackles on Vebjørn Atle Skorpen and then Magnus Mikkelsen saw Jesper received two quickfire yellow cards, followed by a red. After 62 minutes, we were down a man…
…and after 63, we were down a goal. Alta started to take control when right-back Runar Overvik laid the ball off to Anders Nygaard, who unleashed an excellent shot from 25 yards. Aalvik nearly got to it, but his dive came just too late.
Nygaard – who had an 18-month spell at Crawley in England’s League Two earlier this decade – later fancied his chances from even further out. With time running out, Sannes tripped Skorpen 30 yards from goal, and Nygaard struck the resulting free-kick so well that it again narrowly evaded Aalvik.
We’d now suffered back-to-back 2-0 defeats and failed to score in our last three matches. If we were to get our play-off push back on track, we needed to win our next home game – against 12th-placed Åsane.
LYN 1896 vs ÅSANE (1. divisjon – Match 14)
That’s more like it, boys! With Åsane lining up in an unusual narrow 4-1-3-1-1, we used our passing game to stretch play out and exploit the flanks to great effect.
Haugstad put us in the ascendancy with two goals in the second half. The first came from Tafesse’s perfectly-weighted left-wing cross to the far post after 20 minutes. About 10 minutes later, Frydenlund dribbled into the box and avoided Åsane stalwart left-back Martin Ueland’s slide-tackle before teeing up Haugstand’s second strike.
We couldn’t increase our 2-0 lead in the second half, despite Uran twice going close to getting his first goal in a Lyn jersey. Even so, with the visitors providing no real danger to our defence, we still coasted to a victory that took us back into 6th place at the expense of Levanger.
Our only real disappointment from that game was that Huus’ first senior start this season had been ended by injury just before half-time. The promising midfield playmaker would now sit out the next month with a twisted ankle.
A more permanent absence from the Bislett was that of Geir André Herrem – our Under-19s assistant manager. Herrem accepted his first managerial job at Strømmen, who were bottom of their 2. divisjon group (perhaps in spite of their on-loan Lyn defender Eirik Melby).
We now needed a new man to assist Kjell André Thu with the Under-19s. That man was 33-year-old Ole Amund Sveen – a disciplined former midfielder who played for Strømsgodset and Sogndal in the Eliteserien.
I certainly wasn’t going anywhere, despite Strømsgodset offering me an interview for their vacant manager’s job. They had just sacked Dan Eggen after a dreadful start left the 2013 champions rock-bottom of the Eliteserien – and in real danger of relegation! Seeing as we’d destroyed them 5-0 in pre-season, that’s probably not as big a surprise as you might think.
BRYNE vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 15)
Our fifth away league victory didn’t really come as a surprise, either. 12th-placed Bryne were always on the back foot from that moment after 12 minutes when defender Krister Wemberg pushed Frydenlund in the penalty area. Sandberg easily tucked the spot-kick away to mark a goalscoring return from suspension.
We produced a second goal in the 26th minute – from a corner, unsurprisingly. Sannes’ hanging-ball was flicked across the six-yard box by Haugland, and it was up to Zalo to do the rest at the back post.
It was 3-0 by the 33rd minute, as Haugstad’s brilliant through-ball was met by an equally great half-volley from Helgesen. Bryne did pull one goal back just before half-time, but left-winger Alexander Gjødestøl’s header turned out to be nothing more than a consolation.
We got through the second half with little fuss, and with Bryne registering only one more shot on target, which Aalvik saved from Gjødestøl. Though we found the net again in stoppage time with an almost exact replica of the second goal, the offside flag denied Big Ben his brace. Never mind, as we’d become just that little bit more secure in the top six.
LYN 1896 vs TROMSØ (1. divisjon – Match 16)
We then faced a major test against league leaders Tromsø in our first Bislett meeting since the Play-Off Semi Final. That was goalless at half-time before Gutan came on strong in the second period and won narrowly. For a while, it looked like history would repeat itself.
Having brilliantly shut Tromsø out in the first half, our defence started to strain after the restart. Joackim Olsen Solberg had an early throw intercepted by the visitors, and midfielder Daniel Berntsen lifted the ball over our backline for 17-year-old striker Christer Renberg to finish. Thankfully, Renberg was just offside…
…but that was of little consolation when Tromsø did take the lead on 60 minutes. Berntsen’s free-kick from the left flank was headed in off the woodwork by Senegalese centre-back Mehdi Dioury, forcing us to attack with more purpose. Nine minutes later, Melfjord equalised with a low and powerful strike from Sande’s through-ball.
Gutan increased the pressure again late on. They had a second goal disallowed in the 86th minute, with ex-Lyn right-back Martin Knudtzon being denied a dream goal by an offside call against team-mate Frank Trøen.
Two minutes later, though, an unconvincing clearance from our current right-back Frydenlund proved costly. Markus could only nod Mads Vang’s cross as far as Tromsø’s substitute striker Adeleke Akinyemi, who looped his header beyond a despairing Aalvik and into the net. 2-1 to the leaders.
Then, just as it seemed that we’d lost another home game, one of our own subs came out of nowhere to save the day. Barely a minute after Akinyemi scored, Olsen Solberg crossed to Sander Eng Strand, whose 30-yard half-volley – his first ever goal for Lyn – sent the Bastionen wild! We’d only drawn 2-2, but in the circumstances, this felt like a victory!
FREDRIKSTAD vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 17)
We were then involved in another thriller with Fredrikstad, though we couldn’t quite avoid defeat this time. The Aristokraten put four goals past us for the second time this season, raising new questions about our defensive capabilities.
Fredrikstad roared into the lead after five minutes, when Marko Vranjkovic nodded home for his 11th goal of the season. They doubled their advantage about a quarter-hour later, as winger Lasse Sigurdsen – our chief tormentor in April – popped up at the far post to finish Feisal Ahmed Hassan’s right-wing cross.
We managed to get one goal back in the 24th minute. After Tafesse’s original shot was blocked by defender Ole Jørgen Falk Larsen, the ball deflected kindly for Sande to thrash in another of his scorchers. [You’d never think Mads had a Long Shots attribute of 5, would you?]
As Fredrikstad struggled to regain their two-goal cushion, disaster struck on 65 minutes, when Vranjkovic broke his leg in a firm but fair challenge from Lyn defender Tobias Ødegård. Vranjkovic’s season was over, and four minutes later, his team’s lead was gone. Melfjord did the honours of drawing us level, tucking the ball away after Uran’s killer pass had sent him one-on-one with keeper Andre Johansen.
Our hopes of a comeback lasted about a minute – before two Fredrikstad substitutes combined to turn the game back in their team’s favour. Stipan Rakuljic delivered an excellent cross from right-back to find his stricken countryman’s replacement striker Adrian Skindlo, whose volley made it 3-2.
Skindlo then secured victory in the 78th minute, beating Ødegård to a long ball from Aristokraten centre-half Mads Nielsen before beating Aalvik again. Although Helgesen curled in one final goal to halve our deficit to 4-3, our mini-resurgence was at an end.
And back out of the top six we went. Sogndal leapt into 6th with a 3-1 victory at Skeid, leaving us with lots of work still to do. Leaders Tromsø are 13 points ahead of us with 13 games to play, so the title is probably beyond us now. If we’re not careful, Fredrikstad and/or Sarpsborg could also pull clear, leaving us having to target the play-offs at best.
Unlike in previous seasons, there is no summer break for clubs in the 1. divisjon this year. We must instead keep ploughing on, playing matches on almost every weekend until mid-November.
Well.. that could have gone a bit better, couldn’t it?
Join us again next time as Lyn try to break back into the top six. We’ll also have the conclusion of the summer transfer window, which could see some players leave the Bislett and new ones arrive. I’m sure Marit will be hoping for another quiet deadline day, though.
“Takk for lesing!”
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