Hutnik Krakow - Wisla Pulawy

3rd Polish League
Stadion Suche Stawy
August 19, 2018

I can still remember the time when Hutnik was a name I heard about in European football. Well, not anymore. The team's fortunes declined and now Hutnik plays in the lower leagues of Polish football (3rd League, 4th Group to be precise). A few years ago I was also surprised to learn that they have some friendship or friendly relations with Dynamo Kyiv and some of their fans even visited our away games. I wonder if it's still true.

Anyway, I took a trip to Nowa Huta to see Hutnik host Wisla Pulawa. Nowa Huta is a typical communist style district to the east of Krakow, built to accomodate factory workers that Yes, it's grey, decrepid and ugly. At least that is what I saw from a ramshackle train. It looks nicer on the wikipedia page but I have yet to see many of the sites there. The central square looks quite grandiose though but overall everything here seems so far removed from the beauty of Krakow. It's also quite far from my area which is on the opposite side of the city. It took me over an hour and two trams to reach the stadiums.

I met the first fans on my way while still on the train. You could really see that Huntik is a local district club for the working class. These were middle-age men, quite inebriated and not someone I'd like to meet on a dark street. I got my ticket for 12zl and obviously nobody asked for any kind of ID. My bag was very thoroughly checked though by the stewards which seemed a bit unnecessary for the league level. The stadium is in a really bad shape - rundown and dirty. It's just a bowl with really low rudimentary stands and the running track. Steel fence around the stands and training goal on the track blocked the view. Seats were quite dirty and I was saved by the plastic bag I had with me. I should have stood on the banks above the stands where the view was better. The floodlights were recently removed but I liked the glorious modernist scoreboard.

The best think about Hutnik is their fanbase. Regardless of poor football and general unpleasantness, there were quite a lot people to see the team. Hutnik Ultras were in a good voice and had a large banner about their friendship with 1FC Magdeburg. There were a lot of older people in the stands with their (I presume) grandchildren who took this opportunity to escape their families and see a game with their buddies. Their was a wooden shed with some drinks and grilled sausages. I could also see someone grilling meat on the opposite ultras stand. One particularly drunk chap was very animated throwing abuse at the police. 

The game was very poor. I guess it was more enjoyable to watch kids running around the stands than the football itself. Visitors from Pulawa (a place I've never heard of before, but seems like they have a cool stadium) dominated from the start and it's a miracle they only scored once. I don't remember anything dangerous from Hutnik, I'm not even sure they had a shot on target. At some point Hutnik had a triple (!) substitution but you could as well sub the whole team.

I left about 5 minutes early to catch a tram right in front of the entrance. It's nice to tick the team and the ground off, but I doubt I will be back...