Tarnovia Tarnow-GKS Drwinia (1-2)

IV Liga, Grupa Wschod
Miejski Klub Sportowy TARNOVIA
August 15, 2019

I have visited Tarnow before. In fact, it was my first trip outside Krakow when I relocated here. Tarnow is the second biggest city in Malopolskie region after Krakow. It also offers quite a few things to see. And it has 2 football teams: Unia and Tarnovia. I did not have a chance to see a game in Tarnow last time so I promised I would be back. And finally I had an opportunity to come and see a game of 5^th tier of Polish football, where both teams play now. 

Unfortunately, the game of Unia Tarnow was rescheduled so I missed an opportunity to attend the big municipal stadium that also hosts Polish speedway. But then it meant that I could see Tarnovia play at their home ground.

Tarnow lies on one of the main railway routes of Poland and it’s a very easy trip from Krakow. This time the city main square was covered in scaffolding but I still have unused pictures from last year. Again, I felt that Tarnow is pretty nice, quiet and very clean. 

Last time I was here, did not even realize that the team’s stadium is right inside the park adjacent to the main railway station. It takes about 5 minutes to reach the main entrance of the station from the stadium. The stadium has no floodlights and thus games can only be played during the daytime. 

Overall, I must say I overestimated the level. Tarnovia is rather famous, especially because of their friendship with Cracovia. But it turned out that they are a very low affair. Even the local fan stickers I saw, all belonged to their main rivals  -  Unia Tarnow.  Overall it felt like I am watching a small amateur team and I am pretty sure that it is the real case.

The stadium is really small and almost rudimentary. It has one old and rickety wooden stand with a grassy bank on the other side. Everything is in disrepair. There is not even a ticket-box, you just hand 5 zloty to the guy who also manages a make-shift parking lot.  You can barely see the paint on the field and the stadium announcer does not even have any shelter. He just stands on the grass hill with a microphone and a laptop on a foldable table. Tarnovia has no website and not even a facebook page.

But despite all that, Tarnovia has ultras. For this game most of them were fashionably late. The game was underway when they started casually putting their banners on. The next batch of ultras came after 10 or 15 minutes of the game had already passed. Then they finally started their chants after the leader’s commands. There was a drummer and a megaphone. They had lots of chants but all of them were very repetitive and are based on just 2 tunes.  They were also selling some simple merch but it was ugly as usual.

I watched the first half from the sole stand next to the ultras. The fans were mostly friends and family of Tarnovia players. During the intermission I relocated to the bank on the other side to have a better look at the ultras, but unfortunately the sun was shining right into my face and there could be no good pictures.

Even though Drwinia is just a village, the team overall looked more professional and slightly better on the pitch. They managed to get a narrow 2-1 win.