GEOGRAPHY-YOU CAN'T GET AWAY FROM IT

I was chatting over social media this afternoon with an old pupil, William Webbe, who loves sport (decent footballer and cricketer), geography and "lumps" of land surrounded by the sea (he heralds from the Channel Islands). It was by pure coincidence therefore that I found this past fixture, below, which involves all that lot and took place on September 18th..........

On September 18th 1990, Dundee United played a UEFA 1st Round tie away, against the almost unpronounceable Icelandic club, FH Hafnarfjordur FC, a place 10  miles south of the capital, Reykjavik. They are locally known as Fimleikafelag (this means gymnastics' club) Hafnarfjiordur; I bet they love reading that out on the results programme at 4.50pm on a Saturday.  It's a sports' club, founded in 1929, with gymnastics, handball and athletics added to the footy.

A huge crowd of 263 came along to witness the occasion which United won 3-1. The return tie, on the 2nd October at Tannerdice, ended 2-2 with Connolly scoring for United, aided by an own goal by somebody with a name ending in "sson". The other visitors' goal was scored  by another player with -sson at the end of his name. 

The Icelanders played Aston Villa in the UEFA Cup in 2008-9, losing 1-4 at home and drawing 1-1 at Villa Park = 2-5 on aggregate.

If you study the club name and have done a university course on settlement placenames (see recent blog) then you will spot that there is a FJORD mentioned in the name. If you have done glaciology or geology also then all this will clear to you. 

"Hafnar" means harbour (convenient in a fjord) OR it could be an unlikely reference to a famous song sung by the great Harry Belafonte; Hava Nagila. It means "Let us rejoice" and is an Israeli folk song performed at Jewish celebrations, based on Psalm 118 (verse 24) of the Hebrew Bible. Only joking but always informative.

All the Icelandic team players' names ended in "sson", the inherited link with each person's forefathers. Chairman of the club is Vidar Halldorsson, an ex-international footballer.

The Scots had Jim Mclean as player/manager and Mckinlay, Malpas, ONeill, Dailly, Welsh, Kopel, Thomson, Preston, Bowman, Connolly, Cleland.

Iceland has a population of around 365,000 (only!), Their present squad includes a Scot, Steven Lennon, who started his career at Rangers (2006-10) and Partick. Lincoln City, Dundalk, Newport County, then Sandnes Ulf, Norway and found himself at FH in 2014. He has made 116 apps and scored 64 goals.

In the next round, Dundee United, the "Terrors", as they are locally known, lost their shock appeal and were thumped by Vitesse Arnhem 0-5 on aggregate. Having only been beaten 0-1 away, with over 8,000 watching in Holland, over 10,000 packed Tannadice Park....sadly..it did not end well.

P.S. I have fish for tea tonight and might pop an ice cube into my wine.