This week gained a little more routine with consistencies in work and training. For it only to be the third week of being in Sweden, I have settled pretty well and have gotten into a good rhythm with things. We continued working on the farm clearing out an old house and got to experience an auction for all the items in the house on Tuesday. We helped the family that was running the auction and they were lovely people. People like them are what makes these experiences special. It was topped off with a wonderful dinner at their own house where we enjoyed great conversation, learned about the Värmland Region, learned a few more Swedish sayings and phrases, and best of all, Moose was the meat of choice for dinner. It tasted really good!

Trainings throughout the week were good. The squad is settling down now with most of the new players sorted and settled in and so the competition has increased now that we have some squad depth. Being so close to the river, I enjoyed a Norwegian Glacier river ice bath after training a couple times after training during the week.

During the the week, I still hadn’t heard anything about my International Clearance coming through, and the source of the hold up was at the English FA. It took a phone call from our Sports Director to the FA to get them moving, and after acting very casual about the whole thing, they cleared me on Friday. What a relief it was, and I was very happy. This meant that I was able to play for the reserves on Friday night to get some game time in, before our First Team game on Saturday. I logged a full 90 minutes at Center Back for the reserves in a comfortable win and solid clean sheet, 3-0. On Saturday we were facing the league leaders, Grebbestad. I didn’t know whether I would be starting or not seeing as I had played a full 90min the night before, but when I turned up to the changing rooms and saw the team, I was excited to be starting and surprised to be starting at Left Back. It sure has been awhile since I played there. After a bumpy first 20 min I settled down and did my job, trying to get forward when I could, but making sure I was doing my job defensively. We went in at half time 0-0, and in the second half, came out and played very solidly.

I was much happier with my second half performance than my first half. We managed to come away with a big point against the league leaders, keeping it 0-0. A very positive result for us, and now that we have played 2 of the top 3 teams we can really crack on and get some results against mid and lower table teams and hopefully climb the ladder ourselves.

On Sunday, Grant and I helped out at a local market that had been part of a Homecoming weekend for people from the Sysslebäck area. Unfortunately the weather didn’t want to play its part, however it was a nice afternoon spent embracing the cultural and continuing to learn Swedish with different people we met.