As it’s unfamiliar ground for us at The Blansko Klobasa, we thought we would share a few of our observations from the first month.

1) We’ve got a new manager.

Replacing the popular Zbynek Zboril is experienced Sigma Olomouc legend Oldrich Machala.

What we have noticed very quickly is he has brought together a very exciting team, a team that likes to play on the counter attack and we’ve enjoyed every game of his leadership so far. I think it’s safe to say, we’ll have a lot of fun this season.

At all 3 away games he’s been quick to applaud the away fans at the end of the game. Whereas Zbynek would turn to us and give us a clenched fist salute, Olda likes to applaud us from the centre circle, it’s new, but we like it.

Oh and in addition to the tactics and the end of match thank you, one of our former players told me Oldrich Machala is the best manager he’s played under, so that’s good enough for us.

Welcome to Blansko, Olda. We hope you are here for many, many years.

2) There are plenty of new faces in the team

A lot of the players signed during the winter break, we didn’t really get a chance to see as we only made it as far as Unicov before Covid struck. Catching the eye immediately has been Lukas Kania, who’s just lightening quick and seems to create a chance every time he moves forward. He’s been an absolute joy to watch.

David Klusak made some important contributions from the bench against Prostejov and Lisen and thoroughly deserved his starts in the last two games.. Some of his crosses into the box have been very Beckham-esque and if we had a fit striker, we probably would be looking at more points. Keep up the Twitter too, David. We love it.

Replacing Martin Dolezal in goal is the talented Pavel Halouska, a great shot stopper who we hope will get even better with age. It’s a hard task to replace such a solid goalkeeper, but Pavel has done well so far.

We have also been impressed with last year regulars – Since Radek Buchta moved into the centre of defence to join Marian Strbak we’ve looked solid at the back. Of course, we miss Jirka Huska’s presence, but we realise we can’t have everything.

Adrian Kopicar has been wonderful in midfield, carrying the ball from midfield and making intelligent runs forward. A special mention also has to go to Filip Zak, who just runs and runs. I actually feel tired watching him sometimes..

All you can ever ask in any line of work is that you put all your effort into your job and these players really give everything.

We’ve definitely got a team who can compete at this level and as we were leaving Varnsdorf on Sunday, so many home fans came up to us to praise our team.. Proud.

3) Moving from Udolni.

We can’t hide our disappointment at not being able to play at “home”. We know a lot of hard work has gone into getting the new stadium ready for life in the Druha Liga, but Udolni is our home and we’d love to see us back there one day.

Udolni also brought us familiar faces on the gates – whenever we brought friends from clubs around Europe to watch Blansko play, they always remarked on how friendly everyone is.. The first game at Dukla was met with slightly different type of steward, an angrier more assertive steward.. Hopefully, that changes over time.

Having said that, we take our Klobasa hats off to everyone who worked on the new stadium and the investment made by the town council to give us higher level football.

4) Differences between MSFL and FNL stadiums.

Well, first of all we’ve got our own away end, something we have never has before. We’ve been so used to walking into football stadiums in Moravia and looking for the best place to put up the flag, chatting to the local fans and just enjoying the atmosphere lower league football brings.. We miss that.

Away ends are often cages and that brings confrontation. We found it funny that some of the Prostejov fans wanted to fight us, but that could have been because of the one loud mouth in the away end, who seemed to know every swear word under the sun. It’s wonderful to see so many of us at our first away game, familiar faces who have been watching the club far longer than we have, but without wishing to sound like my father, let’s make Blansko proud – support the team, don’t abuse the referee or the opposing team. That’s why we are football supporter – we support.

And home fans - we come in peace, we love everyone ☺ - And at Varnsdorf we got it back, not only were they very surprised to see us putting our flag up in the away end, but they made us feel very welcome – like when you book an Air BnB and they great you like you have known them for years.. That’s the way we like it.

Maybe that’s a new idea for a flag. “FK Blansko – Love Not Hate”. Actually, we’ll get that done..

5) The Blansko shirt and the Fan Shop.

Very nice and good to see our hard-working PR manager promoting the new shirt around Blansko, justt before the beginning of the season We’d love to get our hands on one or three. As much as we have liked our Nike shirts over the last 4 years, Penalty have brought a touch of Brazilian class to the team.

Communication has always been good between the club and us and I’d like to apologise to Krystof now for using him as a 24hr messaging service between the fans and the club. We really appreciate it, mate and feel free to block us if we message you at 3,00 am ☺

A mention has to go to Martin running the new fan shop. Finally after many years of asking, we can see fans wearing the club colours at the stadium and in town. Having sat down and talked to him, he’s keen to get more items in and the best way we can support him is spend some of our hard earned cash.

More, more, more, more

Zobrazit příspěvek na Instagramu

New gear in for @fk_blansko ! If anyone wants anything, give us a shout and we'll see what we can do! Selling fast, apparently #fkblansko #merch #footballscarf #fnl #czechfootball #czechrepublic #blansko #theblanskoklobasa
Příspěvek sdílený The Blansko Klobasa (@theblanskoklobasa), Zář 8, 2020 v 10:40 PDT

6) Pub of the month

Away trips for us are about exploring this beautiful country, discovering new places and enjoying the mighty fine beer in Czech Republic.

Well, Lisen brought up a really nice surprise with FA Oranzova – a fantastic little pub with some wonderful beers from around the world on tap. However, our favourite away pub of the month has to go to Pivovar Kocour, wonderfully brewed beer served up in a wonderful environment. It’s even got it’s own train station.

7) Our “Ballboys”

I don’t know if this was a plan to waste a bit of time, but we really must have the oldest ball boys in the league, average age 76, we think.. I timed the retrieval of the ball at the end of the Dukla game.. It took 47 seconds for one of them to get the ball back in play.. Definitely my personal Man of the Match against Dukla ☺

8) Sparta Prague away

When we first started following Blansko almost ten years ago, the biggest hope we would have each season was to see one of the “big” teams play Blansko. Drawing Sparta is that game we have all been dreaming of. Just eeing our boys walk out at that famous stadium, I think would be me done with football. Of course, with the current pandemic, Sparta have runied it by moving the game to Strahov (thanks guys) and sadly, I wouldn’t have been able to go as I promised I would go to the theatre that evening and my life wouldn’t be worth living if I chose Blansko. Sometimes, very rarely, some things are more important than football ☺

Finally, with us having made such great start to the season with the only blip being Lisen away, it’s time to give our vote for player of the month to the ever-impressive Lukas Kania, who lights up the faces of fans on the terraces with his electric pace and his energy to make things happen.

Forza Blansko and see you next month.