Norwegian guests

Crossing the sea for the Pitreavie experience

The Pars had two Nordic visitors lately but neither brought a Christmas tree. They did bring their experiences and were keen to find out how Scottish football differs from their own. Seventeen year old Mikkel Andersen spent a week training at Pitreavie and he spoke to this website before he returned to Stavanger. He said that he had been very impressed by the pace in training.

"They move the ball very fast. It is a different type of game. Here you move the ball a lot more than we do at my club."

Michael who is still at school, and plays striker at his Division Four team Hundvag was drafted in at the top level:-

"I trained with the first team all week and the coaching has been very good I enjoyed it very much, I learned a lot just in those few days. The objective of the exercise was to learn and I will take much back."

Another Norwegian visitor who was recently at the Dunfermline Athletic training ground was Jan Arild Harestad. Jan was introduced to the club through Auden Johansen and his experience was to shadow kit man Mo Hutton, since Jan is the kitman at Hundvag in Stavanger. He explained how he had enjoyed his busman's holiday-

"I look after all the teams from 5 years up to adults. I organise the equipment that is need by all the teams; there are 55 teams but I only do the laundry for the first team.

"Mo has more control over things and that is something I want to take with me. It was good being at a professional club because my club is amateur." Jan was on his first visit to Dunfermline, having been to Edinburgh and Aberdeen before.

"I do not do as much as Mo does here. It is great to meet him, he is a really nice guy. The way he does things is impressive. I do not have the system he has. I have a system but he is more effective. That's something I will take home. He also has a discipline that I do not think I have with the players."

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• Pars Foundation's Christmas Camps
• 2015 Official Club Calendar