UHLENHORSTER SPORT CLUB PALOMA (Jonny Rehbein Sportplatz)

OBERLIGA HAMBURG, USC PALOMA 5-1 SV LURUP, ATTENDANCE: 150 (est)

After finishing Saturday night, in the wee small hours, at a fun fair in St Pauli, my alarm went off at 9am. I had a choice; either roll over and have another couple of hours sleep or drag myself into the cool Sunday morning air for the first game of a Hamburg Oberliga double header?

I managed to make the train to Dehnhaide where a 10 minute stroll soon found me at the Jonny Rehbein Sportplatz, on
Brucknerstraße, where USC Paloma play their home games. 

The ground has a clubhouse but little else in the way of football furniture. The pitch was an artificial surface but none of your modern day 4G technology, this was your 1980’s Luton Town model. I dread to think of the players slide tackling on this surface!

Uhlenhorster Sport Club Paloma was formed in August of 1909 by a group of students and it's name is taken from the Spanish word for dove, hence the club crest. 

The club's biggest successes have been in the 21st century when they won the Hamburger Pokal twice, beating Viktoria Hamburg in 2002 and SC Condor in 2014, to earn a place in the DFB Pokal first round proper. In 2002 Paloma lost 5-0 to Bundesliga side 1.FC Kaiserslautern and 2014 they lost to another Bundesliga side TSG Hoffenheim, who beat Paloma 9-0.

USC Paloma have played in the Hamburg Oberliga (level 5 in German football) since 2014 though they are struggling this season. Indeed looking at the statistics before the game, it hardly seemed to have had the makings of a classic as second bottom Paloma hadn't won in five games and rock bottom SV Lurup had only drawn one game all season. It turned out to be a decent watch, though a little one sided, with plenty of goals.

The game was virtually one way traffic as Paloma looked like scoring every time they went forward. The only surprise was that it took until the 16th minute for the first goal to arrive, Ahmed Osmanov firing home. Paloma skipper Mladen Tunjic made it 2-0 after 20 minutes with a superb overhead kick. He soon made it 3-0 after 24 minutes. If it wasn't for some fine saves by Lurup goalkeeper Michael Glamann (and some intervention by the woodwork) it is no exaggeration to say the scoreline could have been treble that at the break.

The second half continued in much the same vein as the first, however Lurup did manage to get out of their own half and have some efforts at the Paloma goal. Milos Ljubisavljevic made it 4-0 to the home side after 76 minutes before Tunjic (81) completed his hat-trick to make it 5-0. Shafi Karimi scored a stoppage time goal for Lurup, but I doubt that was any consolation whatsoever.