It took CD Tenerife 60 minutes and a 3-0 deficit to realise that Valladolid are a poor team, but after that they roared back to draw 3-3 for their first away point of the season. This was a weird game, Tenerife were awful in the first half and looked like they had given up before they started, in the end they will be able to draw a huge confidence boost from a spirited fightback.

Tenerife looked supect down their left side from the start and Valladolid exploited that, a 5th minute raid by Costa went all the way to the goal line before a frantic CDT clearance. Another break followed but this time Sergio Aragoneses was there to make a great save. Omar and Alfaro were having quiet games leaving Nino with a lot to do on his own but he had a good charge after 17 minutes but ran into a defensive wall. Just before the half hour Valladolid took the lead, Costa shrugged off Bellvis and Alonso trying to cover the middle, and powered through to score.

A few minutes later it got worse, Alonso fouled Canobbio in the box and he slotted home his penalty. Nino had 2 more chancs before half time, the best a header from a great Omar cross, but Tenerife could hardly complain at going in 2-0 down. Valladolid started the second half strongly with 3 good shots on goal, Sergio’s point blank save again saved his team mates but Costa rose above the Tenerife defence to make sure the next chance brought a goal.

This was looking very bad, thankfully CDT dug deep and came back into the game, coach Oltra brought on Angel for Omar and it livened up the attack. Nino took advantage of a defensive mix up to nip in and pull one back, Alfaro spurned a clear chance soon after, but the home side were looking jittery. Tenerife broke forward again, this time Angel was sharp and made it 3-2, he nearly followed up with another but his final touch let him down. With 5 minutes left  Ayoze’s cross beat the defence and an attempted header by Luna and tied the scores at 3-3. There was time for more drama, Luna got a second yellow card and was off, and Angel sliced a shot wide after good play from Nino. After such a poor start, Tenerife will be feeling they could have shaded it 4-3, still a point is very welcome.

Next Sunday Sporting Gijon visit Santa Cruz for a 4pm kick off, and the week after we will hope for that elusive first away win at Getafe, I will be there with a selection of other hand picked ambassadors for Tenerife, can’t wait.