I couldn’t have felt sicker if I’d scoffed a bucket full of creme eggs, this was awful, thankfully just 7 more games before we start kicking players out of the club. Yes we are sad and misguided enough to have still been hoping for an escape route before the game but a 1-0 home defeat to Villareal B underlined how far we have fallen.
It was a very weird day, both of our regular bars had been made over, the Oasis half way up the motorway are trying to go posh, new paint, new toilets, and even a stage. Then pre game in Santa Cruz I nearly walked into the wall at Mundo del Pans as the bar has flipped round to a new lay out. We had an Oxford United fan on the coach ( I’m Oxford City) he was booked to go on holiday to Syria and even had a game to go and see but the fighting out there forced a late switch. Even more bizarre we had a family of Leamington FC fans on the coach and their mob were playing at Oxford City so they gave me regular phone updates on the way to their 3-2 win – it’s a small world, but you wouldn’t want to paint it!
Anyway back to CD Tenerife, must I, the crowd was even lower than anticipated, 8,600 and big gaps in our section, there was none of the usual singing and chanting, it really spooked me. Of course the players would come out and put on a great uplifting display to rouse us all – would they hell. Coach Amaral again raided the fringes of the squad and brought in Aitor Nunez at right back and he did ok but there was no spark in the team again. We laid out the welcome mat for Villareal and they were able to bide their time as we gave a master class in badly organised schoolboy football.
Luna is never shy to get a booking and his 6th minute card led to him being replaced by Melli after 22 minutes, coach Amaral has so little faith in our defenders avoiding sendings off. As for action, it was pretty poor with few meaningful moves, Iriome tried to get things going up front but his control kept letting him down. Falque did for us after 32 minutes, a good break saw Perez on the right release the ball to him to calmly slot it into the net, it seemed so easy and once the scoreboard read 1-0 even the most fervent flag wavers were at half mast. Patience among the fans has been eroded beyond redemption for this season, the few pockets of encouragement joined in the overall feeling of despair and despite a half chance for Nino just before half time noone was expecting any improvement.
Omar made way for Natalio as the teams came back out, the overall pattern was the same though, Villareal were looking to end their recent run of defeats by killing the game. Iriome tried his luck with the ref after falling in the penalty area but the official wasn’t feeling any sympathy. Nino gave Dutra some close up verbal after some heavy blocking but even he looked demoralised. The only real interest now is spotting who might be worth keeping for next season, Josmar is the big hope and once again he looked lively and full of tricks when brought on after 66 minutes.
The last 20 minutes dragged, early leavers missed the rain, the rest of us saw a late Natalio effort and the sight of the players trudging off without a backward glance, let’s hope it was guilt and embarrasment. Just one point in 27 tells its own story, Segunda B is not what any of us want but at least we might see some committed performances again, the club must be wondering how crowds like this and smaller are going to keep us going.