It’s all snakes and no ladders these days with CD Tenerife, this 1-0 away loss at Atletico B let the home side back into contention for a promotion play off spot and left CDT sweating on the final three games of the regular Segunda B season. There can be no complaints about the result, Tenerife were again shockingly poor with no attacking threat and a bumbling defence that escaped time and again before letting in the killer blow. A win for Real Oviedo sees them snapping at Tenerife’s heels for that vital fourth spot, just a week before they meet in Santa Cruz next Sunday.

The team selection was again strange, no recognised forward just Luismi Loro pretending to be an attacker, apparently the idea was Kike Lopez would also play a forward role – I hardly noticed him. Gerard burst past Pablo Sicilia and Tarantino after 9 minutes and went down in the box appealing for a penalty, it may have been given if he hadn’t looked to be trying for it so obviously. Tenerife managed their first attack 5 minutes later, Loro proved to be no more than a minor irritation to the home keeper. Loro had another chance soon after from a good Chechu (above) cross but blasted it wide.

Tenerife looked half asleep and not interested, Atletico were no great shakes themselves despite being the form team of the division. They wasted a dangerous free kick with a soft shot that bounced gently into Sergio’s hands. Tarantino must be good at something – I will let you know when I find out – his defending was hopeless again, Gerard roasted him and only a great save from Sergio prevented a goal. Cristobal (below) managed to set up Kike in front of goal but he was so slow the keeper smothered the ball. At the start of the second half Feran Tacon headed the ball onto Chechu in space, his shot was pretty crisp but the home keeper matched him.

Sergio came to the rescue again, this time from a free kick, Perona replaced Chechu, and Marco got a booking that rules him out for the Oviedo home game. Sousa sent in a free kick that evaded both sets of players, thankfully Sergio was alert and the danger passed. Another warning came as Sousa ran at Tenerife, three players converged on him, Pablo, Marcos, and Tarantino but still he got a shot in, another rescue by Sergio. The goal was coming and sure enough Llorente timed his tackle all wrong and his leg was hurdled by a home attacker who played the ball in at the post leaving Sergio and his defence to scramble to clear it but failing dismally as Gerard bundled it in the net. Tenerife had nothing to offer in return, even bringing Kiko on for Loro failed to add any urgency and the game drifted to the final whistle, another blow to our promotion hopes.