The Grand National had just finished at Aintree but in Santa Cruz 22 cart horses took to the pitch and served up one of the worst games we have witnessed, and we have seen a few stinkers. In their defence Huesca came for a draw and probably couldn’t believe their luck to go away with a 1-0 win, CD Tenerife have no such excuse. Would another change of coach make the blanquiazul players suddenly care? We believed it could, we needed to believe but ultimately it has always been down to the players and they just don’t have the heart or the balls for the battle.

David Amaral was the last desperate throw of the dice, a hero in his playing days at the club, his 2 spells as coach had not been a great success but the man from Arico is bursting with passion for Tenerife and his Mission Impossible was to translate that into the players. The new boss did try, he brought back Bellvis in the problem left back slot and juggled the starting line up, Josmar was on the bench and hope was in our hearts. Once the whistle had sounded the sorry tale unfolded, Huesca were the most negative side we have seen, time wasting, diving, and play acting, and the referee just let it go. Those are just minor quibbles in the overall scheme of things, it was down to Tenerife to go out and grab the game but no one had any ideas or drive, long balls were easily snaffled up by the big visiting defenders, Nino hardly got a sniff.

Ricardo was back at his uninspiring worst, Captain Careless Bertran was making unforced errors and showing as much leadership as a stick of celery. Bellvis did ok at full back and Omar at least tried to make some openings up front but Nino looked drained by his lone role and Iriome just looked poor. Neither goalie had much to do in the first half, it really was dreadful to watch. Back out for the second half and there was no real difference, Nino managed to make the Huesca goalie produce a save and Amaral brought on Igor for Iriome. Tenerife couldn’t even break out of their half for 10 minutes and a goal looked inevitable, Camacho laid on a tempting pass and Jokin headed home but no one was laughing.

Josmar came on for the final 12 minutes and showed again that he deserves much more playing time, his nifty footwork and direct approach is always going to cause problems and when Echaide hacked him down in the dying minutes he got a second yellow and was sent off. Many of the 13,573 crowd had given up before the end and left, the rest of us were angy and frustrated but not surprised, with just one point in the last seven games the grave was already dug. Bookings for Prieto and Bertran will sideline them for the next game but it would be nice to see the old guard dropped and some of the B team given a run out. If the first team were racehorses they would be on a one way trip to the glue factory.