Confidence and competition for places, two driving forces that can take a football team a long way, and for CD Tenerife things look good on both those fronts after a second 2-0 win in the opening two league games. Rayo Vallecano B came calling to Santa Cruz and like CD Marino last week they looked very average but Tenerife cruised to a comfortable victory with plenty of plus points to enjoy.

Aridane was again outstanding using his bulk and presence to lead the line but there is much more to this player and his deft touch to set up the second goal was a delight to witness. Rayo were a scrappy side relying on crunching challenges instead of skill, Tenerife were a little nervous in defence early on but after Aragoneses had saved from Jorge and Manquillo had put a shot wide CDT took the game to their visitors. Chechu was again hard to mark on the right and the opener came from his move down the right teeing the ball up for Aridane to score after 15 minutes. Loro is now showing his true form and after a defensive howler nearly resulted in an own goal the ball fell to a closely marked Aridane so he back heeled the ball to Loro for an easy finish.

The floodgates could have opened then if the referee had let the game flow, to be fair he was hampered by a slow linesman who seemed to be in another time zone. Chechu did well to ride a crude tackle when cutting in towards the goal but the ref somehow awarded a free kick against him. Llorente was turning defence into attack on the left and Moyano at right back chipped in with a good interception to set up a goal chance only to hear the whistle interrupt his progress.

The second half brought more chances for Tenerife, coach Cervera gave a run out to local youngster Yeray replacing Medina in midfield and he showed some good touches. Jorge for Rayo spurned a great chance chipping high and wide of the home goal and the visitors began to tire in the intense heat. Suso came on for Loro and showed how much he has grown since his early spell with Tenerife, strong and determined he took over the main striking role with Aridane dropping back a little. Cristo Martin had a half chance that the Rayo keeper juggled before holding and Suso skied the ball with the goal open before him.

Abel was the final home sub, on for Martin, and he too slotted in well. Suso used his strength to shrug off a defender and run the ball along the byline before slipping it to Abel whose shot hit the post. If I wanted to be picky I could say that we should have added more goals but 2 wins, 4 goals scored and none conceded will do nicely. Another good team performance with Victor Bravo, Josmar Zambrano and new striker Guillem Marti still to come. The first proper away game next Sunday at Ourense should give a better indication of how we stand in the pecking order.