Every morning I recite at least 5 stupidly optimistic sayings like Worse Things Happen At Sea and It’s Allways Darkest Before The Dawn but even that doesn’t dispel my sense of impending doom over CD Tenerife. A 1-1 away draw at Ponferradina was better than a defeat but at 7 points adrift from safety it didn’t feel like enough, especially after going 1-0 up.

With no television coverage I was plugged into my MP3 listening to the local radio and the first half sounded encouraging, the neighbours must have wondered what was going on when I yelped with joy after 32 minutes as Mikel Alonso set up Pablo Sicilia for a CDT goal. We needed a win and under fire coach Mandia had set out his stall with a brave new format playing 5-4-1, Bellvis in at left back and Melli playing just in front of Sicilia and Prieto (pic) in the middle of defence. Big midfield letdown Ricardo was benched along with Julio Alvarez giving preference to the more attacking Kome and Omar.

At half time I was planning a few celebratory beers later but fate was cruel, Bellvis had to go off after 59 minutes with a calf injury and it was back to a flat back 4, that seemed to unsettle Tenerife. Sergio made some strong saves again but there was a certain inevitability to the 77 minute equaliser that came from Mayor. Bang went my beer plans as the second from bottom side (guess who’s bottom) held on. Not ideal preperation for the derby game home to Las Palmas on Sunday morning but we will be bright eyed and hopeful against the plunging Pios.