I could say we were robbed by a joke of a referee, he certainly played his part, but over the two legged final we just were not good enough. It’s another season in Segunda B for CD Tenerife after a cruel 1-2 home defeat to Ponferradina and with the long play off process there is a lot of work to do in a short time.

Even trailing 1-0 from the away leg hopes were high among the 18,714 crowd, the pre match tifo and show of support from the fans spread right around the stadium and was magnificent but the players never scaled the heights of the RM Castilla home demolition. In the stifling heat Tenerife struggled to get into any rythmn, Perona and Aridane didn’t put enough pressure on Orlando in the visiting goal and the ref was giving all the calls to Ponferradina. Kike Lopez was bundled over in the box in the 30th minute and the ref wasn’t interested, it was going to be an uphill struggle.

Ponferradina were fired up for the game, very physical and always ready to attack, Raul Llorente had a running batte with Sanchez, Pablo Sicilia had his work cut out with Yuri and Acoran and at half time 0-0 wasn’t what we needed to see. The second half was barely underway before the ref administered the killer blow, Kitoko was called for a foul on Acoran in the box, it looked well outside, and just for good measure the official showed a red to Kitoko. The Tenerife bench reacted with fury but that just illicited another flurry of bookings and Yuri converted the penalty.

There was worse to come 15 minutes later from a counter attack, Didac seized his chance and plunged the sword further into Tenerife’s hearts, at 2-0 there was no way back with 10 men. Zazo replaced Bravo but it had little effect, Kiko Raton arrived for Aridane who had reverted to his early season form, a well struck goal from Kiko in the last minutee was just a consolation. As Ponferradina celebrated in front of their fans the Tenerife faithful gave a rousing defiant chorus of support for the players and a pledge of continued backing as the battle for promotion starts all over again. As supporters swarmed onto the pitch some idiots, probably not regulars, threw stones at the visiting fans, that along with the plastic bottles thrown at the ref may well have financial repurcussions for the club.

There is hardly time for tears and recriminations, next season is only weeks away, there will be some new faces in the squad and a few old favourites gone but the true fans will return in large numbers and full of renewed hope.