Aritz Garai Lopez was shocked to be sacked after his patched up CD Tenerife side ground out a 1-1 home draw with Cadiz, the nine points clear top team. Alvaro Cervera, the visiting coach probably wasn´t, he was sacked four years ago after rescuing Tenerife from the doldrums of Segunda B. That´s 18 coaches in 14 years.

Injuries decimated the Tenerife line up. Luis Milla, Luis Perez, and Alex Bermejo, the best players at the club, led the injury parade. Shaq Moore, a left sided defender struggled at right back but even so, veteran captain Suso gave Tenerife a shock 11th minute lead from a Mierez set up. Just before that, home goalie Ortola had saved from Sanchez. Carlos Ruiz, another veteran was at the heart of the home defence, he had been pressed into service due to the poor displays of Sipcic. The Serbian was warming the bench along with Dos Santos, an equally poor defender brought in a year before by the Sporting Director. I´m not trying to make you weep for the departed coach, just enlighten you to why the Tenerife coaching job chews them up and spits them out.

Back at the game, hope was springing eternal, even the return of Honduras striker Choco Lozano, this time in a yellow shirt, wasn´t offering as much threat as was expected. Cadiz did rattle the home crossbar but the midfield pairing of Undabarrena and Alberto slowed their progress and Munoz was playing well alongside Ruiz. Borja was the spark going forward and had two decent strikes at goal. Mierez was picked ahead of Malbasic, he did well holding up the ball but he doesn´t shoot enough and the lack of goals has been one of the main causes of Tenerife´s slump. Just after the half hour Moore was exposed at the post and the ball came loose for Mauro to pop in for the equaliser.
Tenerife didn´t drop their heads, they came out for the second half eager to get at Cadiz. Nahuel looked tired with his socks at half mast but still made his powerful charges like a rhino answering the dinner gong.

Suso was fired up, he roasted his marker and took the ball to the line before hooking it back to Mierez, but he reacted slowly and a defender cleared the danger. Nano, another former Tenerife player came on as sub but didn´t offer much. Negative substitutions is one charge levelled at Lopez, the coach showed ambition this week by adding Dani Gomez for Borja. Alberto picked up a booking, totting him up to a suspension next game, a nice welcome for the new boss. Javi Alonso took over from Undabarrena, and Malbasic entered the attack in place of Suso. Mierez squandered two late chances with a header and a wide strike. In the end a valiant point looked like some sort of platform for the coach to build from. There were no calls for the coach to go from the 9,860 crowd but he had been warned that a defeat would see the end of him, it turned out a few hours later that even a draw couldn´t save him. Terrace calls for the club President to go have been a feature all season, a new takeover bid for the club is gathering momentum and may have played a part in the sacking but patience has never been a virtue at CD Tenerife.