Was it goodbye or good riddance, in most cases the latter as CD Tenerife faced Ponferradina in the last home game of the relegation season. Another spectacular balls up on the management side meant a 5pm kick off on Champions League final night, all other teams were playing on Sunday, CDT didn’t object and a paltry 5,960 saw a poor 1-1 draw.

The game was secondary to Nino’s final home appearance before moving to another team, the little striker is a legend at the club partly for his goals but also for his work rate and commitment to the cause. A presentation before the game and banners thanking him for all his efforts set the scene, could he make it complete by scoring? It took just 15 minutes to answer that question, Mikel Alonso won the ball and set Nino away, he went wide and slipped a perfect shot past the visiting goalie and was greeted by a wave of heartfelt chants from the crowd.

Kitoko started in the centre of defence and did a good job of mopping up the Ponferradina attacks especially after 20 minutes when Sergio Aragoneses blocked a shot and Kitoko headed clear. The Tenerife goalie was also singled out for praise from the crowd, it remains to be seen if the club can hold onto him. Omar and Sicilia had chances on the same attack but couldn’t finish and Nino had another close call with a header on half time.

The second half saw a rise in volume to sing the praises of Nino, some of the seasons villains were also identified as a banner appeared accusing Ricardo and Bertran “they say the rats were first to abandon the ship” referring to the swiftness shown by both players to find a new club after both having woeful seasons for CDT. For 20 minutes Tenerife had a man advantage after Prieto was sent off with a second yellow card after a clash with Bellvis. It didn’t really work in Tenerife’s favour and was wiped out after 65 minutes when Bellvis (below) picked up a second yellow and also went off.

One of the best moves of a generally poor game came from German who put in a superb cross field pass to Omar but he was unable to convert it into a goal and was subbed just after to give Josmar a run out. The young Venezuelan again showed his promise and skill with a mazy dribble that took out 3 markers before a shot on goal. Acoran beat an impulsive clearance attempt by Sergio with a few minutes left to level the scores but the biggest cheers of the night came when Nino was taken off so he could receive the applause that he richly deserved, 17 goals again this season and maybe more to come in the Las Palmas derby away next week. It’s the end of an era, we hope that next season will bring new heroes and new triumphs but whatever happens Nino’s place in our hearts is secure.