There we were 2-0 up at half time, the sun shining, birds singing, fish leaping in the Atlantic – I think I even saw a rainbow over the gassworks at one point. Sadly we had been softened up by CD Tenerife, a flowing, skillful first half display against Celta Vigo B was followed by a dull, negative, and almost suicidal second half betrayal for the 8,198 crowd. Coach Calderon applied the shackles at half time and the team looked determined to sit back and wait for the final whistle, of course that led to lazy, sloppy play and Celta pounced.

Despite their lowly placing Celta looked a good side and could have taken the lead in the first five minutes, a goal dissallowed for a clear offside and another near miss just after. Tenerife took that as their cue to turn on the style, Ferran Tacon, playing just behind Perona up front, made a great run and delicately tucked the ball past the visiting keeper after 10 minutes. There were plenty of ideas going forward, Zazo was making good runs and both full backs were launching raids down the wings. Young Ayoze showed his inexperience with a defensive slip but Marcos Rodriguez mopped up nicely and fired Tenerife forward again.

Zazo had a clear shot at goal but blasted his effort wide with barely five minutes to half time, there was better to come though when Tacon did the hard work to leave Perona with a nice tap in for a half time 2-0 cushion. Even as we enjoyed our rare state of bliss at the break we knew that the best plan was to push for more goals against a side that has the worst defensive record in our section of Segunda B. The coach obviously thought differently and the transformation was ugly and uncalled for, I know we are not a pretty sight at the Grada Popular end but the players seemed scared to come anywhere near us.

Of course the inevitable happened, a solo effort from Albert reduced the arrears and had our nerves jangling. Time after time Tenerife players lost the ball and made terrible slack passes, Chechu (below) had one of his worst games, and Kitoko came on for Bravo to underline the defensive intentions. Tacon tried hard and was alert to run on to a high ball but slipped it just wide. The defense stood still as a Celta forward eased his way through and luckily for us curled his shot over. One of the biggest blows in the game was a booking for Medina that means the consistent central defender will miss the vital game at leaders Lugo next week.

German came on in the final minute, presumably the substitution was meant to run down the clock. Going into four minutes added on, German twice raced up to Celta’s nervy keeper forcing him to make panic clearances, maybe if he had come on earlier we may have got the killer goal. Celta will wonder how they didn’t get a late equaliser, hitting the underside of the bar only to see Sergio deflect the falling shot onto the post and wide as their players queued up. The final whistle brought relief but it should never have been that close. Coach Calderon can feel fairly secure in his job but the last few weeks has seen him struck off an increasing number of fans christmas card list.