With such poor away form it has to be fortress Heliodoro at home but once again CD Tenerife rolled out the welcome mat, this time in a 0-2 defeat to Recreativo. Coach Cervera’s name was whistled before kick off and the doubters were louder when the final whistle went.

Igor Arnaez came in for Raul Camara at left back and Suso was back in the starting lime up but too much of the home play relied on playing the ball up to Suso on the right, Recreativo soon picked up on this and closed him down quickly. The last thing we needed was a howler from keeper Roberto but after 11 minutes a break on the right found Joselu with a tight angle view of the goal. Roberto should have had it well covered but the shot trickled through his gloves and into the net.

Tenerife were poor, the passion of the derby game was nowhere to be seen and several players were cruising, Vitolo is still playing way below his experience and salary and Aridane might as well have stayed in the dressing room. At least Roberto pulled himself together and made some important saves, he tipped the ball over from a Joselu corner, that came from a near own goal by Carlos Ruiz, luckily for him the ball bounced the generous side of the goal. Whatever happened to the dominant and commanding central rock of last season, maybe he is missing Bruno, aren’t we all.

Visiting goalie Galvez had little to do, Tenerife had no cutting edge in front of goal, Uli was playing more of a striking role but looked lost. Cervera had to do something at half time, a double change saw Aridane gave way to Guarrotxena and Igor depart for Ricardo and it helped the balance a little. Tenerife found some spirit at last and made some good creative moves only to see them flounder at the feet of our forwards. The second goal seemed inevitable, after 67 minutes Recreativo pounced on a weak ball from Ruiz and opened up their right side to give Rios an easy task to slip the ball past a stretched Roberto.

Former Tenerife coach Oltra was enjoying his return but it was hard to take for the 8,155 crowd. Ruso got a run out for Uli after 74 minutes but he didn’t look much better, the lack of goals is a big worry this season. Galvez did get some work to do in the visitors goal, Moyano had one of the better chances with a headed duel against the leaping keeper but it was all too little and too late.

One coach left the field with his reputation further enhanced in the eyes of the home fans while the other is starting to run out of friends. Osasuna away next week is a toughie and another ghost from the past, Nino, will be waiting to pile on the agony – as always we hope for better things.