Would the players all come back from the festive break fat enough to have their own postcodes, would they have forgotten their playing roles, and would playing on Kings Day (Spanish Christmas) left the Armada Sur abandoned in a near empty stadium? The answers were all a resounding NO as CD Tenerife brushed aside Salamanca with a comfortable 2-0 victory in front of a 6,655 crowd.

There was a surprise selection with Jesus Alvaro taking Raul Llorente’s left back spot and he had a fine game, steady in defence and adventurous but never reckless in attack. Salamanca looked a poor advert for fourth place and had little to offer. Igor de Souza was a spectacular flop during his short spell up front for Tenerife and he showed he has not improved. Chechu tested thee visitors in the first minutes but Tenerife had the best player on the park in Suso, he forced an early save from Moreno and rode a tackle before shooting narrowly wide.

Aridane looked a bit slow again and at times drifted wide leaving the much smaller Suso to play as a target man. The ref had a poor game and favoured Salamanca all the way, Tenerife had two strong penalty appeals in the first half but he turned a deaf ear to both, the second trip on Chechu looked particularly obvious. The second half was only minutes old when Alvaro set Suso away, he raced at the goal and lobbed the ball over the advancing keeper. A few minutes later he was in a similar position and tucked the ball low past the bewildered keeper.

Salamanca went to ground at every opportunity but it wasn’t going to make a difference as the home side were well on top. Loro returned from injury to replace Cristo Martin just after he had gone close with a crisp shot. Aridane scuffed a shot when presented with a clear chance and Suso departed to loud applause as Nico came on. It was nice to have a two goal buffer as the minutes ticked away, even our imported jinx Dave Seddon from Leicester looked comfortable as his 22 game win less run departed. What a good way to start the year, a home win, a clean sheet, and still top of the table.