To cheer your team off the field after a sixth straight 1-0 defeat shows great loyalty and belief. To slink off the pitch after an awful display, with only three players acknowledging the fans shows contempt and ingratitude. That gulf in response was as wide as the gap in ability between a weakened CD Tenerife and the visitors Real Murcia who were hardly troubled after their first minute goal.
Hopes of making the play offs hung by a slender thread, especially with Camara and Suso suspended and Newcastle bound Ayoze Perez conveniently injured. The home defence were caught cold as Saul threaded in a pass to Kike Garcia after 30 seconds and he took full advantage to hit his 22nd goal of the season. Tenerife had nothing to lose after that and should have thrown everything at Murcia but they didn’t seem up for the fight, Edgar did quite well trying to imitate Suso down the right flank and after 14 minutes his cross landed perfectly for Nano but he popped his chance over the bar. Aridane managed a header that flashed by the post and Bruno saw his header clip the bar although he had already been whistled for offside.

Murcia have a strong claim to a play off place and showed plenty of hunger, the home defence tightened up with Bruno in awesome form to shackle Garcia. Roberto looked sound in goal when the visitors breached the defence but again the midfield couldn’t create enough openings to threaten their confident opponents. Tenerife faded even more in the second half, Aday came on for Nano and patrolled the left wing with limited success, it might have been wiser to switch Edgar to his preferred left side. It would have helped if the ref had awarded a penalty just after the break, Molino clearly handled the ball in the box but we have come to expect little joy with these calls.

There was a big feeling of anti climax, we didn’t expect much against such a good side but it would have been encouraging to equalise and set up a storming finish. Several Tenerife players will have put question marks over their usefulness to the squad for next season. Rivero replaced Ricardo and again looked very ordinary, Juanjo came on for Cristo and was another lightweight. Everything seemed half pace, even the scoreboard wasn’t bothering to show the time elapsed or the scores from other games. It’s a good job the 7,825 crowd kept up a good tempo, thanks were due for a better than expected season. Murcia’s celebrations at the final whistle showed how much they want promotion, Bruno hurdled the boards to swap his shirt for a fans scarf but there wasn’t even a hint of a team response and Ayoze couldn’t be bothered to say goodbye. Next Saturday it all wraps up at Sporting without the suspended Ricardo and Edgar.