Like wading through treacle, everything seems hard going for CD Tenerife at the moment. Even with an improved performance and key players back on song, they were held 1-1 by mid table Real Zaragoza.

Home keeper Soriano again made a series of top quality saves, the first was a dive to divert the ball from entering the net. It bobbled and fell kindly to former Tenerife player Vada to poke it inside the roof of the net after 15 minutes. Sam Shashoua made a rare start and joined the dots along the forward line. Zaragoza couldn´t nail the former England under 18 play maker down. Andres Martin returned the ball to Sam after it had left a defender chasing shadows, Sam saw his chance and stroked the ball past the goalie to level after 22 minutes.

Alex Correrdera had looked tired in recent games, it was good to see the spring back in his step, full of creative scheming, and linking defence and attack.Sergio Gonzalez was also back in the groove at the heart of the home defence, another influential player and a perfect compliment for Jose Leon. Soriano opened the second half with another acrobatic denial as Zaragoza pressed forward.

Bermejo on for Elady at half time did little to sharpen the attack. Sam departed with Pomares after 68 minutes as Ruben Diez and Shaq Moore entered the fray. Shaq was fresh back from helping the USA to qualify for the Qatar World Cup. There was a scare when decisive goalie Soriano raced out to foul a Zaragoza forward who had left the home defence in his wake and had a clear sight of the target. A yellow card for the stopper and a wasted free kick for the visitors calmed the nerves. Another former Santa Cruz player, Nano, teed up his own chance but Soriano seemed rto double in size to smother the shot.

Eight regular games remain, Tenerife are in 5th place (3rd to 6th male the play offs) with a five point safety margin. Form is everything, Girona have crashed the play off party and Las Palmas are just six points adrift from joining the knock out stage. The 12,039 crowd could  feel the tension among the home players, Tenerife need to rekindle their best form for the big run in, they have the talent to suceed.