SC TORREVIEJA – 1 CD THADER ROJALES – 1
BY STEVE HIBBERD
Having lost only 1 (against a strong Crevillente side) of their 8 pre season friendlies, Thader went into this opening Community League South match, against new promoted Torrevieja, in a confident mood. The last time that these 2 local sides met a few years ago, it was a cup match, which Torrevieja won.
Since the last league game at the end of May, there have been a number of comings and goings within the club, including the return of manager Raul Mora.
On 9 Mins, ex Torry player Amin, controlled a cross from the left, before narrowly firing over the bar. His opposite number 9 (Mati) did exactly the same from the very next attack. Midway through the half, which was proving to be exciting end to end stuff, Tremino forced a reaction save from Torry keeper Hector. Shortly afterwards, Tremino appeared to be brought down inside the penalty area, but the diminutive lady referee (Raquel Garcia), waved play on. It was such a clear cut penalty, and to make matters worse, she was in a good position to judge!!
On 39 mins, an Amin assist to Serhiy, resulted in a shot into the hosts side netting. Chema came to his sides rescue, when he saved brilliantly to deny Omar a certain opening goal for Torry. Back came Thader, when another Tremino/Amin combination, resulted in the latter forcing Hector to make a vital save. Inside stoppage time, captain Lloyd could only watch as his free kick on the edge of the box was tipped over for a corner, then his Thader team mate Fran, let loose a screamer from all of 35 yards, which was dealt with in the same manner.
Alvaro hit the post on 56 mins, as Torry went into the ascendency early into the new half. Seven mins later, the same post was again rattled, this time it was Medondo who went close to scoring. Then, completely against the run of play, Thader took the lead on 72 mins. An inch perfect cross from the right found Philip, who from close range made no mistake in side footing the ball into an empty net.
Within seconds, Torry were rightly reduced to 10 men, following an X rated lunge by Medondo. Having superior numbers seemed to initially spur on Thader, when quick breaks found Amin in glorious positions to add to his sides lead, but lack of composure resulted in him shooting wide of an open goal on 2 occasions.
It´s times like these when squandered opportunities come back to bite you – and guess what? Deep into stoppage time, senorita Garcia spotted a shirt pull on an opponent inside Thader´s penalty area. Mati made light work of dispatching the spot kick, then with the last kick of the match, he agonisingly shot inches wide of Chema´s far post.
I lost count of how many cards our illustrious referee distributed, but it had to be around the dozen or baker´s dozen mark – and that includes Thader´s physio for not leaving the pitch quickly enough!!
Next up for Thader is another Community League South fixture. Make a note of Sunday 15 September, 1130 ko, when Eldense ´B´ will be the visitors to Moi Gomez Stadium, Rojales.
