The Bulletin’s sister publication Ultima Hora mentioned on Sunday morning that in this, our centennial year, we’ve had three coaches, made 15 summer signings, seven winter signings, had 28 different starting line-ups in 28 games plus two owners in what is turning out to be a disastrous campaign. I really don’t know what goes on at the Son Bibiloni training ground during the week but, for sure, passing isn’t included in the schedule. I gave up counting the amount of possession we gave away against a Llagostera side who must have thought they’d won the lottery after being gifted their three goals.
The home side went ahead in the 23rd minute. Mallorca’s defence stopped defending and raised their hands expecting an offside decision. The assistant’s flag wasn’t raised and Chumbi’s shot was parried by Wellenreuther straight to Juanjo and he put the division two strugglers ahead. A really soft goal because, as the old adage says, “play to the whistle”. After half time came one of the best goals in La Segunda at the weekend. Llagostera were awarded a free kick halfway into Mallorca’s half. With Wellenreuther off his line trying to organise a non-existent wall, Pitu took the kick quickly and the ball sailed over the German keeper’s head and into the empty net. Llagostera always looked dangerous on the break and so it came to pass, on the hour mark, when in a goalmouth scramble Juanjo scored his second to give the home side all three points. Two of the home goals came from goalkeeping errors as young Wellenreuther spent more time outside his penalty area than in it. What is it with modern goalkeepers dribbling the ball in the penalty area? Don’t they know they are allowed to pick it up?
Summing up
I woke up in the middle of the night after watching this nightmare and couldn’t get back to sleep, being so angry and frustrated. Words almost fail me in describing just how bad Real Mallorca were in Palamos in what was an unmitigated disaster. The defeat means we’ve been sucked back into the relegation dogfight and surely at Huesca we can’t play so badly. They in turn moved three points ahead of us after beating Alcorcon 1-0.
When push comes to shove, this shouldn’t be happening. We have allegedly the best squad of players in La Segunda, have the highest budget and have almost cleared all our debts, but we have lost all confidence on the pitch in what is becoming another bleak season for Real Mallorca and their long-suffering fans. We actually enjoyed a bit of possession early in the first half but after that we never created a chance of any note. Only Lago Junior looked up for a fight. It was total uninspiring football from the Palma side as they head up to Huesca. Dare I say it’s another must-win game, as Mallorca on Sunday looked down and out. For all the fine words said at the start of the season, we are now staring down the barrel at Segunda B and it’s going to take a monumental upsurge in form to keep us up.
I spoke to Billy Morris after the game. He travelled to Palamos with some of the Peña Son Flo expat supporters, and he’s been to hundreds of away grounds over 20 years. “Without a doubt,” he commented, “this was the worst performance for a long, long time, and I felt embarrassed being a Mallorca supporter”. Harsh words indeed but supporters both at the game and watching on TV had every right to criticise Sunday’s toothless performance.
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