Twenty minutes later with Tenerife’s defence all over the place, Mallorca doubled their lead. Aridai this time provided Lago Junior with the opportunity to acrobatically nod in. The talk at half time was all about our total dominance in the first period and would Tenerife come out and be a different team.
Their new coach, Jose Luis Oltra, had obviously read them the riot act during the break because they suddenly, temporarily, found another gear. Our goalkeeper Manolo Reina, who pulled a muscle just before half time, seemed to shake off the injury as he was called on to make a couple of snap saves. Then in the 52nd minute the visitors won a corner. Over came Milla’s cross into a sea of bodies, the ball went in off Salva Ruiz’s head -Tenerife were fortuitously back in the game. The local fans started to get twitchy as Tenerife applied a bit of pressure. Five minutes later we pulled further ahead with an absolute cracker. The visitors lost possession deep in the Mallorca half, Aridai broke free, passed to Abdon Prats, who wriggled past a despairing, lunging tackle to fire home.
A few minutes later Aridai pulled up with a muscle strain and left the pitch to a standing ovation. He was replaced by Ferran Giner. The icing on the cake came ten minutes from the end. This time another slide-rule pass from Salva Sevilla set super sub Alex Lopez on the charge. He chipped the advancing Tenerife keeper and it was game over. For the first time this season we’d scored more than one goal in a game, as the fans stood and applauded the team off the pitch.
