A cruel 1-2 defeat for ten-man Mallorca

This referee made some unbelievable decisions on Sunday night, flashing yellow and red cards about like confetti. I’m sure he must have run out of paper because as players and staff came on the pitch at the end of the game, and gave him pelters for his performance, he booked anybody who came anywhere close to him.

It took only three minutes for Mallorca to take the lead and it was a beauty. From a Martin Valjent long throw-in, a loose ball fell into the path of Antonio Sanchez and his superb first-time shot made it 1-0 – his second goal in two games.

Sociedad were missing eight of their normal starting eleven but it was our ex-player Take Kubo who took centre stage. He was mesmeric and equalised in the 37th minute. In the build up to the goal, Muriqi was wrestled to the ground by two Sociedad hit-men, and the incident went unpunished.

Replays showed it was a clear infringement but the referee waved play on. Kubo took advantage and rifled home the equaliser. Being an ex Mallorca player, he didn’t celebrate the goal and probably also saw that an infringement further up the pitch had been committed.

In the 46th minute came the incident that changed the game, and it was so disappointing to see that our captain and longest-serving player Antonio Raillo was involved. He had a coming together with Sociedad’s Sadiq and there was a clear elbow from Raillo – yellow card.

Then he went a step too far and sarcastically clapped the referee’s decision. Sr Gonzalez took exception and showed another yellow card followed by a red. Raillo had to be forcibly removed from the pitch by our backroom staff as it looked likely he was going to deck the referee ! Now that would have brought the loudest cheer of the night from the 18,153 crowd.

Ten men up against a side who even with many of their stars missing looked to be an impossible task, but Mallorca held out for most of the second half. With four minutes added-on, football showed how cruel it can be. Sociedad’s Pacheco weaved his way into the penalty box and his cross was headed home by Merino to steal all three points at the death.

SUMMING UP: In over 20 years in the Son Moix, I’ve never seen a crowd so angry when the final whistle blew. Our Titanic defensive display was epic, but it wasn’t to be. Sr Gonzalez was deplorable, making countless mistakes but in reality, Sociedad were the better team and missed several chances.

It was a bitter pill for us Mallorquinistas to swallow. Next up we’re away at former manager Luis Garcia Plaza’s in-form Alaves on Saturday at 6:30.

PS After watching the game again on ViaPlay, while the commentator called him out at the time, why can’t the so-called post game “experts” tell the truth and admit that Sunday night’s referee was not up to La Liga standards?