This was a third-tier Primera Group Two game at the New Arcangel stadium. New presumably to differentiate it from the previous Arcangel stadium, as it is now over thirty years old. Mind you, the Riverside will be thirty years old next year and I see that as new. If I’m still alive in twenty years time I wonder whether I’ll still feel the same.
It was fifteen euros for a seat in the Preferencia stand, the biggest one in the twenty-five thousand capacity ground. It was less than half-full though, so clearly visitors Intercity weren’t much of an attraction.
I’d been keen to see former Boro player Emilio ‘Ain’t nobody like’ Nsue turn out for Intercity. Sadly, there was nobody like Nsue on the team sheet as he was away playing for Equatorial Guinea in the African Cup of Nations. He won the Golden Boot in that tournament before being banned by his country for misbehaving and then by FIFA for having never been eligible to play for them in the first place. Shame they couldn’t have banned him a bit earlier so he would have been available for this game.
This was a promotion clash, with Cordoba in the play-off spots and Intercity just below. The home side took the lead mid-way through the first half when a ball from the right was steered home. That was the cue for some scarf twirling from all four stands.
That reminds me. When the grandkids were small, we discussed what happens if kids are late for school these days. Nothing, apparently. I recalled to them, perhaps not entirely truthfully, that back in my day one of the teachers had a dead otter whose insides had been removed, replaced with stones and then stitched back up. If you hadn’t made it inside by the time the bell went, the teacher would twirl the preserved corpse above his head and then bludgeon you with it as you entered the classroom.
Even now that they are teenagers, I just have to twirl an imaginary aquatic mammal above my head, and they’ll know that we need to get a move on.
Anyway, I digress. That first half goal was the only one of the game and the win kept Cordoba in line for promotion to the second tier. Maybe Intercity will get there too now that Nsue can focus on his club football.
Trail of the Lion King 
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