After my failed attempt earlier in the day to see a game at the Centre d’Entrenament de la FAF, I briskly returned after the match at the National Stadium had finished. I got lucky with a ten-minute delay to the advertised kick-off time which meant that the whistle blew to get things going just as I was settling into my seat in the four-row covered stand along one side of the pitch.
Ther’s a couple of pitches at the complex and this one has an artificial surface, which is just as well as four games were scheduled to take place on it that day, all in the Andorran Premier League. This fixture was between Esperonca, in blue, and Penya, in green. I’d estimate that there were probably around sixty people watching, many of whom may well have been players or staff from the previous or following games.
Penya took the lead bang on half-time when the final touch in some head tennis was nodded in at the back post. The ref booked at least three of the Esperonca players for protesting and it looked as if he had lost track of which players he had carded. Nevertheless, it made it clear that he was taking no shit from anyone.
I took advantage of the interval to nip across the road to a petrol station for a slash and a coffee.
Penya pushed on after the restart and doubled their lead when the home keeper parried a shot up in the air for a simple tap-in. They added a third late on with the under-pressure keeper flat out from a challenge moments earlier. Nobody argued this time, perhaps because they were all on a yellow.
The win will have helped Penya’s push for European qualification, although if they get there, I doubt that they’ll stick around at that level for very long.
Trail of the Lion King 