My second game of the day required me to drive back north beyond Santa Pola to Alicante. Fortunately, the Ciudad Deportiva de San Vincente del Raspeig was on the outskirts of the town and so I didn’t have to endure the slow crawl through Alicante town centre.
I parked up near the ground and after a brief wander around to pick up some drinks and pastries from a supermarket I returned to the car to cover the floor with crumbs whilst listening to the first half of the Boro’s game at Swansea.
This was a fifth-tier game in the Tercera Group Six and unusually there was no admission charge. It soon became apparent though that the reason for this was that they were having a pre-Christmas toy collection instead. As I had no toys with me I just gave them some euros, thinking that older kids would probably prefer cash to buy Diamond White and fags anyway.
The artificial pitch had two rows of concrete seating around it, apart from one side where there was a much bigger stand that was largely uncovered but with a small amount of roofing at one end. On sunny days I suspect that you had to be there pretty early for a seat in that area. As it was teatime in December, I was happy to find a spot out in the open on the opposite side.
Jove were in a red and black kit with Torellano in blue and white. There was a Korean guy playing for the visitors and he put in a lively first half performance. The other noticeable fella in the opening stages was the ref who seemed to enjoy dishing out the cards.
Neither team broke the deadlock before the break and with a lengthy queue at the tea hut I wandered next door where what appeared to be an under-thirteens game was taking place.
I moved to the main stand for the second half just for a change of vantage point. Unfortunately, I’d nipped around the back for a slash when the visitors opened the scoring on the hour. No doubt it will have been, as the kids say, a ‘worldie’.
Jove applied some pressure but the away defence held out until two minutes from time when there was a collision right in the outer corner of the penalty box. The decision could have been given either way but, as so often happens, it went the way of the home side.
The penalty taker took an exceptionally slow walk up and was virtually stationary when he struck the ball. Luckily for him he sent the keeper the wrong way to level the scores and earn Jove a point.
Trail of the Lion King 