Ten-man Mallorca happy with 0-0 draw

We played the last quarter of an hour with ten men after Joan Sastre was given his marching orders when he body checked Mirandes substitute Nicolas Jackson. One thing’s for sure, with Sastre, when he gets a yellow card early in a game, as he did after just eight minutes on Sunday, the chances are pretty remote that he’ll stay on the pitch for 90 minutes. Our coach Luis Garcia Plaza should have taken him off long before the end. Sastre’s tackling is a liability.

Senegal loanee striker Amath from Getafe started on Sunday and in the hour he was on the pitch he showed more movement than our other misfiring strikers Prats and Alegria have both done so far this season. In the 11th minute he did an amazing overhead flick which set up a half chance for Lago Junior whose effort trundled wide. Amath has barely played 40 minutes of football in a year and looked well off the pace, however, give him a few more games and I’m sure he’ll be up to speed.

One player who definitely looks a bargain at 2 million euros is the Argentinian left back/winger Cufre, in just two games he’s shown he oozes quality, every time he touches the ball something interesting happens.

Salva Sevilla was my man of the match although several local publications thought he was rubbish! What do I know, eh? His old head on young shoulders image is an integral part of this team and his passing although wayward at times set up several chances for the ball to be crossed into the Mirandes penalty area. Unfortunately our crossing in the game was poor apart from just after Mirandes had hit the goal frame. Salva set up Lago who danced past the Mirandes defender, his pinpoint cross landed on Dani Rodriguez’s head but his tame effort was easily saved – Dani should have scored, he had all the time in the world to pick his spot. Towards the end Luis Garcia rang the changes taking Dani off, he looked a broken man after that miss!

SUMMING UP: Mirandes are a rejuvenated young team this season and Mallorca found them tough nuts to crack. Early in the second half they rattled the cross bar with Reina well beaten, although the Mallorca ‘keeper pulled off a wonder save earlier to keep us in the game. We have one of the best defences in La Segunda and in Reina one of the best shot stoppers. All we need now is more penetration up front, and a goal from one of our strikers would be a nice bonus ! Mallorca hung on for a share of the points; we’re now fifth on 11 points, two behind joint leaders Espanyol and Sporting Gijon. Games like Sunday’s against rufty-tufty teams from northern Spain are going to be the norm this season, as we await a week full of commitments.

Next up its Albacete in the Son Moix on Thursday at 7 pm. Then we’re on our travels again, this time to Madrid to face Alcorcon next Sunday at 2 pm. They’ve had a corona scare with more than four players testing positive. Their match at the weekend against Ponferradina was called off, putting our trip to the capital on Sunday into question.

No Fan’s View would be complete without a mention of the referee. He seemed to have a vendetta against us. Mirandes committed 14 alleged fouls and were shown two yellow cards, Mallorca committed 13 alleged fouls and were shown four yellows and a red. During the second half, seven substitutes were used and somehow the referee added on only two minutes. There was also nearly a VAR decision right at the death from Sr Lopez. Before this game he had shown 19 cards in two games! Sunday’s encounter wasn’t dirty, it was robust, just officiated by a complete numpty!

AND FINALLY, a golden oldie. A priest and a rabbi were sitting next to each other on an aeroplane. After a while the priest turned to the rabbi and asked “Is it still a requirement of your faith that you not eat pork?” The rabbi responded “Yes, that is still one of our beliefs.” The priest then asked “Have you ever eaten pork?” To which the rabbi replied “Yes, on one occasion I did succumb to temptation and tasted a bacon butty.” The priest nodded in understanding and went on with his reading. A while later, the rabbi spoke up and asked the priest “Father, is it still a requirement of your church that you remain celibate?” The priest replied “Yes, that is still very much a part of our faith.” The rabbi then asked him “Father, have you ever fallen to the temptations of the flesh.” The priest replied “Yes, rabbi, on one occasion I was weak and broke with my faith.” The rabbi nodded understandingly. He was silent for about five minutes and then said “Beats the hell out of a bacon butty, doesn’t it?!”