| Miquel A. Borras

TW
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Real Mallorca turned on the afterburners in the second half with three goals, beating league leaders Leganes 3-0. This was the first time since 21 February last year that we've scored three goals without conceding at the Son Moix: then it was against our next home opponents Osasuna (Sunday, 17 April). Saturday's result means Mallorca are now unbeaten in four games.

The first half was another instantly forgettable snooze-fest with a bad eye injury to defender Eduard Campabadal the major talking point. After 26 minutes he was involved in a clash of heads with Leganes player Bustinza and there was blood everywhere. The Leganes player managed to continue with a heavily bandaged head but Campabadal wasn't so fortunate. His right eye was a real mess and there was no way he could continue. Coach Fernando Vazquez now had a dilemma because there were no defenders on our bench. So he changed the 4-3-3 line up to 4-4-2 with Yuste moving into defence. He brought on the much travelled Asturian Adrian Colunga, whose introduction caused much head-scratching amongst us fans in the 8,000-ish crowd.

The visitors for all intents and purposes played like any other average La Segunda side, leaving people wondering how on earth they were top of the table. As a painful first half came to an end, long-time fan Charles Nutter's summary consisted of “they're sh**e but they're better than us”. Just what was said to Mallorca by Vazquez at half-time obviously paid dividends because we looked a different outfit after the interval. Colunga and Ortuño stretched the Leganes defence (who before the game had only let in 23 goals). In the fifty-third minute came the opener. Sissoko set up Colunga and the ex-Brighton player stroked in the first goal. Twenty-two minutes later Mallorca doubled their lead. Leganes defender Sastre tripped Colunga in the area and referee Valdes Aller (who didn't show a card until the 75th minute) pointed to the spot.  Colunga converted from 12 yards.

Now we saw what we've been missing for a long part of this season, crisp passing football as Mallorca oozed confidence. Shots were flying in on the Leganes goal from all angles, then Ortuño on 81 minutes was involved in a one on one with keeper Serantes and the Murcia-born number nine slid in the third.

Summing up: It's still way too early to say if Real Mallorca's season has turned the corner, but we had a brilliant win. Leganes won the possession count 42-58 and had four corners, but for the second week running we failed to win any, which is slightly worrying. But it was Campabadal's eye injury that turned the game on its head. Yuste was a Colossus when he moved alongside Aveldano at centre back. Maybe Yuste should play there every week.

Just why we had no defenders on the bench was baffling. Kasim Adams sat in the stand as did Tobias Henneböle. This 6ft 3in German was signed on loan from Wolfsburg's B team last summer but has only made one appearance, back in August. Vazquez got away with his changes and must be given credit for introducing Colunga who changed our attacking options. After Saturday's win we're now five points above the bottom four, and next up it's an away game at Zaragoza on Sunday. They're coached by ex-Mallorca player and manager Luis Carreras but haven't won since early March, and after their 2-1 defeat at Elche on Sunday there was a fans' demonstration. Our football is still patchy but there were signs of what we can do on Saturday, and long may it continue, with ten games of the season left to play. Ideally, we want to win three and draw one for the ten points needed to guarantee second division football again next season.