U.D.LANZAROTE 1-1 U.D.SAN FERNANDO

U.D LANZAROTE   1   U.D SAN FERNANDO   1,    30^th October 2016,

There are only three teams in this division who have only lost once this season, two of those sides are first and second in the league and the other is UD Lanzarote who are six points adrift of the league leaders and sitting in ninth spot having drawn eight of their twelve league matches.

Lanzarote had both of their new signings in the starting line up Javi Navarro (midfield) and Jonathan Quintero (striker) who were both former U.D San Fernando players. To be fair it was a quiet debut for the new boys though conditions played their part.

The Rojillos got off to an awful start. Striker Malick superbly controlled a long high clearance on the edge of the halfway line and with no space, skipped past a defender and then ghosted past another pulling the ball back from the by-line where he found midfielder Karim who thrashed the ball home from eight yards giving the Gran Canarian side the lead after just 45 seconds.

This was not a day to come from behind and chase the game. In the last few days hot weather has come in from North Africa and even at kick off the temperature was 30 degrees and rising rapidly. Even those in the shade in the stand supping on their beers were sweating.

Despite this heat the pace of the match was good with Lanzarote starting to control possession but the San Fernando strikers of Malick and Edu were looking extremely dangerous on the break. Marcos Cabrera forced the Gran Canarian into a good save tipping the ball over the crossbar for a corner in the early stages as Lanzarote began to mount a challenge.

In the 13^th minute a cross from the right wing by Toñito found Ayoze Pérez in the centre but still at around chest height and with the ball slightly behind him the Lanzarote striker still had plenty to do. Ayoze managed to angle his neck to give his header power and slotted the ball inside the left hand post to level the score at 1-1. An excellent header from Lanzarote´s best player in the first half.

The visitors were a whisker away from regaining the lead midway through the first half when a cross from Andrés was headed by midfielder Godoy from eight yards and the ball came off the inside of the left hand post but fortunately for the Rojillos there was nobody following up to bury the chance.

In the closing stages of an entertaining first half the Gran Canarian side again came close when Edu hit a bullet of a shot which was heading into the right hand corner until it was diverted wide by the strong hands of the Lanzarote keeper Agoney.

The start of the second half and the little breeze that was around earlier had completely dropped and both sides had to play inside what seemed to be an oven.

The Gran Canarian side were proving their worth, over the past five seasons they have earned themselves three promotions and were one position off a playoff spot last season.

What few chances that were created in the second period the visitors had the best of them but overall a draw was a fair result. This left the Gran Canarian side in fourth spot (the last playoff position) and Lanzarote move up one place to ninth in the table but the failure of not turning some of those draws into wins is adding pressure to all the management and players.

Next Saturday Lanzarote travel to Gran Canaria and face bottom club CF Unión Viera. Whilst this looks like a fantastic opportunity for the Rojillos to claw back some points especially as the Gran Canarian club have lost all of their last five matches, confidence in the Lanzarote camp is low though as we all know things can turn around in an instant in football.

GOALS

0-1 min 1 Karim

1-1 min 13 Ayoze Pérez