CD THADER ROJALES – 3   CD TORREVIEJA – 0  by Steve Hibberd

Torry manager Pedreño must be tearing his hair out at the way his team are sinking faster than the Titanic.  Although they are still 6th in the Preferente division, their Sunday late morning local derby at Rojales was yet another in a line of diabolical performances. 

Pedreño must be at a loss of what he can do next, for he has now exhausted all possible permutations, from what was once a solid looking squad of players.

Scoring goals has always been a problem, but now this has been compounded by a fragile looking defence, which has leaked 6 goals in 2 matches.  There were 4 changes from the home defeat just before Xmas, with Vidal replacing Buyo in goal for his 1st start in goal, Borja and Verdu coming into the defence, with Beltran restored to the front line. 

Thader showed their intention as early as 5 mins, Vidal pulling off a top drawer save from a Lloyd free kick.  Verdu became the game’s first booking on 25 mins, before Torry old boy Dani Lucas saw his sweet long range daisy cutter rattle the post before bouncing to safety. 

Frustration was showing for Torry both on and off the field, when first Walid was booked for an off the ball incident, then Pedreño suffered the same fate for comments made to the officials.  There were strong appeals by Thader for a penalty on the stroke of half time, but thankfully the ref considered Verdu’s handball to be unintentional (either that or he missed it!).

The card count was evened early on in the 2nd half, as Thader showed their over physical side to their game, but although Torry started to show more endeavour, disaster was about to strike. 

A needless foul on 53 mins by the normally sensible Walid, earned him another amarillo tarjeta then the dreaded roja.  To make matters worse, Lloyd struck a venomous 30 yard free kick onto the underside of the bar, then became mobbed by his colleagues as the ball bounced over the line to open the scoring. 

Although Pedreño elected to bring on the maximum 4 substitutes, none of them could muster a shot to trouble Jovi in the Thader goal throughout the whole match. 

With 10 mins remaining, a cross from the right found substitute Nino, who from close range missed the target, but from the next attack he made amends.  Picking up a long ball out of defence, he was allowed space and time to drill home an acute angled shot which gave Vidal no chance, doubling his sides goal tally. 

Thader were hungry for a 3rd, and they got it on 88 mins courtesy of an assist by Javi, whose inch perfect cross to the far post was headed home by Piti. 

On Sunday 14 January, ko 1130, Torry have another local derby, this time away at Almoradi.