Hanging upside down from a tree and implanted with bangers the stuffed Pio bird refused to fall apart when the fuses were lit. In the end it took a sprinkling of brandy to make the symbol of Las Palmas burn to the satisfaction of the plaza full of CD Tenerife fans just down the road from the Heliodoro stadium in Santa Cruz. We should have taken that as an omen that the visitors from Gran Canaria were not going to give up easily. That proved to be the case as they levelled the score at 1-1 in the 87th minute to grab a point off rock bottom Tenerife.
The two Armada Sur coaches were in good voice as we headed up the motorway, an 8.30am start did little to dampen the buzz of anticipation for the first derby game in two years. The rivalry between the teams is intense and has been fanned over the years by historical, political and cultural jousting between the islands. Feelings were cranked up a notch this year by Canal Plus picking the game for a 11am kick off and a smaller than usual ticket allocation for the Pios as we lovingly refer to them.
In the plaza by our usual pre-match bar a police helicopter hovered overhead as I headed up to the ground to soak up the atmosphere. The police had a strange change of tactics this year and held back the 1,000 plus Las Palmas fans at the port and marched them up just 10 minutes before the game, right past our plaza and our turnstile into the ground. As the yellow tide advanced with a heavy police guard missiles rained down from the stadium and the police kept the home crowd from encroaching too near by making the odd sporadic baton charge.
A wall of noise hit me as I walked up the steps onto the terracing around the home stronghold. Banners were draped over the pitch surround and others were held aloft as the teams ran out onto the pitch, a small wedge of yellow on the far side tried to make their presence felt but the volume and intensity of singing and chanting from the home fans drowned them out. I was tingling with excitement as I dived into the throbbing mass of blue and white fans and added my hopes and desires to theirs.
Both teams have had a torrid season in the Spanish second division and are fighting a relegation battle adding an extra edge to the game. The first half was fairly even, home scoring hero Nino had a couple of decent chances and at the other end Tenerife goalie Aragoneses made some decisive saves to send the sides in goal less at half time. Did you hear thunder around midday? It wasn’t the weather, it was 20,000 football fans erupting as Tenerife took the lead just six minutes into the second half. Local boy Omar crossed the ball into Melli and the defender buried it in the net, I was nearly swept away in the crowd surge and the old stadium was rocking. The songs and chants rose to an even higher level and the sea down at the port must have been frothing from the vibrations of the fans jumping up and down.
Derby games seldom go according to plan, and after Tenerife had rode their defensive luck Las Palmas carved out a late goal with just 3 minutes of play left, Quiroga broke countless blue and white hearts and woke up the travelling pios.
A point was not enough for CD Tenerife and leaves us still marooned at the foot of the table. The club president shared the feeling of two points dropped and even as we were drowning our sorrows the coach Mandia was paying the price with his job. It’s back to the bread and butter games with two more home fixtures in a week , the local rivalry may not be in every game but the pride and passion will spur our supporters on to rescue a season that ends in June with the away game in Las Palmas.
