BY STEVE HIBBERD
SC TORREVIEJA – 1 CD THADER – 1 (SC TORREVIEJA WIN 5-3 ON PENALITIES)
Estaban Rosado Stadium was the venue, when Thader visited Torrevieja last Saturday, playing in their first ever La Copa Nostra match. Their opponents Sporting Club Torrevieja, currently play in the 1st regional division, and had got to this stage by beating Los Montesinos in the previous round.
This new competition is designed to give all preferente, 1st & 2nd division clubs, a chance to feature in next seasons national Copa del Rey.
As only the winning team earn the right to have a bash against higher ranked clubs, Thader can now concentrate on doing well in the preferente league (an honour also bestowed to Pompey, who had previously that day, also lost to a lower league team in the FA cup!). As this weekend was originally a spare weekend in the Preferente league calendar, many Thader players were missing, including captain Lloyd and top striker, Calderon.
The match referee set out his stall as early as the 4th min when he booked Juan, then not long afterwards gave fellow yellow shirted Thader colleague Fran a card to match his shirt. In between these 2 cautions, Torry thought they’d opened the scoring, only for their effort rightly to be ruled out for offside.
On 35 mins, Thader’s attacking full back Rosquin, went on a lengthy solo run, only for the home keeper to easily save his close-range effort. Rafa then became the 3rd Thader player to enter the refs little black book, but in all honesty, it was far from being a dirty game. Just before the half time interval, Fran shot agonisingly wide from a 25-yard free kick, as both teams failed to reach top gear.
Quino should have opened the scoring soon after the restart, but having done all the hard work, his shot lacked direction and was cleared of the line.
Strong Thader appeals for hand ball were not upheld, but from my vantage point, it did look as if they had a case.
Disaster struck on 55 mins, when Fran picked up his 2nd booking, as Thader were forced to play out the rest of the match with only 10 men.
Manager Raul Mora soon followed, as he was sent from the dugout for comments to the match officials.
On 71 mins, a Torry player was shown a yellow card for a nasty foul on Quino (unbelievably the first to a home player), then from the resultant free kick, Quino missed a sitter from inside the box. But it took only 4 mins for the big Thader striker to make amends, his close-range thunderbolt giving the keeper no chance.
Ruben almost doubled his sides advantage on 78 mins, but his long-range free kick was just wide of the mark. Quino appeared to be brought down in the box on 81 mins, but once again the man in the middle was unimpressed.
A counter attack found Dani Lucas on his own just inside the visitor’s half on 84 mins, but his attempted pass was horribly miscued, and another glorious chance was squandered.
By now, Torry should have been dead and buried, but it took a magnificent save by Thader keeper pepe to keeper out a goal bound header.
On the stroke of normal time, a shot hit the post, then Torry sub Lian swept home the equalising goal. Deep in stoppage time, Thader substitute Vadin hit the post, then from the rebound, Ruben somehow contrived to shoot over when it was easier to score.
So, it was now down to sudden death penalties to decide the match. Ruben was first up for Thader, but his tame effort was comfortably saved. Although Rafa, Josan and Juan all converted their spot kicks, Torry made light work of all 5 of theirs.
Although Thader were the much better side on the night, the old adage, ‘it’s goals that count’, was never truer.
Next up for Thader is a visit to runaway league leaders Crevillente. At time of going to press, it is unknown whether the match will be on Sat 11th or Sun 12th, so please check with CD Thader facebook page for confirmation.
