Victoria del Cartagena en directo. By Steve.

LIVE TV VICTORY FOR CARTAGENA
CUIDAD LORQUI - 0 FC CARTAGENA - 2
BY STEVE HIBBERD

This first ever div 2b Murcian derby between Lorqui and Cartagena, inside the tiny Angel Sornichero Stadium, was chosen as the Channel 7 local live Sunday match. Newly promoted Lorqui appeared to suffer from stage fright as Los Albinegros took the game by the scruff of the neck. Four wins out of 4 have placed Cartagena proudly at the top of the table, with nearest contenders, Real Madrid 'B', trailing by 4 points. Manager Gonzales made only one change from the win over Las Palmas, bringing back Mena in place of Addison.
It took only 4 mins for Carmona to weave his magic, when he threaded a superb low drive just inside the far post, to give Cartagena an early lead. Playing in an away kit of yellow shirts, Cartagena appeared to master the artificial surface very well, even though the 1st half was played in moderate rainfall. On 10 mins, Juan Pablo tested the Lorqui keeper
with a fine drive, which was well saved. The wet, slippery conditions probably contributed to Cartagenas 2nd goal. With 25 mins on the clock, Nano lofted a free kick from just outside the penalty area into a pack of players. Incredibly, it eluded them all, leaving the Lorqui keeper red faced, although I fancy that he was unsighted, as he picked out the ball from the back of his net. Lorqui almost scored shortly afterwards, but a speculative long shot cum cross hit the crossbar and bounced to safety. Three efforts in the final 5 mins demonstrated Cartagenas dominance. First, Juan Pablo should have scored when he blasted his effort over the bar. Then a Carmona special from 20 yards just missed the target. Finally, on the stroke of half time, Mena was guilty of failing to test the keeper as he shot the wrong side of the post. Unusually for a match involving Cartagena, the 2nd half produced far less incidents than the 1st. With 20 mins remaining, a superb double save prevented Lorqui from reducing the deficit. Although Ruben made a good save, the ball spun awkwardly, requiring Txiki to make a goal line clearance. Nano almost doubled his tally, when he shot wide, but with 10 mins to go, Mena was guilty of a howler. Unselfish play by sub Addison, saw him lay off an inch perfect ball to Cartagenas no 20, who somehow contrived to horribly screw his shot wide. NO PASA NADA. The little striker also found his way into the refs notebook, as did Miki Roque, Juan Pablo and 3 Lorqui players.
FC CARTAGENA LINE-UP
RUBEN, TXIKI, AGUILAR, MARIANO, CABREJO, CARMONA, ELOY, MENA (FALCON), JUAN PABLO (ADDISON), NANO (TATO), MIKI ROQUE
Forthcoming fixtures
On Sun 28 Sep, with a ko time of 5pm, Cartagena are at home in their Cartagonova Stadium against another Canary Islands team, Lanzarote. For further information, please phone Steve on 656 579 423, or check out www.futbolclubcartagena.com or www.gotocarto.com.