El árbitro desquicia al Cartagena. By Steve.

CRAZY SENDING OFF UNDOES CARTAGENA 

CE SABADELL - 3 FC CARTAGENA - 2 

BY STEVE HIBBERD 

It's a well known fact that Spanish footballers are probably the best in the world, but unfortunately some of their referees are down there with the worst! But, their job is made harder by constant gamesmanship (cheating) within the beautiful game, which at times turns ugly. Being an ex referee of good standing, I sympathize with the difficulties of the modern day referee, but cannot understand the lack of nous required to interpret whether an incident is an offence or not. Having more than equaled their opponents, Cartagena were forced to enter the 2nd half a player light following an outrageous decision by the referee to send off Anton. On the stroke of half time, ref Valdes Aller awarded a free kick against Cartagena, at which Anton started to walk away with his back to the ball. 

Now this is where the gamesmanship comes in, for an opponent quickly placed the ball, before hammering it at the back of Anton. Incredibly, the ref immediately showed a yellow card then, as he had already booked him, a red one. I've lost count how many times this has happened in the 8 years of watching Cartagena, and the blame has to be apportioned between both players and referee, for different reasons. Needless to say, the club will be appealing. Rant over!! Sabadell thought they had scored after 17 mins, when a looping header by Florian hit the post before being cleared off the line by Cleber. Six minutes later, the visitors took the lead through a peach of a goal by Bolado, whose curling shot eased just inside the far post. Penalty appeals for a clear looking handball inside the Sabadell area, were not upheld - and Kenny Dalglish thinks he's got problems! - the 4th such refusal after only 2 and a bit league matches. 

Anton wasted a great opportunity to increase his teams advantage, but when through on goal, he shot straight at the keeper. With 2 mins remaining of the 1st half, Sabadell equalized through a rocket header by Bueno from a corner (once again 2 defenders failed to pick him up). Down to 10 men, Cartagena faced an uphill struggle as they came out for the 2nd half inside Nova Creu Stadium, in front of 4,600 spectators. Disaster stuck after only 3 mins, when a pull back from the dead ball line by Bueno found Lanzarote, who had the simple task of side footing the ball home to give Sabadell the lead. Bolado should have scored an equalizer on the hour mark, but from only 5 yards out, he wastefully blasted high and wide. He didn't have to wait long to redeem himself, for from the very next attack, he converted a Dimas miss kicked assist, to set up an improbable result for Los Albinegros. Alas, parity was shot lived, for a wicked deflection off defender Goni from Sabadell substitute Juvenal, was enough to completely wrong foot keeper Reina, who could only watch in horror as the ball crossed the line. 

In the final stages, Sabadell hit the crossbar, before deep into stoppage time a Mariano goal bound shot was well saved, thus denying Cartagena an equalizer their play so richly deserved. This div 2a defeat made it 3 on the bounce for the boys from southern Murcia, and the long journey home from Catalonia must has seemed to take an eternity. Only 4 days before, they had suffered another defeat, this time the consequence was an early exit from the kings cup. At home to Numancia, they battled well to take the game to a penalty shoot out (0-0 after extra time). Although Dimas, Manu and Josemi all converted their spot kicks, a failure by Lafuente resulted in a 3-5 defeat. For regular updates on FC Cartagena, check out www.nosoloefese.es, www.gotocartago.com or www.futbolclubcartagena.com.