La fiesta continúa. By Steve.

THE PARTY GOES ON

CORDOBA CF -1 FC CARTAGENA - 2
BY STEVE HIBBERD

Never in the history of FC Cartagena (formerly known as EFESE) has the dizzy heights of la liga been reached, but with only 3 games of the season remaining, the promised land is within touching distance.Situated adjacent to the very impressive Arcangel stadium, was the extensive festival showground. Thousands of party loving Cordobeses and tourists were mesmerised by this annual display of beautiful women and majestic horsemen all wearing traditional costumes. At the end of 90 minutes of pulsating football, it was FC Cartagena themselves who had gatecrashed the party - and how!!. Having lost the last 2 matches, and with teams around them closing the gap, it was imperative that Cartagena got back to winning ways. Wearing a changed strip of all yellow, Los Albinegros should have had a penalty after 10 mins, but the referee was unimpressed when Victor was brought down in the box.

Five mins later, Lafuente forced a great save from Raul in the Cordoba goal, as the men from Murcia started in confident mood. The tide turned on 22 mins, when Ruben made a superb close range block save, then from the rebound his team mates twice cleared off the line, as Cordoba hit back. Within seconds, the home side again went close to scoring when Pepe Diaz shot just wide of the post. Another fierce Cartagena appeal for a penalty - this time a push on Toche - once again fell on deaf ears. At last, on 38 mins, a goal was scored by Toche when his shot from the edge of the penalty area squeezed just inside the far post. How those 1,500 or so fun loving Cartagena fans rejoiced, as their heroes were giving their all. Inside 1st half stoppage time it should have been all square, but somehow Vega headed over the bar from 3 yards out, as my finger nails reduced in size!!

It was Cordoba who came closest to scoring inside the 2nd half, Asen just missing the target. Ten mins into the half, black and white scarfs were raised high, celebrating another Toche goal. Superb individual skills by Lafuente, resulted in his pinpointed cross headed home by the no 9 (his 21st league goal of the season), completely wrong footing keeper Raul. Back came Cordoba. Pepe Diaz shot agonisingly wide, across the face of goal, before Cordoba were awarded a penalty on 68 mins when Falcon was adjudged to have brought down Asen inside the area. Asen then showed how to execute the perfect penalty, as memories of Prince Boateng's sad excuse at Wembley came flooding back to me (if only!!). Both sides had further chances to score, before the sending off of Rueda in stoppage time ended Cordoba's resistance.

Attendance - 9,000
Top of div 2a table
1. Real Sociadad 68 points
2. Levante 68 points
3. Hercules 64 points
4. Real Betis 64 points
5. Cartagena 64 points
6. Elche 60 points

FC Cartagena line-up
Ruben, Exposito, Cygan (Hector 60), Herrero, Clavero, Etxeita, Falcon, De Lucas, Victor (Tato), Lafuente (Quintero), Toche

Forthcoming Fixture
The next div 2a match for Cartagena is on Sun 6 Jun, ko 9pm against high flying Alicante based side Hercules, at Cartagonova Stadium.