Real Mallorca are hanging by their fingertips to the edge of the relegation precipice after losing to a goal in the last second of added-on time, going down 2-1 in Lugo on Sunday. The Galician side are still in with a chance of a play-off spot while Mallorca have a real fight on their hands now if they want to avoid dropping into oblivion – La Segunda B. Alarm bells are now tolling with seven games left on the fixture list. We played the best football (by La Segunda's poor standards) in the first half but our finishing, especially from Pereira, was woeful.
With almost Lugo's first attacking move, the home team opened their account in the twentieth minute, and it was scored by a Mallorca striking reject from last season, Joselu. He found himself in acres of space, unmarked at the edge of the penalty area, and duly dispatched his effort past Wellenreuther in the Mallorca goal. Mallorca continued to pass the ball around comfortably but with precious little intent. Sissoko worked hard in midfield but with Yuste being sorely missed, we didn't have any backbone.
After half time Mallorca once again tried to make an impression on the game but try as they might they looked a poor side lacking ambition and with no fire in the belly. Ortuño ploughed a lone furrow up front, looking jaded. He was replaced on the hour mark by Oscar Diaz. Sissoko laid on a pass for Damia Sabater in the eightieth minute and it looked like Mallorca would get a valuable point as he hammered in his first professional goal for the islanders from the edge of the area. Now it was “say a prayer” time as Lugo suddenly found another gear. It was backs to the wall time for Mallorca as the 90 minutes were over. Nobody saw the added-on time board go up from the fourth official so we had no idea how much extra time there was – nor did the TV coverage.
The ball was pinging about like a pinball machine in the Mallorca area when it broke to Seoane who somehow forced the ball home through a sea of legs. Disaster !
SUMMING UP : Unbelievably our director of football, Miguel Angel Nadal, wasn't at Sunday's game. Instead he was in Barcelona watching his nephew Rafa play in the Conde de Godo tennis final. With the club in difficulties, everybody concerned should be pulling in the same direction, helping us get out of our present predicament. Nadal's absence suggests he may well not be director of football next season, whatever league Mallorca may be in.
We're now in a four team mini-relegation league: Almeria on 40 points, Huesca 39, Mallorca 39 and Ponferradina 38. It's from these four we'll find out the one team to join Llagostera, Albacete (Mallorca's next away game in a fortnight) and doomed Bilbao Athletic in Segunda B regional next season.
The battle to win this mini league won't make for very cheery reading, but it's the reality Real Mallorca FC find themselves in at present. The local sports pages plus the trolls on social media and keyboard warriors will be projecting the misery and vitriol to the extreme, right up to this coming Saturday's vitally important game.
I don't think the Mallorca players know the seriousness of the situation we're now in because on Sunday we didn't put in enough effort. Lugo looked like a team on a mission as they kept alive their slim hopes of a play-off place, fighting right until the final whistle; something we should be doing with regularity.
Looking at the up-coming fixture list, we've got second top Alaves here next Saturday. Mallorca have already beaten top side Leganes 3-0 at the Son Moix so the Basque side shouldn't be too difficult. Then we're away at second bottom Albacete, then home to Tenerife. Our season and the club's very existence could hang on our two consecutive home games on the 21/22 and 24/25 May.
It's going to be a nail-biting end to the season and a position in this, the club's 100th birthday year, all who support Real Mallorca would rather not be in. A friend of mine, Peter Thompson, an ex-FIFA official and regular island visitor from Northern Ireland, said to me on Sunday night: “Good Lord, Monro, mugged in the 92nd minute. When will the agony end? We can't ever seem able to hold on to a lead or hold out for a point.”
One point from nine available in our last three games is, in all honesty, relegation form, Real Mallorca are in big trouble.