SUPER DEPOR GO TOP AS ELCHE SLIP UP: LIGA ADELANTE WEEKLY ROUND-UP

By Martin Devlin
Updated: 19 January, 2012

LIGA ADELANTE JORNADA 20

The weekend’s early fixture saw Celta Vigo scrape past bottom side Gimnastic at Balaidos and end the week in third place. Any superstitious Celta fans (it was Friday 13th…) may have been looking nervously at the date until Roberto Lago headed in Quique De Lucas’ cross. It proved to be the only goal of the game for Paco Herrera’s men against the Catalans who remain rooted to the bottom spot.

Segunda top scorer Jose Ulloa helped himself to a hat-trick as Almeria thrashed Guadalajara 4-0. Ulloa put Almeria on top within half an hour, and doubled their advantage with a penalty less than ten minutes later. Henok Goitom added a third deep into the second half before Ulloa completed his hat-trick to underline the hosts dominance and take his personal tally to sixteen for the year.

At the Nuevo Colombino, Recreativo Huelva breezed past strugglers Girona. Javi Alamo and Pablo Sanchez ensured the Andalucian side went into the break two goals to the good.

Despite losing Jordi Matamala to dismissal, Juan Villar notched a third with a minute left to pad the scoreline in favour of Alvaro Cervera’s men.

This match proved to be the last in the reign of Raul Agne, as he was sacked following the shutout. He will be replaced by former Elche and Getafe manager Josu Uribe. Girona have not had their troubles to seek this campaign, and sit in 21st place only three points ahead of fellow strugglers Gimnastic.

In a bad-tempered affair at the Nueva Condomina, Murcia emerged with the three points against Cordoba.

The away side found themselves a man light when David Prieto was shown a straight red card after only seven minutes. Los Pimenteros pressed the depleted visitors and found the net ten minutes later through Emilio Sanchez.

Richi doubled Murcia’s lead shortly before halftime. Cordoba pulled a goal back just before the hour mark and looked like they may take something from the game when Sanchez turned villian after receiving his marching orders.

However, despite parity in the number of players on the field, Cordoba were unable to find the elusive equaliser and the hosts escaped with maximum points.

In the upset of the day, Alcoyano took home the spoils following a tough trip to Elche. This match took time to spark into life, but when it finally did so, the crowd at the Martinez Valero were treated to a frenetic last 15 minutes.

An Alvaro Garcia brace two minutes apart put Alcoyano ahead, but then the visitors were almost immediately reduced to ten men following the ordering off of Antonio Canadas.

The Franjiverdes seized the play and made the numerical advantage count, netting a goal from Bille with two minutes to play.

However, they were unable to fashion a second, leaving Alcoyano to celebrate an unlikely three points while the hosts rued a missed opportunity to go top.

Valladolid came away with a hard-earned home point against Alcorcon to keep up their title challenge. Despite losing striker Javi Guerra to injury prior to the game, the hosts took the lead after only seven minutes when Victor Perez controlled the ball outside the area then rifled a half-volley past Manu Hererra.

Minutes later, Valladolid were then reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Jaime was dismissed after felling Fernando Sales in the box.

Substitute golakeeper Dani could not believe his luck however as Alcorcon’s Quini wasted the opportunity, chipping the ball weakly in a wasteful fashion.

Despite this, the visitors made the extra man count in the second half and equalised when Miguelez showed good control in the box before slotting past Dani.

Las Palmas secured a comfortable 3-1 home win against Barcelona B at the Gran Canaria stadium. Mauro Quiroga fired them in front after eight minutes, but Jonathan Soriano levelled for the Catalans.

David Garcia restored the islanders’ lead ten minutes after the break and Javi Guerrero netted their third to complete a competent display.

Villarreal B remain on the edge of the relegation zone after a dull stalemate with Cartagena at the Ciudad Deportiva. The visitors saw Manolo Reina red-carded just past the hour mark, but the Yellow Submarine were unable to turn the man advantage into 3 points and a draw was a fair assessment.

Deportivo La Coruña climbed to the summit of the league with a 2-0 away win at Huesca. Diego Colotto netted within ten minutes, and Riki added a second with only minutes remaining to ensure the Galicians returned home with maximum points and first place on the ladder.

Xerez upset the apple cart by springing a surprise 2-1 win on visitors Hercules. The Andalusian side had struggled to put any real positive form together coming into this game, but took the lead inside the first quarter of an hour through Miguel Cordero.

Mateos replied quickly for the Herculanos , but Xerez regained the advantage with an Israel strike.

Hercules finished the game with nine men, Sergio Alejandro and Diego Rivas both incurring the wrath of the referee and finding themselves with a headstart for the post match showers.

Numancia rose to ninth in the league as they snatched a late 2-1 win against Lluis Carreras’ Sabadell at Los Parajitos.

It was the visitors who struck first through Baha in seven minutes,only for Miguel Bedoya to cancel out the Sabadell goal two minutes later.

Baha turned from hero to villian by getting himself sent off in the twelfth minute. The Saballuts almost held firm for the remainder of the game until Lago Junior popped up with nine minutes remaining to fire the home side into the lead to give them maximum points.

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