Hola.
By some miracle of posthumous science the next few episodes of rants from over the fence are coming from Spain, clever what?
Mind, the available footy for looking at in these parts is considerable, not least on the telly, everything you get at home plus a variety of local matches just about every night. But the telly isn't the real thing as we know, so getting down to the important stuff, and to judge by the facilities at least, the non league game, or Valencia Regional Preferente Group Four as it's known in these parts, is not bad either. The Municipal Stadio Manuel Macia, home of Santa Pola CF, looks very impressive, a step up on Meadow Park, Conference standard at least, which, with all due respect, is supposedly not the case with the actual football played.
Mind that's from the brother in law who knows nowt, so despite my obvious limitations I will try and check it out personally this week and report back in future instalments. Be useful to know in case we ever make it into Europe. Or another thought, and just as unlikely, could this be a venue for an end of season tour for our bold lads? A decent game or two and Benidorm 15 miles up the coast for the after match entertainment. Karaoke, cheap beer and Slippy Vicky. I don't know much, but I know what lads like. And maybe they will have earned it, my reports from back home suggest everything is going well at present, solid results, marred only by a run of unlucky looking dismissals for centre halves, all guilty of nothing more than clumsiness rather than malice, or of running up against zealous refs, which often amounts to the same thing. So anyway you all enjoy now, I'll be thinking of you between mojitos, if they serve them in the after life...