Right, in the end there are two that interest me tomorrow in the Segunda, Almeria and Ciudad de Murcia (flying completely in the face of the fact that their opponents Elche were actually on my shortlist earlier
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Almeria have made a shaky start to the season, but a considerable factor in that has been their disciplinary record. Having only seen one of their games (in which they ended with 9 men, both red cards seeming slightly harsh to me), I can't comment on the overall situation (i.e. whether they're indisciplined or the refs are crap, although this being Spain, my money's on the latter
), but they've ended one match down to 8 men, one match down to 9, and last week down to 10 men. Of their home games this season, they were all over Tenerife, couldn't finish, and were made to pay as they ended up losing 1-0, and they then beat Cadiz in the game in which they ended with 9 men. Away from home they gave Real Murcia (who have moved to joint top overnight following their win this evening, although Xerez have a game in hand) a real fright, Murcia won 3-2 depsite that being the game in which Almeria played the last 25 mins with 8 men.
Hercules meanwhile started reasonably well, despite losing their opening game, as they then claimed 2 wins (away to Madrid B and home to Vecindario). Since then they've stuttered however, losing away to Tenerife and home to Murcia. The respective home and away records of both teams from last season is well worth taking into account too - Almeria were the strongest home team in the league, 16-1-4 for the season, while Hercules were among the weakest away teams in the league, 3-7-11 (3 of the 4 relegated teams had better away records than that).
In addition to all of the above, the team news is in Almeria's favour. Hercules will be without Graff (D, none played, but was a key member of Numancia's reasonably successful side last season), Albácar (D, ever present this season), Sergio Fernandez (M, 2 played), all through injury, and De Los Santos (M, 3 played) as he's returned to Uruguay due to the death of his brother. Almeria will be without Mayrata (D, 4 played, suspended), Soriano (M, not yet played this season) and Francisco (S, 2 played, although only 75 mins).
Given all of the above I'll take Almeria at 2.10.
Almeria v Hercules @ 2.1 3pts
Second bet is Ciudad de Murcia. I had previously thought Elche may be the more likely side to shade this one, but they've got some pretty major injury problems here. They'll be without Fernando Niño and Marc Bernaus (both , ever present), Manolo Perez and Alfredo Sanchez (both M, 4 games played), and Ruben Suarez and Alberto Ruiz (both S, not played this season). In addition to that (although this won't affect the starting line up), their reserve keeper, plus the 2 keepers from their B team in the 3rd division are all unavailable, meaning they'll have a youth team keeper on the bench.
Ciudad's only injury problem is with the Togo international Assemoassa, who picked up a serious injury during the World Cup and hasn't played this season
Ciudad have yet to even score away from home in their 2 away games, but with Elche's injury and suspension problems, I fancy them to get off the mark here at a nice price.
Elche v
Ciudad de Murcia @ 3.2 2pts
That's it for the Segunda, will look at the Primera either now or tomorrow depending on whether I fall asleep in the next few minutes (which is beginning to feel like a distinct possibility
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Spanish Football 30th Sept - 1st Oct
TOTW/F/M Award(s): 1.GIF "Thumb(1)")
Arguable red card, Bilbao certainly weren't happy about it, I personally thought it was a borderline decision, some refs would give a red, some a yellow. Certainly changed the course of the whole game though.
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