Sneaky Tuesday brings Nath back to the hot desk. Can Benidorm consolidate a promotion push?
Hello and welcome back to Benidorm. The temperature is dropping but the fancy dressed stag and hen dos keep on coming. For us, we’ve had a fantastic run in the Copa Del Rey come to an end and a rocky month in the November but remain in the promotion places. Let’s see what this update has in store.
December
Brian is in Benidorm for the winter and pops in to training to see us. He even has time for a kick about before we had back to my office. He says he’s sorted out the Christmas Party for us with a trip to the Benidorm Palace for a luxury cabaret night and has even organised a meet and greet for my family with the headline act. Before then though we have a game against Rayo Vallecano which we lose. It’s a really poor performance and Pete absolutely batters the team in training the week after!
His week of punishment pays off as we see off Levante in a bad-tempered game. Both teams are flying into the tackles. Denny has a colossal game at the back commanding the team like a general. Micky gets the business done with his first shot of the game in the 5th minute.
We have a light afternoon training then head off to get ready for the Christmas Party. All of our families have been invited and it’s a great night at the palace. At the end of the evening most of the players and their partners head into town. We follow Brian backstage to meet some of the performers and have a few drinks. As i head towards the toilets i have to go past the dressing rooms. From one of them i can hear giggling and other less subtle noises shall we say. I can’t resist poking my head in. I find my young goalkeeper, Pedro, rolling around with one of the dancers from the show!! He sees me and jumps a mile looking for anything to cover himself and his companion. I manage not to burst out laughing but say that won’t tell his dad next time I’m in his bar for a drink after a game. His face is priceless!!
Our last match of this short month is against Elche who are sort of our local rivals as they are the other side of Alicante. We put on a show for our fans. Kimble swings in 2 corners for Diaz and Lima to get on the end of. Torrecilla gets one back for Elche to setup a grandstand finish and Tom Youngs takes that as his cue to finish the game off.
We have a nice break now until the next game in January. Before I depart home to England for a few days I head to the rehab centre in Valencia. Kirkby has completely fallen off the wagon since being injured. The sight of him stuns me. He has lost all his weight and has a slight shake to him. We sit chatting and he throws a few jokes around which shows his spark is still there. We spend a few hours together before I leave as his family arrive. His dad pulls me to one side and says Benidorm isn’t the place for Sean anymore and requests a transfer. I agree, but first promise to help him back to full fitness.
Back in Benidorm I speak to Brian about replacements and reinforcements ready for a January splurge in the transfer market. We agree to certain targets and Saul gets a call as our chief transfer officer with instructions to be in Benidorm for the whole month. Pete is staying behind with some of the players staying at the club. I head on to the plane thinking next month will be the start of our charge for La Liga.
Join me next time as we get into the business end of the season and push for promotion. There’ll be an appearance from Keegan and Kirkby starts training again, as well as causing havoc.