Our promotion season ended with a 2-2 draw with SD Ponferradina as we missed out being crowned Segunda División champions by a late Curro Sánchez equaliser following goals from Marc Cardona and Abdón Prats.
For our final fixture, Luis García Plaza named a much-rotated side following our 2-1 win over Real Zaragoza a week ago. Koke Vegas was handed his debut at the expense of Miquel Parera, while Jordi Mboula and Victor Mollejo were tasked with providing width to Marc Cardona in attack and Iñigo Ruíz de Galarreta’s return to the starting XI.
There was little between the two sides during the opening exchanges as we looked to find an opening in the hosts’ defence with some clever interplay.
A lengthy VAR review on an Antonio Raíllo challenge on the stroke of half-time handed Óscar Sielva the opportunity to open the scoring from the penalty spot. The midfielder made no mistake from the spot despite Vegas being just inches away from getting a hand on his effort in the 43rd minute.
However, we had an instant response as Marc Cardona beat the offside trap to latch onto Aleix Febas’ lobbed through ball and fire home an equaliser in what was the final attack of the first half.
We started the succeeding 45 minutes the stronger side and should have been ahead when Mboula raced into the box to poke home a cut back but was denied by a fine reaction save.
The hosts did not heed the warning signs as Abdón Prats put us in front when he found space on the edge of the box to fire into the bottom corner with 15 minutes remaining.
Becoming Segunda División was not meant to be however, as Curro Sánchez unleashed a fierce strike from outside the box with two minutes left on the clock to ensure the points were shared at El Toralín.
The draw sees us end our season in second place with an impressive 82 points as preparations begin for next year in La Liga.
RCD Mallorca: Koke Vegas, Fran Gámez, Valjent, Raíllo (56'), B.Oliván (56'), R. De Galarreta, Sedlar, Mollejo (56'), Mboula (68'), Cardona (79')
Substitutes: Parera, Sastre, Russo, Álvaro, Abdón (68'), Murilo, Dani Rodríguez (56'), Sánchez (79'), Cufré (56'), Amath (56')
SD Ponferradina: Gazzaniga, Ríos Reina, Amo, Sielva, Kaxe, Moi Delgado, Curro, Erik Morán, Romera, Paris Adot, Pascanu
Substitutes: Caro, Iván, Gaspar, Larrea, Yuri, Aguza, Diori, Castellano, Crespo, Juergen, Pedraza
Goals: Sielva, 1-0 (42'); Marc, 1-1 (46'); Abdón, 1-2 (75'); Curro, 2-2 (88')
