Las Palmas 1 - Valladolid 1

Las Palmas: Cicovic; Ramón, Schurrer, Olías, Paqui (Angel 70'); Pablo Lago, Jaime Molina (Jorge 65'), Samways, Jarni; Eloy, Orlando (Oulare 46'). 4-4-2.
Valladolid: Ricardo; Torres Gómez, Peña, Heinze, Santamaría, Marcos; Richetti, Eusebio (Caminero 60'), Turiel; Kaviedes (Fernando Sales 60'), Pachón (Cuauhtémoc 70'). 5-3-2.

Team changes: Las Palmas: Schurrer, Orlando for Edu Alonso, Oktay / Valladolid: Santamaría for García Calvo.

Goals:
0-1. 45. Pachón. Header following a free kick from Eusebio.
1-1. 51. Eloy. Knocked in low centre from Jarni.

The big news in Las Palmas all week has been the suspension without pay of Turkish international striker Oktay. The flamboyant new signing seems to have had a run in with everyone, claiming that the club are not honouring agreements made when he signed, and that he wants to return home. Coming in the wake of Arif's declarations at Real Sociedad that he too was homesick and Tayfun's injury at the same club, the Turkish experiment in the Spanish league seems to be crumbling. Passionate by nature, and coming from a country where they are treated as national heroes, it is hard for them to accept that they are just one of the crowd here in Spain. As things stand at the moment Oktay is not likely to play for Las Palmas again, and he could soon be on his way back to Fenerbahce.

In his absence coach Sergio Kresic gave home grown striker Orlando a run out in attack, with last minute signing Schurrer drafted in to bolster up the defence. Kresic was facing his old club, Valladolid, and probably remembered the incident where he got a six match suspension and the result was reversed two years ago for fielding one non-EU player for seven minutes or so against Betis. Their new manager Pancho Ferraro has little knowledge of such things having recently arrived in Spain, but he has made a good start taking his team to fourth in the league after the first two days. He only had to make one change, a straight swap Santamaría for the injured García Calvo, with Kaviedes keeping his place up front after scoring twice last week.

Ferraro has kept Gregorio Manzano's 5-3-2 formation, and it stood him in good stead as they cancelled out their opponent's forays down the wings. Valladolid were always dangerous on the counter-attack, and Las Palmas paid the price on the stroke of half time, Pachón scoring his first for his new team after the old warhorse Euesebio landed a free kick on his head. Kresic brought on the more worldly-wise Oulare for Orlando at half time, and six minutes later they broke through the wall, with Eloy finishing off a centre from Croatia's Robert Jarni.

Kresic brought on two more home grown players, Jorge and Angel, and the former almost caught Ricardo off his line near the end, but his shot went just wide. Ferraro gave Cuauhtémoc a chance in the last 20 minutes, and the Mexican striker put Sales through near the end, only to see him shoot over the goal. In the last minute of the game the league's most feared referee, Prados García, finally realised he hadn't booked Vinny Samways, and worried that people might think he was going soft, got out his yellow card and added him to his list. The match finished shortly after wards with what most considered to be a fair draw, but whereas Valladolid keep up their unbeaten record, one point off the European spots, Las Palmas are without a win near the bottom.