Las Palmas 2 - Real Sociedad 1

Las Palmas: Nacho González; Angel (Jorge 67'), Alvaro, Schurrer, Paqui, Jarni (Turdó 78'); Ramón, Samways, Josico (Baiano 46'); Guayre, Eloy. 5-3-2.
Real Sociedad: Alberto; Fuentes (Alejandro 85'), Loren, Julio César, Aranzábal; Xavi Alonso, Idiakez (De Paula 78'); Tayfun, Khokhlov (Luiz Alberto 75'), De Pedro; Jankauskas. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Las Palmas: Ramón, Samways, Eloy for Edu Alonso, Jorge, Turdó / Real: Khokhlov for Gabilondo.

Goals:
1-0. 40. Alvaro. Hooked ball over keeper from wide angle on right.
1-1. 63. De Pedro. Chested down through ball and volleyed past keeper.
2-1. 82. Turdó. Header wide of keeper after pass over defence from Baiano.

Las Palmas virtually assured themselves of first division football next season and at the same time sent one of their close rivals Real Sociedad back down towards the relegation spots. With only one point from their last four games the Canary Island side had started to drop down the table, and an on-form Real Sociedad could have drawn level with them on points if they could have secured a victory in the Insular stadium. However negative tactics by the visitors, together with the sending off their Lithuanian striker Jankauskas for elbowing Ramón just after they had equalised led to their downfall and their first defeat in six games. Toshack had stuck to the same block of players who had beaten Valladolid the week before, with Khokhlov returning from international duty to take over last week's double goalscorer Gabilondo. Segio Kresic could count on Vinny Samways for the first time in three games after he recovered from an injury, and he left Jorge and Turdó on the bench, giving a chance to Ramón and to Eloy, who got the equaliser against Numancia last week.

With Real Sociedad sitting back from the start, the home side took the early initiative, and Jarni hit the bar in the fourth minute with a centre-come-shot which left Alberto stranded. Guayre brought a good save out of the Basque keeper a few minutes later, and Real's Idiakez got the ball in the net at the other end in the visitors only attack of the half, only to see it ruled out for offside. Five minutes before half time .the home side pressure paid off, Alvaro getting on the end of a long Samways free kick to hook the ball into the top corner of the net from an impossibly wide angle on the right. It was the young Brazilian defender's fourth of the season, and along with Guayre, Jorge and Angel, he is high on the shopping list of many clubs. Kresic brought on Baiano for Josico at half time to strengthen the left side of midifeld, but Real came back in to the game, with Jankauskas, De Pedro and Khokhlov all going close.

Then a Xavi Alonso pass found De Pedro free on the left of the penalty area, and after controlling the ball with his chest he volleyed an equaliser past Nacho González. Two minutes later Jankauskas got his marching orders, and Kresic brought on Jorge for Angel to press home the numerical advantage. Ramón hit the corner of the goal frame with a shot from outside of the area, and with time running out Kresic threw on his last card, Turdó. The Argentinian striker had not scored once since joining the club in the winter, but he finally got his first goal with a well placed header after the Real defenders failed to pick him up in the area. It was a body blow for a disappointed Toshack's team, who drop back down to within a point of the relegation spots. Las Palmas move up to thirteenth, one point now below the theoretical safe threshold of forty points which most managers consider to be enough to avoid the drop. Their next objective must be sort out their financial situation without having to sell all of their best players. That is going to be an ever harder job than staying up.