Probably the most controversial weekend of the season on the refereeing front, with seven red cards and a lot of complaints about our men in black! Eibar were unhappy with Undiano Mallenco on Saturday when he disallowed a strike by Piovaccari which would have given the Basque side the lead, and then didn’t stop the game with an Eibar player lying injured on the floor in the build up to Levante’s third goal, something he had done at the other end minutes earlier. The locals sorted things out themselves in the end though, saving a point with a late equalizer.

Later in the evening Elche had serious complaints about Del Cerro Grande after he awarded a penalty to their hosts Almería for a foul which took place outside of the area, then sent off Jonathas for a rigorous second yellow card, and finally allowed a late equalizer to stand even though Hemed clearly fouled keeper Manu Herrera as he headed in a corner. As reported in our “Villains” section, that could cost Elche’s sporting director Víctor Orta a big fine after he insulted the officials in the players’ tunnel after the match (worth noting by the way the new rule which allows for one of the linesmen to go to the tunnel at the final whistle just to keep an eye out for such incidents).

Elsewhere Velasco Carballo came under some criticism after the Málaga – Granada game, although he probably got most of it right, sending off Angeleri for tripping Success but correctly giving the foul outside of the area (Granada wanted a penalty), and then awarding a penalty at the other end after his assistant pointed out that Castillejo’s cross had hit Iturra on the arm – probably a bit harsh there as it was most likely accidental? Ah well, it’s the international break now and so we’ve got a couple of weeks for things to calm down... (07.10.14)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Mateu Lahoz 4 33 2 35
Estrada Fernández 4 28 3 31
Alvarez Izquierdo 4 30 1 31
Velasco Carballo 4 26 2 28
Del Cerro Grande 4 25 2 27
Teixeira Vitienes, F. 4 25 2 27
Iglesias Villanueva 3 24 0 24
Melero López 4 23 0 23
González González 3 20 1 21
Fernández Borbolán 4 19 2 21