UD Altea are now moving up through the gears with a blockbusting second half display which put a battling Monovar side to the sword to cement their place as league leaders writes Matthew Bell. When loyal Altea fan Trevor Carrington enthusiastically applauds the team off at the end of the game then it must have been a good display and this win equates to three wins in a row without a goal being conceded.

Despite the final scoreline the first half was surprisingly equal with Monovar testing home ‘keeper Tomas who bravely blocked a 50-50 challenge on ten minutes when a goal seemed likely. From the block Nene would collect the loose ball and send a pinpoint pass up the right wing to Pascual who stormed ahead leaving the Monovar left back in his wake. The resulting cross was of a high order giving Trofeo Pimpollo winner Angel the chance to reprise his previous week’s volley, only for it to be well saved, although the goal hungry Diego Domenech was there yet again to slot the rebound home (1-0, 16 mins). Angel was having a fine game on the wing sending over a stream of crosses to tease the away defence and from one of which (36 mins) Carrasco powered a header over the bar when he should have scored although the referee was the only person n the crowd to miss him being clearly fouled. Just before the break midfield schemer Chole decided to chance his luck from fully 35 yards and although the shot whistled past a warning had been served.

While the first half was relatively equal, evidently coach Carrete had been waving his magic wand during the half time break as Altea emerged a team transformed and destroyed a poor Monovar in a style reminiscent of Brazil in 1970. The ball was passed around the pitch at a quite bewildering speed at times and Monovar were lucky to escape with ‘only’ a 4-0. Carrete is making full use of the wings this year and the clever Pascual had the making of his opposite number. On 52 mins he swung over a beautiful cross which Angel slammed into the net on the volley (2-0) and the game was won with Bazaga and Christian snuffing out the rare Monovar attack. Chole was being given too much space in the centre of the park and just a couple of minutes later he tried his luck with a direct free kick from fully 30 yards and Pimpollo was en route to advance the marcador to 3-0 as soon as the ball left his cultured left foot. It was a quite stunning effort and brought the capacity Garganes crowd to its feet. Goalie Tomas may well have been reading ‘War & Peace’ such was the feast of football in front of him and with 15 minutes to go local hero Bazaga stormed forward evading tackle after tackle before slipping in Angel who looked up and chipped the ball onto Diego Domenech’s head for a 4-0 final score. This was a real warning sign to the rest of the league as the team head south for a big game against Albatera next week. For full details and official UD Altea photographer Peter Hulls’ excellent pictures of today’s game log on to www.udaltea.info