The Estadio Pinilla hosted another partido amistoso the day immediately following CD Teruel’s pre-season friendly against Atlético Levante. The boys from CD Castellón on the Valencian coast travelled all the way up to the medieval provincial capital a full kilometre into the clouds where they took on SD Huesca, the club recently relegated from La Primera and who are used to playing at altitude.

Compared to the previous day’s match, the quality of Football was notably several notches higher. The fluorescent orange shirts of the Huesca squad may have been so garish that they would have made even the most outgoing Dutch fan blush, but they were all over the pitch immediately from kick-off. The players of the Aragonese side asserted themselves immediately with extremely affective positioning across the pitch and the patience and intellect to pick out the right passes through to the hard working strikers. Their La Liga experience showed very quickly and the third division side in their trademark black shirts struggled to contain the Huesca players in the early stages of the game.

However, the traveling CD Castellón support vastly outnumbered the number of SD Huesca fans that had taken the multiple-hour drive from the most northerly province of Aragón to the most southerly. The black-and-white supporters filled the main tribune of the Pinilla and responded very vocally to the initial struggles of Castellón against their opponents. As the first half progressed, the confidence of the albinegros grew along with the noise coming from the stands. Slowly but surely, Castellón grew to the challenge and saw more and more sight of the goal. However, in site of the greater support, the black-and-whites from the third division succumbed to the superior organisation and tactics of SD Huesca. The aragonese side seem prepared for their first season back in La Segunda if their 1-0 victory against CD Castellón in Teruel is anything to go by. Regardless, the atmosphere on the day was amicable and intense with all fans extremely engaged in the action.

We’re back to our 9 to 5s and full time commitments which has compromised our ability to get these photos online quickly. A longer post about the fan culture of CD Castellón is coming soon, just give us a bit of time to do our reading and research.

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