There are three days left to finish the competition and FC Cartagena is playing “the prestige” of being as high as possible, as its coach Luis Carrión declared last week. To do this, they must improve the results of the last two weeks, one point out of a possible six, as well as their dynamics away from home, where they have only achieved 15 of the 57 possible points. To this we must add the goal that Rubén Castro set himself from the beginning of the course, who always seeks, at a minimum, to equal the number of goals he scored the previous season. In 2020-21 he achieved 19 goals and currently has 17.
There is a lot of equality in the noble zone – middle of the table. From ninth position, occupied by FC Cartagena, to fourteenth, Real Zaragoza, there are only four points away with nine at stake. Between them, UD Ibiza, SD Huesca, Burgos CF and CD Leganés. This Saturday the team from Albinegro visits Burgos CF and if they achieve victory they would be closer to their new goal and would increase their lead over El Plantío to six points.
Two exits ahead
Being a visitor has taken its toll on Luis Carrión’s pupils. Throughout the year it has been his weak point, as well as defensive fragility, and now he has two trips to try to change a dynamic as negative as the one he accumulates. They started 2022 with two wins away from home, UD Almería and Real Sociedad B, but since then they have only added one draw in Málaga and five defeats, the last four in a row against CD Mirandés, Sporting de Gijón, CD Lugo and SD Ponferradina. The two remaining exits are Burgos and Tenerife.
Castro, for the 19
Rubén Castro’s goalscoring ‘drought’ in the last stretch of the championship has also taken its toll on FC Cartagena. The attacker has only scored two goals in the last 14 games, one of them from a penalty. Despite this, his contribution has been key to achieving permanence and being in the fight for the promotion playoffs for part of the course.
Castro’s goal is to reach 19 goals from the previous season and for that he has three games ahead of him. If he repeated what he achieved against the next rivals in the first round, he would reach 20 goals since he scored two against SD Amorebieta (it will be the last home game) and one against Burgos CF.