In all honesty, I was hoping to attend a match of the team actually located in the city of Alicante (Hercules CF), but they didn't have a match scheduled on this particular weekend. So, after a little bit of research I worked out that Elche CF of La Segunda Division were also located in the province of Alicante in the nearby city of Elche.

During my initial planning I didn't think it would be too much hassle to get over to the stadium from the centre of Alicante, but with a reduced Sunday service and a kick off time of 9PM, I was starting to waver on my obsession of always attending a football match when I am in a new destination!

Anyway, after enjoying a beautiful sunny day in Alicante I took the 40-minute journey on the Cercania train service over to Elche and had a quick bite to eat. I then had a good thirty-minute walk to the ground and unfortunately the station and stadium were on the outskirts of the city so I didn't get a chance to see the city centre itself which is supposedly quite cute.

The stadium was literally in the middle of nowhere and was almost entirely surrounded by dirt carparks and flat plains. It is, however, a good-looking stadium with a good capacity and the club store was also surprisingly good compared to some of the other pathetic excuses I have seen provided by some huge clubs in Latin America. This meant that I could buy my Dad a top from the store which has become a bit of a tradition and a return of kindness after all the shirts he has collected for me during his travels. And I still had plenty of time to enjoy a nice refreshing pint from one of the fan bars before the game.

In terms of the game itself, the less said the better! It was a dull game that ended 0-0 and the scoreline was a fair reflection of the play. Elche had a late global disallowed which caused a bit of commotion but apart from that it was a fairly tame atmosphere with lots of tourists and expats in attendance. I was expecting a bigger crowd as I had previously watched some highlights on YouTube and the stadium looked pretty full, but three sides of the upper tier were completely empty. There were lots of La Coruna fans dotted around the ground and I expect that they have supporters all over the country given their history. It was nice to experience one of their games as I had vivid memories of them being a powerhouse in Spain's top division when I was a child.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the game early as there was only one train back to Alicante after the game and I didn't have much time to make it, so overall it wasn't my best planned football outing nor was it the greatest game I have ever seen. But it was another stadium to tick off the list and it certainly didn't stop me from planning the next one!