Alan Morris, Kathy Luton, Tony Luton at the bar at Pinatar Park in San Pedro del Pinatar.

My friends Kathy & Tony messaged me & asked if I wanted to go & see the Arsenal U21 team when they played VillaReal C, in San Pedro del Pinatar. As an Arsenal fanatic, I of course jumped at the invitation to go with them.

Arsenal U21´s at Pinatar Park.

My friends Tony & Kathy picked me up around midday & drove me back through San Pedro & showed me around the area. We stopped off for a quick drink on the beachfront at The Boardwalk Bar in San Pedro. It was a very nice little place on the Promenade & we sat chatting for a little while before we moved off & I was taken through the Salt Flats to look at the different coloured pools of water & then along to see the Mediterranean sea.

We then went for a late lunch at Pizzeria Trastevere, a cafe bar in El Mojon. We all had the Menu del Dia & I chose a bean stew starter & pork chops in pepper sauce for my main. I washed it all down with a beer & we sat talking about the local area & this evening's Arsenal game.

After our meal, we returned to Tony & Kathys' house so that I could take a look at their computer. Not wanting to lose any of their photos I started backing up their photos to an external drive but it was going to take a long time on a computer as old as theirs & we left it running whilst we went out to watch the football.

Villa Real C vs Arsenal U21s.

When we arrived at the Pinatar Arena football centre we went through the gates & headed to the bar. The bar itself was very nice, it was set up outside & was like a tropical beach bar setting. The weather was very hot & the cool breeze was very refreshing. We sat chatting about the Arsenal Players & had a pint of beer whilst a couple more of Tony & Kathys' friends arrived before we all headed to the seating area.

For some strange reason, they were only letting people sit in one small part of the arena, directly behind the home team's dugout. We sat at the top of the small stand so we could see over the dugout. The seat was the hardest seat I have sat on in a long time but the teams were soon out on the pitch & my mind stopped thinking about the hard seat to concentrate on the game.

The VillaReal C team didn't have any names I recognised in it but the Arsenal team had a few names I recognised, Reuell Walters, Lino Sousa, Salah-Eddine Oulad M'Hand & Ethan Nwaneri who recently became the Premier Leagues´ youngest-ever player. The game started with VillaReal making the early running, taking the game to Arsenal but the young Gunners soon found their way into the game.

VillaReal C was causing Arsenal U21s problems with their fast, direct passing which led to an opening goal for them in the first half. After a bad tackle in the first half, Arsenal lost a player to injury & Ethan Nwaneri came on in their place. It was good to see such a young player take control of the ball & show no fear of the opposition. He will be a huge player in the future & Im glad he has signed up with Arsenal as a scholar.

Unfortunately in the second half, a VillaReal C player broke at pace, driving towards the penalty area & one of the Arsenal players made a last-ditch tackle bringing the player down just outside the area. The referee immediately showed a red card to the Arsenal player & they were left to play the rest of the game with 10 men. From the resulting free-kick VillaReal C scored a second goal. Arsenal U21s tried very hard & I think they probably had more possession, even with only 10 men but they couldn't find a way through VillaReals' defence & the game finished VillaReal C 2, Arsenal 0.

I enjoyed the game but was disappointed that the over-efficient stewards wouldn't let the young children get autographs from the Arsenal team. They let them get autographs from the VillaReal team but blocked the young children from asking the Arsenal players for their autographs.

Post match refreshments.

We left the ground & travelled the short distance to the Heladería Ferrer in San Pedro del Pinatar. I was very tempted to eat every ice cream on display but decided to settle for a pint instead. After a short stop, we returned to Tony & Kathys' home & I checked the backup of the photos had worked correctly. Because the work would take me a bit longer we arranged a time for Tony & Kathy to visit me at my apartment next week, so I could carry out the work on my computer as it is a lot faster. After I had checked the backup had worked, Tony took me back to my apartment in Los Alcazares.

I had a great afternoon & evening, the only thing which could have made it better was an Arsenal win & not misplacing the t-shirt I had on when I swapped it for my Arsenal shirt before the game. Thanks for your company, Tony & Kathy & it was great to see my friend Claire at the ground with her little boy.