Valencia hurtle towards relegation as another protest engulfs Mestalla

M ost of Valencia’s fans didn’t see the goal that momentarily pulled them clear of the relegation zone but they did see the goals that pushed them back in again. They were at Mestalla on Saturday night but not in Mestalla when Samu Castillejo’s 16th-minute shot put them one up against Athletic Club. Instead, they were still outside, desperate to escape the abyss. Beyond the wall, Castillejo’s first goal since September came to a backdrop of empty seats and packed streets, yellow everywhere, but at least offered brief hope of a first win in three months; when those fans finally headed in, it was taken away again, a 2-1 defeat deepening their desperation.

With Valencia winless since the World Cup, their 15th coach in nine years on the verge of replacement two games into his eighth stint in charge and relations between supporters and owners broken, the crisis deeper than just defeats, a protest had been called. Valencia faced Athletic on Saturday and more than 50 supporters’ groups and thousands of fans had agreed not to go into the ground until minute 19, the year of the club’s foundation. One local paper claimed survival was on the line, on and off the pitch, and so they gathered on Avenida Suecia with banners and balloons, the street jammed all the way along the main facade of the stadium, a sea of people demanding the departure of Peter Lim.

There have been other protests, from art, to mariachi bands following directors, marches and endless hankie waves, that classic symbol of disapproval, but this was the image the club most wanted to avoid – president Layhoon Chan had admitted that last time supporters had left the team playing before empty seats it had hurt and this time security guards tried to stop pictures being