Villarreal B are BACK IN THE SEGUNDA!

It has taken 10 years—playoff losses to Reus and Elche in the finals, a late goal in another match denying them automatic promotion one of those years—but Villarreal’s second team has made it back to the Segunda Division for the first time since being relegated in 2012.

After a scoreless first half, two goals from Nicolas Jackson, the second in the next-to-last minute of injury time, gave the Mini Submarine a deserved 2-0 victory over Gimnastic Tarragona in front of over 1000 Yellows who made the long trip to Balaidos.

This is a huge deal; so often we have had to loan out players for Segunda experience, and once they’re loaned, you have no control over what happens. Now we will be able to avoid that situation.

Villarreal will replace Real Sociedad as the only Primera club with a filial in Segunda. Racing Santander, FC Andorra, and Albacete will go up along with us, and replace SD Amorebieta, Real Sociedad B, Fuenlabrada and Alcorcon, all relegated.

In the other promotion match, Albacete defeated Deportivo La Coruña 2-1 after extra time. The Galicians were playing at home in front of a raucous crowd and took a first-half lead before Albacete tied the match with 10 minutes left and won in the second half of extra time. This result means that apart from automatically-promoted Racing, the other playoff clubs from Group 1 of the RFEF all failed to win promotion.

And, in an interesting sidebar, Joan Oriol, a member of the 2011-12 Villarreal first team whose relegation led to our B team’s demotion, played today for our opponents Nastic, and was sent off in the 94th minute.

Congratulations to Miguel Alvarez and all connected with Villarreal B!!!!