Hercules Tarnishes Season with Relegation-Level Second Half

Hercules faces an agonising two weeks remaining in the league. With the squad exhausted and nearly disconnected, and their coach's future uncertain amidst tensions, the blue and white team will conclude the season with two matches at Rico Pérez against Intercity and Sanluqueño.

Rubén Torrecilla's side is faltering in the final stretch of the season, to the point of recording a second half with relegation numbers, which is beginning to anger some fans. Last Sunday, boos were heard against Algeciras, and the atmosphere will worsen if the blue and white team fails to perform against the relegated Intercity next Saturday (19:30 hours).

Hercules, which suffered its fifteenth defeat of the championship against Algeciras (1-2) this week, hasn't lost this many matches in a season since the 2016/17 campaign, when they competed in the now-defunct Segunda B.

The Alicante team, debuting in the Primera Federación this season, is tarnishing a strong first half of the championship in the second part, which they finished in promotion play-off positions.

The team coached by Rubén Torrecilla has been particularly vulnerable away, where they have suffered 11 of their 15 defeats.

The last time Hercules lost so many matches in a season was in the 2016/17 campaign, when the Alicante team was managed by Luis Tevenet and later by Carlos Luque.

The current number of defeats surpasses that of the pandemic season, as when the championship was interrupted, six matches from the end, Hercules, in the relegation zone, had lost 13 matches.

The Alicante team can still worsen these records, as they have two matches to play, against Intercity and Atlético Saluqueño, both at the Rico Pérez stadium. To find more league defeats than in the current season, one must go back to the 2013/14 season, when Hercules was relegated to Segunda as the bottom of the category after losing 19 of the 42 matches played.

With mathematical safety not yet secured, the Hercules squad must refocus and re-engage with the competition to avoid stumbling against an already relegated Intercity, which will play without pressure and has the offensive capabilities to trouble any team. Torrecilla will have Artiles and Mangada back after serving their suspensions, and at least one of them will return to the starting lineup at the expense of Mario García.