The Pride of Vallekas

Sarthak ( @Vallecanos1924 ) puts it succinctly. The Old Boys' network in the RFEF is still alive & kicking. The gravy train rolls on. pic.twitter.com/Fk89zocbf5 — Barça Women (@BarcaWomen) May 23, 2017 Exactly. Behind the incredible Hulk kits is a story that shows weakness - weakness of the argument for why the Segunda B should even exist. In March 2016, Atlético Astorga couldn't survive in the Segunda B. It ran a 30,000 euro deficit. It needed 70,000 euros more to survive. Just think about that - a club formed in 1969 had spent just two years in the Segunda B and was struggling to function. The team from Astorga did the unthinkable - they reached across to Ponferrada, 64 kilometers away, to their fiercest rivals, and became their B team. The situation was so dire that Sagrario González, president of the board, defended it as the "the only solution" to be able to compete in the Segunda B - and this was after Ponferradina had loaned them fiv...

A huge thanks to Chris for doing this - check out the Facebook page of his book "The Ponferrada Pendulum" here , and follow him on Twitter here . He is blogging daily at the moment! Check out his blog, which regularly has  Ponferradina news, pictures and articles updated as well as news on his other books here . A bit about yourself and your background I am a football supporter from the north-east of England with a degree in History and English. I am married with two children, am a writer and have written about Ponferradina for five years along with various other projects. I have lived in Barcelona and Ponferrada between spells in Italy, Serbia and Bosnia. How long have you been a fan of Ponferradina and what made you support them in the first place? I became aware of the team after cycling the Camino Frances in 2011, so am in my fifth full season. I was in Lisbon when the team were promoted in the promotion playoffs of 2012 and returned to walk the Camino the foll...

Follow Juan on Twitter here . How long have you been a fan of Ponferradina and what made you support them in the first place? I've been following Ponferradina since I am 12-13 (now I am 26). What made me support Ponfe was proximity to my town. Even though Ponferrada (the city) is in another region, Castilla y León, as I live in the border between Galicia and Castilla, Ponferradina was my nearest football team apart from my local team that was in lower divisions at that time. Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Ponferradina where you want it to be? Of course not. The goal this season was promotion, but knowing how is the promotion system from Segunda B to Segunda, that is quite difficult and everyone needs to be lucky in the playoffs. But being one of the biggest, if not the most, budget of all 80 teams in Segunda B, this team should be in the top 4 of Group 1 at least. Of the signings made this season, which one work...