The status, potential and morale at FC Torrevieja has seen a 100% improvement since this time last year, and at a time of raging crisis the club is one of the few entities that genuinely believes that the year ahead will be a good one. "It's not going to be easy by any means, but Team Manager, José Agustin Soto, has been working hard throughout the Summer to build a strong team with a lot of fresh blood coming in to support the most influential players from previous seasons" Eddie explained. He said that while getting to the play-off's was an amazing achievement and boost for club morale, it left them with a greater financial deficit than had they not reached that far. "Soto suggested that we introduce a series of bonus payments to players for each level of the play-offs reached. It was meant as an incentive for them to give 110% to every game." Miraculously, following a run of successes in the second half of the season Torry had accelerated to fourth place in Tercera Group Six, qualifying for the first stage of the trial, and thus the bonuses that they had been promised. "It was a financial commitment that the club could have done without, but the lads upheld their side of the bargain, so we had to honour ours!"

THE IRISH eyes of Jim Creed would have been smiling on Easter Sunday as an annual six-a-side football tournament held in his memory ended with a fitting triumph.

Seven years to the day that Jim lost his life in a car accident, the Shandon Bells bar which he owned emerged as winners for the first-time in the history of this popular competition.

He has taken the world by storm. He is the embodiment of discipline and persistence with a ferocious energy that is hard to match. He is dedicated to his craft which he consistently practices in order to excel his momentum and it has certainly paid off. His focus is determined and set for victory, yet he does not communicate this with any form of arrogance, he is quite the opposite and with each tournament or game he wins, he is like a little boy who has just been given a new tennis racquet. But what drives him, what motivates him? His Uncle and Father have trained and guided him since childhood, pushing him harder and harder so that he reaches his objectives. His Uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, is a fully acclaimed sportsman in his own right, who during his youth played football for FC Barcelona and Real Mallorca.