Mallorca 0 - 2 Sporting Gijon

Mallorca 0-2 Sporting Gijon

Updated: October 5, 2008, 7:53 PM UK

Sporting Gijon put their nightmare start to life in La Liga behind them and picked up their first points of the season in a shock 2-0 win against in-form Real Mallorca.

The islanders came into this game looking for a win to equal their best-ever start to a season, but were stunned early on when Carmelo Gonzalez scored the opener for the visitors after 12 minutes.

Roberto Canella doubled the lead five minutes into the second half as Mallorca struggled to recover from the early goal.

Pierre Webo had the chance to pull one back when he was fouled in the area by Sporting goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar with quarter of an hour to play, but the Cameroon forward sent his shot from the penalty spot onto the post.

Coach Manuel Preciado had always maintained Sporting's season would start after last week's game against Villarreal, as the newly-promoted side were forced to face all of last season's top three teams plus Sevilla and Getafe in their opening five fixtures.

The result was five straight defeats while conceding 20 goals in the process, although Sporting did show signs of improvement in their 1-0 defeat to early La Liga leaders Villarreal.

The run is in stark contrast to Mallorca, who had picked up eight points so far and who started the brightest on Sunday by forcing a string of early corners and with Fernando Varela trying his luck from range.

Before the hosts could get into their stride however they were pegged back by Carmelo. The Canary Island-born midfielder exchanged passes with Diego Castro on the edge of the box to work his way into the area where he beat Miguel Moya with a left-footed shot.

Mallorca were left shell shocked and 10 minutes later Carmelo nearly doubled the visitors' advantage when he collected a headed pass from Mate Bilic in the area but this time could only direct his shot onto the post.

The islanders were meanwhile left to try their luck from range, with Varela again missing a shot from distance before Webo headed wide from the edge of the box 10 minutes before the break.

But just as the home side were starting to come back into the game Sporting struck again. Mallorca were caught napping at the start of the second half and Diego Castro again played a killer ball into the box, this time to Canella who struck a hard-hit shot past Moya.

Minutes later it could have been 3-0 as Bilic cannoned a shot onto the crossbar, but Mallorca came back into the game again as Jose Manuel Jurado then Webo tested Cuellar as the hour-mark approached.

But the hosts had no better chance to claw themselves back into the game as when Webo stormed into the box and was caught late by a hesitant Cuellar, but the forward could not keep his composure and his shot came back off the post.

Cuellar was called into action again from Jurado as the game entered the final 10 minutes, but Sporting were not to be denied their first win of the season.