Betis enjoying life at the top in Spain

By Duncan Shaw Sep 23, 2011, 9:36 GMT

Madrid - The long-suffering fans of Spanish club Betis are determined to enjoy life at the top - as long as it lasts.

On Thursday the newly-promoted team from Seville stumbled to the top of La Liga with a dramatic 4-3 home defeat of Zaragoza, a result which maintained Betis's remarkable 100-per-cent start to the season.

Pepe Mel's unfancied team of bargain basement signings, unfulfilled veterans and inexperienced youngsters have, astonishingly, defied all the odds and won their first four matches.

They are sitting pretty all alone at the top, for the first time since 2001. They have two points more than second-placed Valencia and - even more astoundingly - four more than champions Barcelona and five more than Real Madrid.

Coach Pepe Mel - who played for Betis in the 1990s before starting a mainly second-division managerial career - said: 'We are top and playing well, that is what I look at. But I also look at the date on the calendar, and realize that we have to enjoy this while it lasts.'

Paraguayan newcomer Roque Santa Cruz, who scored twice against Zaragoza, said: 'The fans here are just fantastic. They really got behind us tonight, and I am pleased that we have given them something positive to shout and talk about.'

Betis will be trying to continue their perfect start on Monday away to lowly Getafe. Around 3,000 Betis fans are planning to accompany their team from Seville to Madrid, despite Monday being a normal working day.

These fans want to enjoy Betis's moment in the sun, after suffering so much in recent years.

In 2005 the green-and-whites won the King's Cup, their first trophy since 1977, and managed to sneak into the Champions League.

But since then it has been all downhill, with long-standing owner Manuel Ruiz de Lopera allowing Betis's debts to build up then selling the club off in a clumsy fashion. The team was relegated in 2009 and the club almost went into extinction due to its debts.

To add insult to injury, the Betis fans have had to put up with crosstown rivals Sevilla enjoying their most successful spell ever, winning two UEFA Cups and two King's Cups between 2006 and 2010.

Not even the most fervent Betis fan expects Mel's low-budget team to win La Liga. Indeed, no one in Spain even believes that Betis will be fighting for a Champions League place in spring.

But they are determined to enjoy their moment of glory while it lasts. As new club president Miguel Guillen Vallejo said early Friday after the Zaragoza win: 'We don't know how long we are going to be on top but we do intend to enjoy it, even if it is just for a few days or weeks.'