SD Ponferradina - History

History

Sociedad Deportiva Ponferradina was founded in 1922. The first idea of the executive committee to arrange a stadium was to built it inside the castle of Ponferrada, which has eight centuries old. King Alfonso XIII denied the building permit, which led to the construction of Santa Marta; the opening match was played 8 September 1923, a friendly against Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa.

Ponferradina spent the vast majority of its professional years in the fourth and third divisions. In 1967, with the club in the former category, it achieved an historic 6–1 win against La Liga giants Real Madrid. Eight years later, due to financial difficulties, Santa Marta was sold, and the team relocated to Fuentesnuevas.

On 5 September 2000 El Toralín was inaugurated as the club's new grounds: the first game there was a friendly with Celta de Vigo. In 2006–07 Ponfe competed for the first time in the second level after knocking out Universidad de Las Palmas CF and Alicante CF in the promotion playoffs, but would be immediately relegated back as third from the bottom.

In the 2009–10 season, Ponferradina returned to division two: after winning the regular season with 75 points it defeated UE Sant Andreu on penalties, in the playoffs (after winning and losing 1–0 over the two legs); subsequently, the club appeared in the league final, losing to Granada CF 0–1 on aggregate.

In 2010–11 Ponferradina played in the second division for the second time, meeting the same fate after finishing in 21st position. The following campaign the team finished second in its group and, after ousting Real Jaén, Lucena CF and CD Tenerife in the play-offs, promoted back.

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