My Frustration with Missing Info
Right, so I absolutely love derbies, especially local ones, and Rayo Vallecano vs Leganes? Pure gold. Been meaning to create a visual timeline for ages, something real fans could glance at for the big dates – you know, when the clubs formed, first clash, promotions, relegations, maybe some spicy incidents everyone remembers. Piece of cake, I thought. Loads of sites do this stuff.
But oh boy, reality hit hard. I fired up Google looking for a pre-made timeline or even decent articles listing those essential “when it happened” dates. Total disaster. Found a few match results buried deep in club wikis, maybe a recent news snippet about the next derby. Anything actually listing the key dates chronologically? Nope. Wild goose chase. Nobody bothered putting that whole history on a plate.
Time to Get My Hands Dirty
Fine. If it doesn’t exist, I’ll just have to stitch it together myself, bit by bit. Started with the obvious pillars:
- Foundation Dates: Easier this bit. Hit the official club websites. Boom, Rayo: 1924. Leganés: 1928. Got that down.
- First Ever Game: This is where the digging got real. Rummaged through actual newspaper archives online – old match reports are pure gold. Took some scrolling but nailed it: March 1956. Tacked on the score for good measure.
- League Debuts: Needed to know when they first hit the big leagues (La Liga). Used official league historical records. Rayo first cracked it in the late 70s, Leganés much later, early 90s. Big difference.
- Promotions & Relegations: Major league stuff! Made a simple table tracking their tier movements season by season, especially when they played each other. Saw patterns like promotions/relegations often happening close together for drama.
- Big Fixtures: Remembered specific intense games or controversies talked about locally. Had to cross-check fan forums and specific historical match reports again to pinpoint exact dates for those.
Building the Actual Timeline
Had all these bits and bobs scribbled on scraps of paper and open browser tabs. Time to put the puzzle together properly.
- Laid it out in a big spreadsheet first. Chronological order, oldest to newest.
- Made clear sections: Foundations, First Meeting, Major League Moments (debuts, key promotions/relegations), Important Fixtures & Events.
- Added the actual dates front and centre for each point.
- Briefly described what happened that day, maybe the score, why it mattered.
Finally, cleaned it up, converted the spreadsheet into something actually readable. Looked way cleaner, like a proper timeline.
What I Learned the Hard Way
This was way more annoying than expected. Thought it would be copy-paste, but nope:
- Information isn’t just lying around: Even basic historical dates take digging.
- Sources can be junk: Stumbled across conflicting info constantly. Had to verify everything at least twice.
- Local knowledge is key: For the ‘big’ derbies and controversies, fan forums sometimes remembered things better than official stats.
- Spreadsheets are your friend: Impossible to track all these dates without getting messy otherwise.
Honestly, just getting that first ever match date right felt like a victory. Proud I stuck with it, though it was a proper slog. Worth it for a proper derby timeline fans can actually use. Maybe I’ll tackle another derby next… maybe after a long break!