“Ah. Matchday, and a home match between the top two teams in the conference. The winner should be through to the cup, and if I win, I will have already secured the Conference Championship. The opposition is tough, though, With lot's of good players, for example the two star berserkers and the star thrower with lots of extra strength. Two very agile runners are also a challenge. Our own Squad is intact, though, and we also have some good players. More than likely, the game will be decided on the number of armour breaks we can score on the Norsemen. If we are doing well, we should be able to get the win, if not the higher skill Level of the norsemen will probably decide in their favour. A Draw is perhaps most likely, something that will favour us, as we will then retain the commanding position in the conference.

The Jacks have the fan advantage and start with receiving, while we can buy inducements to level out their advantage, and choose a wizard and a Babe. WE keep Warrior in the reserves and use our usual defensive formation. 'Jacks position themselves mostly along the LOS, with only Bjorn and Timber Jonas II behind the LOS. Our kick is near perfect, to the very goal line of the 'Jacks. 'Jacks starts with stunning Claws and Brewer and pushing my line back. We try as best we can to defend, but the 'Jacks push forward and Tin-Can Rolf II fouls Claws off the field with a casualty. Just a pinched nerve, the apo says, and straightens up Claws' back. We employ the wizard early with a Fireball against 5 'Jacks, where one is the star berserker Battle-Axe Nielson and another is agile Runner whispering Leif. He obviously don't know how to
throw Fireballs, though, as the result is only two stunned. We can do better ourselves, as Wiggler KO's Three-Fingered Thane and Protector KO's Squeaky Kare. We are outnumbering them 10 to 9 now, and they also have two stunned. WE take advantage of that to chainpush Booster into a blitzing position, but Bjorn the Logger withstands the pressure and takes a step back. THey strike back, and
Battle-Axe seriously injures Brewer. The apo is gone, so Brewer's eye cannot be mended and he will not be back for the rest of the match, and not for the crucial 5 round game either.

We manage to keep up the pressure around the ballcarrier for a while, but repeated Blocks and blitzes fail to dislodge Bjorn, and the 'Jacks almost pulls free towards the middle of the Field. In a last effort, Protector and Booster homes in on the ballcarrier, but again the 'Jacks get out of the trap by moving back onto their left field. Sending Mobster off badly hurt, they finally can get around the scavenger flank and have an open field towards the goal line. They maim Breaker on their way, sending him off badly hurt, and then NUFFLE decides to have some mercy on us and let Runaway Aaron fail to catch the handover from Timber Jonas II, even with a RR. We cannot score, but Booster maims the Ulfwerener Moonshine Einar VI, sending him off with seriously injured ribs.

Half-time situation is not horrible. It is still 0-0, and now we will start with the ball. We only have 9 players vs 11, tough, as Mobster, Breaker and Brewer are out with casualties. They are also short two players, and will have to employ all of their reserves. We have used up our wizard, but still... however, in a splendid shortcircuiting of vital brainfunctions, we belive that we have time enough to score a one-turner before the half ends... :) When we realise the error, it is too late, as the 'Jacks have already kicked :) We try to make the best out of a botched situation, but when Wiggler fails to Catch the pass from Winner, the 'Jacks see their chance. They send two 'Jacks for the ball and use the rest of the team to surrender the sauruses and Claws, and Battle-Axe Nielson KO's our team captain.

Scavengers have always been at their best when pressured, and they rise to the occasion once again. Protector and Peeler pressures their guards to open the circle, and Claws decides that enough is enough, and pierces Battle-Axe's lungs with his spiked tail. The 'Jacks apo runs out onto the field, but there is nothing to do. Battle-Axe is gone. Wiggler manges to pick up the ball and get behind the sauruses, but as Warrior is about to dodge away to fill the gap in the defense, he is tripped by Crosshaul Sven. Thus, Wiggler is exposed, and Three-Fingered Thane blitzes him and breaks his jaw. The fifth casualty against us in this match, and another one who will not be available for the fifth round game. Also, the ball is loose, and runaway Aaron steps in and takes care of that. Luckily, Timber Jonas stumbles as he tries to get around the flank, but there are already four 'Jacks close by, and only Winner, our remaining skink, is close to the ball. Timber Jonas's stumble can be Critical, though, since it allows a free path for Claws and Protector. Claws breaks away from Tin-Can Rolf and Crosshaul Sven and nails down Aaron, and then Idler blitzes Aaron and KO's him. Unfortunately, the 'Jacks are loucky with the bounce is not very good for us. The bets we can do is to move Warrior and Winner to cover the ball, while Protector sends Whispering Leif off with another seriously injured nerve.

Five 'Jacks are fighting with four scavengers over the ball, and Three-Fingered Thane catches a bouncing ball, only to be stunned by Protectors blitz. Again, though, the bounce goes in the wrong direction, so Winner has to go for it and pick the ball out of two tacklezones to get the ball. He perseveres, but Crosshaul Sven promptly KO's Warrior, freeing up Bjorn to send my remaining skink off with a seriously injured back, and then picking up the ball. Claws tries to reak away and stop him, but now the 'Jacks outnumbers us and Timber Jonas can blitz Claws away, allowing Bjorn to get into a scoring position. In a desperate scuffle, Protector and Claws almost manages to prevent the 'Jacks from scoring their goal, and Idler gets a casualty when Moonlight Olaf is sent off badly hurt, but without skinks we are helpless to score, and the game ends 1-0 with Cordwood Lars scoring the TD.

This was really not our game. The 'Jacks were Lucky in their armour breaks, and particularly in their injury rolls, and we were correspondingly unlucky. Even so, it might have worked without my brain dysfuntion at the start of the second half, but BlueDevil is too good a manager to allow that. My, what a brutal game it ended up as! Three players on each team will not play the Fifth round game. My agile skink Winner out, and even worse for the 'Jacks, who got Battle-Axe Nielson killed and also will have to play without agile Runner Whispering Leif. Well done, BlueDevil! Your position on top of the Conference is well deserved. We will now meet Faraohs away in the final round, and need at least a draw to have a chance at the Cup. Protector skilled up and we give him SideStep.








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