“This was a vile game of turnovers, failed dice, injuries and blizzard. Yes, my weather demons continue to haunt me with a start-to-finish blizzard here, so no passing game to speak of.

It began well enough, with me rolling a blitz on the opening kick-off, but that's when the good luck and - I must confess - the fun ended. Unable to reach the ball, I was straight back into defence mode and the next six turns were a relentless grind of stumbling defence. I lost a couple of players early on, and after that I was always looking like the training squad for Ignaz's leisurely practice match. He scored on turn six, mentioning that he would have liked to stall even longer but he needn't have worried. My two turns of offence came to a grinding halt when my journeyman failed the go for it and the reroll that would have made it 1-1 at the half.

And the second half was much the same. My weak offence was out-performed from the start, with my inability to throw more than eight yards leaving me in easy reach of the diving tacklers and MB on the defence. Added to that, Ignaz's blocking was perfect when it needed to be and I was quickly left with even fewer players, no ball and a rooted tree. In fact, the only thing that was more impressive than the dark elf blocking was their dodging was was faultless all game.

So the second half quickly degenerated into a stalling bash-fest for the dark elves and I was happy enough to keep my players on the deck and rush things along with more failed go for its and dodges at every opportunity.

So the end result was: no lost fans, no injuries, reasonable cash, pathetic passing stats, and a couple of hours I would have enjoyed more watching paint dry underwater. I can't blame Ignatz. He did what most top 20 CR coaches do, which is secure the win and protect his team, but it sure doesn't make for a fun game when you're on the receiving end.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day, and at least I have a full squad to greet it.”