Average Joes 2012 - The Rats Rise Again - Part 2

Match Day 1 – Average Joes Vs. Lakhti Longships

The first opponents for Average Joes in their foray into the Deeside Defenders Championship was the fearsome Norse team of Coach Dave Winters; Lakhti Longships.  Eager for a taste of the unknown the ratty fans outnumbered the bearded ones more than twice over, with 10,000 skaven fans to only 4,000 Viking wannabees, and they were not disappointed.  ‘Joes kicked to Lakhti at the beginning of the first half, but almost immediately a dreadful fumble by the Norse thrower left the ball open, and one of the famed three gutter runners; Pepper Brooks, snatched it up and raced into the end-zone for 1-0. 

The remainder of the half saw the Norse try and force their way down the pitch at the expense of several ratty nose bleeds and an injury to linerat Dip that put him out of the rest of the match. The Norse blitzers with their Frenzy were of particular trouble!  Although they came very close to equalising, a dropped pass, when it seemed easier to score, foiled them.  The second half began with Average Joes receiving for the first time, and they following this up by executing a rough cage on the right side of the pitch.  The ball was handed off in a training ground move by thrower Murdock to Pepper Brooks who once more sped away through a gap in the defence for his second to make the score 2-0, and Lakhti were really up against it. 

They came barrelling back with a serious of crunching blocks and blitz’s, one of which took ‘Joes linerat Dwight out of the match, and several more rats were also knocked out, including storm vermin La Fleur.  A measure of revenge was gained by throwing rat The Lone Rat when it took out a Norse linesman.  The Norse attack took it nearly as far as the skaven endzone before a well-timed tackle ended their hopes and the ball was launched down the field.  In a wild scramble it was gutter runner The Rat who made sense of it all, landing a perfect pass to the last of the famed three; Cotton McKnight, standing in the endzone in the last seconds for a 3-0 victory and a perfect start to the campaign.  Much credit goes to the opposition who played to the spirit of the game right to the end, even when on the wrong end of an exaggerated score-line that hid how close the game was, especially in the second half.

Looking Forward

The month of May doesn’t hold a fixture for Average Joes, so Lord Flashearts team will be reduced to bystanders as the Norse Lakhti Longships face a tough encounter with Wrexham ABC, needed a result to get their season back on track.  Flasheart has declared that he believes his side needs a minimum of 7 points from their 4 games to be guaranteed qualification, and although he refuses to say where they will pick them up this weeks victory was a major step towards that total.  Next up is the Halfling Ankle Biters in June.

We can also now confirm the other teams in ‘Joes group as the following:

Wrexham ABC – Human (Head Coach – Dafydd)

Ankle Biters – Halfling (Head Coach – Paddy)

Lakhti Longships – Norse (Head Coach – Dave Winter)

Anonymous – Necromancer (Head Coach – Dave Mc)