Average Joes - Match Day 5

Average Joes 3 – 1 Blue Giants

 Average Joes notched their third victory in their last group stage match and a place in the quarter finals with a victory over human side the Blue Giants.  Any hopes that playing the humans would be a welcome relief after their battering at the hands of the Orc sides was swiftly dispelled, with the humans putting the boot in at every opportunity, and their suspiciously scaly ogre particularly guilty of some tasty tackling.  This was so effective that after starting the first half with 14 players the rats finished it with only 5 players on the pitch. 3 linerats were seriously injured and being administered to by ‘Joes apothecary – a shady looking character with some bells and a stick – and even rat ogre Shirley was left unconscious.  This was most probably karma after Shirley had made an awful mess of an excellent scoring opportunity, swinging and missing twice on an easy block to leave gutter runner Cotton McKnight out on a limb, and subsequently pushed into the crowd; the humans not missing a trick there!  The Blue Giants took advantage of their numbers to seize the ball after the crowd returned it, and dash down the pitch where not even a last ditch attempt by rat thrower Murdock was enough to stop them making it 1-0. 

This was the traditional game of two halves however.  The magic sponge (or bells and a stick) obviously worked wonders in the dressing room because Average Joes were able to field 11 players for the start of the second half.  Meanwhile the Blue Giants found their gloves has been tampered with, and their blocks were of much less effect.  A training ground set piece during the first drive saw the rats grab the equaliser; gutter runner The Rat making no mistake as he made a beeline for the endzone after his team had made the gap.  The Blue Giants had the ball back, but with rat ogre Shirley back on the pitch they lost it far too easily and once again found themselves playing catch-up to a gutter runner as Cotton made up for his first half crowd surfing action by slipping away and scoring number 2.  The humans seemed to lose heart at this hammer blow of 2 touchdowns in 5 ratty turns, but gamely played on with half of the second half remaining.  However the skaven side were now on song, and picked off the edges of the human cage until the ball carrier was exposed once more, this time to storm vermin Tank.  He slammed in a blitz, and the ball went loose to be picked up by The Rat, and handed off to Cotton to speed almost the length of half the pitch to make it safe at 3-1 and send the 15,000 ratty fans – more than twice the 7,000 humans – into raptures.