Hump day is Viking Day. Over to Gav…

Heil og sæl

Velkomin to the fourth part of our Viking invasion. In the last episode we unfortunately crashed out of the Shield Maiden Trophy and the FA cup leaving us to solely to concentrate on the league.

Without further ado, we start this week with a trip to Fullahamm. It took us half an hour to finally wake up. Sigurd manages to tuck away his first chance and give us the lead at half time. Fulham start the second half brighter and in a repeat of the first half, we don’t do anything of note for 30 mins of it until Halle gets his first since his move from Loidis. Tidy win.

A massive blow next as we lose captain Bjørn for the majority of the latter part of the season.

Next up Le Pul come to visit. In a totally dominant first half display we waste chance after chance. An inspired substitution bringing Jordan on for Bushell sees him get a quickie in the 69th. Blackpool equalise late on which is nothing more than they deserve. (on a side note, I met Chris Malkin at the Golden Fry chippy in Benllech at Easter and he’s a real nice chap – considering he played for Tranmere)

Time for some payback now as we meet our Shield Maiden conquerors Grimmr’s by. We start off the brighter of the two but Grimsby score against the run of play. Thankfully it’s disallowed. We then see 4 goals in 3 minute intervals in a mad 12/13 mins and we gnaw on our half time suckling pig 3-1 to the good. Wonderkid grabs the match ball in the second half and we get our revenge.

Sigurd and Wonderkid are suspended for the visit of Breguntford. Hopefully Ivar recreates some of his early season form and we don’t miss them too much. It’s not the best start as Brentford take the lead in the 7th min and we lose our other Icelandic Wonderkid (Valur Fanny Gislason) to injury in the 15th! Ivar does equalise and we finish the half miles stronger, Dearden holding out like he did in the reverse fixture. We get totally battered in the second half and in the 69th, they stick one in.

We sail down to the South coast for our trip to Sutton. Sigurd is back from suspension and is put straight back in the side. He puts us in front in the 10th minute and that’s how it stayed. Plymouth barely trouble us and our fans make the long journey back in good spirits.

We receive 5 offers for Steve Bushell all for £2.1m (worth £1.5m) after turning down many previously. This is too good to turn down at this level and with Premier League sides swooping in, he opts for West Ham.

We don’t seem to miss him in our next game against Wichama. Ivar has found his lucky loin cloth and smashes in another hat-trick. Sigurd and Wonderboy scoring the others in a 5 – 0 rout. Wycombe’s Shooter McGavin notoriously quiet in this one after seeing Bjørn in the home team family box offering horns of ale to his wife.

Odin only knows what frolicking the boys were doing after that win but we lose Andersen for the rest of the season which is a massive blow. He’s been a revelation since signing for next to nowt. Speaking of which, we spend a bit of Bushell’s fee by bringing in his replacement Hans Brandal for £40k and new back up keeper Martin Hollund for £80k.

A narrow win away at Brycg Stowe City saw our new signings make the match day squad. Bristol have a goal disallowed in the 2nd minute. Ivar puts us in front in the 26th minute and there’s little action in the rest of the half. I bring on Brandal at half time and he immediately puts Ivar through 1 on 1 twice but he fluffed his lines on both occasions. Collins makes us pay but Ivar has other ideas. He returns the earlier favours and sends Brandal through this time. He duly obliges getting a debut goal and the match winner. After the game another reinforcement in the shape of Phillip Borgen (no i don’t know either) signs for £50k.

Now then, now then….. Saville has our pants down with a first half hat-trick. Even with 10 men, Wigan slice through us like a hot knife through a pie!

More comings and goings sees Murky go to Swansea for £395k, Tolson making the short trip to Bradford for £300k and Dave’s Uncle – Pål Mathisen joining us for £15k.

I decide to give Hollund his first start after checking and seeing that he has 154 for potential. That might come in handy seeing how bad our other keepers have been. Ivar scores in the first half but it gets disallowed. Parry gives them the lead before Wonderboy equalises and Sigurd grabs the winner. Gillingham have a couple of chances at the end but Hollund is up to the task. The win secures us a playoff place.

Hammtun give us the ultimate Champ Manning here beating us 3-2 with having only 2 shots on target! Atkins gives them the lead in a poor first half for us. I bring on Borgen for his first taste of action. He scores 2 in four mins after coming on to give us the lead. I stupidly start to think i know what i’m doing when Atkins nets his and Northampton’s second then Fanny Gislason scores in his own net to give them the victory.

With Greening injured we field our 1st ever full Scandinavian starting 11 for our trip to Marshwall. We have another goal disallowed before falling behind to a Fitzgerald header. Wonderboy equalises straight from the kick off. Hamon scores against us again meaning Millwall have done the double over us.

Next up is Wrytelhamm for what feels like the 5th time this season. After 2 defeats on the bounce we need to get a result here. Sigurd settles the nerves with an early goal. Spink equalises for Wrexham before half time. Collins then puts them in front, wonderboy scores the equaliser a minute later and Brandal gets us the winner in the 81st.

This piece of news pops up after the game and I think it’s the longest injury I’ve seen whilst playing this game….

A raid into what is now Lancashire and Preoston are left like a wilted red rose as Half Dan and Ivar give us the win that guarantees us promotion. Taylor scores a late consolation penalty for Preston.

A win in our home game to 3rd placed Loitone will see us champions. Unfortunately both Ivar and Wonderboy are suspended leaving us thin on the ground up front. I decide to play Sigurd as a lone striker and bring Borgen in to partner Half Dan in a 2-man midfield. The change in formation definitely made us harder to break down, Luton not even managing a shot on target. Unfortunately we rarely bothered their keeper either and the game ends in a stale mate.

The news comes over the tannoy that Oldham have also drawn meaning we are champions with 2 games to spare. Chants of “einheri” erupt from the stands as the boys soak in the glory.

The lads turn up at Prittleuulle in body but certainly not in mind having been on a 6-day bender. Extra barrels of ale were ordered in from Kategat in readiness for our end of season party, only Bjørn caught wind of it. He seized the shipment and dished it out to the lads. We found Ivar in a back alley telling a local wench “he might be known as ‘the Boneless’, but there is still one bone in his body that works”! Come on lad, time for bed!!! Southend score early in each half, Wonderboy showing the exuberance of youth, running off his hangover and halving the deficit.

The final game of the season is a top of the table clash. Second placed Aldehulme come to Bootham Crescent and play their part in a 6-goal thriller. Oldham come from behind twice before taking the lead. Ivar scores the equalising penalty after being brought down in the box.

We finished 7 points clear in the end but have the worst goals conceded in the top half of the table. Decent keepers & centre halves are tough to come by with a limited pool of players to choose from. Hopefully our reputation has increased and we can attract some quality in the post/pre season.

Lastly for this week we have the player stats. Ivar with an immense 56 goals/35 assists. His strike partner, Wonderkid Gislason making his mark with 30 goals and 20 assists. I hope the update does him justice. Sigurd I played behind the front 2 and chipped in with 20 goals and 23 assists. Notable mentions to Leif Andersen who was a big miss in our run in and same to Bjørn in the holding midfield role. Missing off here are the players we’ve sold. Most were only bit-part players but special mentions to Steve Tutill who we sold first for £2.4m (played 28, 2 goals, 1 assist, ave rat 7.64) and Steve Bushell £2.1m (played 33, 12 goals, 12 assists, ave rat 7.51)

Fingers crossed we can add some real quality to our side prior to the start of our season in the first division.

Until then, Morna!