Day 46 of 2026 and its still raining. I’m not sure what the weather was like in Cologne back in 2001, but given how things have been going, it’s likely to be highly changeable. This is the middle section of season 5 and my penultimate post of last years secret Santa blog squad adventure. So far, our limited border transfer exercise has only yielded one Pokal Cup victory, but it has taken us into europe. Before that though, a reminder of where we stand…

Adrfit. We stand adrfit.

We’ll stay adrift if we can only draw with bottom dwellers like Zwickau

We’re a bit more ruthles in Europe against Aab, where two late goals seal the deal.

The draw could have been better to be honest, but that’s a 2002 problem.

At the Nurnberg ring, Balling comes back to haunt us, which of course, is generally the narrative in these games.

Matthysen makes the difference in the lovers minute against Berlin, and their breath is taken away.

Its a carbon copy result against Munich 7pm. It’s effective results based football, but it’s pretty boring to be honest….

For some reason, the reverse fixture is four days later and it’s better goal wise, but conceding two late goals gives me a few palpitations, but Schmeichel Jnr is proving to be a wise choice over Mr Angry, Oliver Kahn….

I thought this would be a laugh but then realised Belgium haven’t qualified for the World Cup…

Dortmund have won the league for four seasons on the trot and despite holding them for 80 minutes, we still can’t overcome them.

Just like Balling, Kostner comes back to haunt us

No former players coming for us at Schalke, but I have to rely on my P players to salvage a point. Purk has been far more inconsistent than I had hoped for…..

I bring Felgenhauer in up front which works but there is no compensating for double glazing at Bochum. Pflipsen sparing our blushes with a man advantage.

Felgenhauer rewards me with a four goal masterclass against BMGB and it’s possibly the best result of the season.

Felgers is at it again against Leverkusen with a quickfire double which is undone by Sundermann seeing red for a clumsy challenge and both goals conceded are against centrebacks. Rubbish.

Well, in that run we’ve won 4, drawn 4 and lost 3, so predictably unpredictable we continue to be. It leaves us in 8th and the dream of a league title in our final season is, I think, officially over. However, we still have European and domestic cups to hunt down, so please join me next time, for one last blast from Cologne…