The Maudraiska Mirror
LATEST Ancharmunn poised for sensational comeback win as power cut hits
For a nation that has historically achieved little more than minor mediocrity on the football pitch at best few within Ancharmunn will have rated the country's chances of making much of an impact when they recently announced their intention to return to the Copa Rushmori for the first time in nine editions of the regional extravaganza. Fewer outside the nation even appear to have noticed the return with barely a whisper of it in international media. A tough opening round fixture against defending champions Eura then will have surely put paid to any hopes of making a winning, or even drawing return for Ancharmunn to international football.
Speaking ahead of the game, newly installed Ancharmunn boss Leo Conlan admitted his sides chances would be slim.
“It's going to be bloody tough” he sighed just before kick-off as his team ran through their warm-ups on the turf of Pohjoiskaivaa. “There's no getting away from Eura being a bloody good team. They've a couple of World Cups to their name, and they come here as the defending Copa Rushmori champions. My boys haven't really played a game together yet, so I think everyone will be expecting a big win for Eura. We'll need some luck, but what a story it'd be if we were able to cause an upset eh!”
No doubt from the first whistle only a Euran thrashing seemed on the cards. Confidence reigned both on the pitch and in the stands. The Euran faithful vastly outnumbered the small contingent of Charmunnry fans within the Pohjoiskaivaa, in particular a wall of cacophonous Euran noise descended from the packed Western End of the ground, with the fans there goading their opponents with how many they felt, in fact seemed to believed they had a divine right, to put past Floyd Leyland, tasked with keeping goal for Ancharmunn at that end.
Despite a shedload of early chances a combination of surprising miss-hits and the odd fortunate save by Leyland somehow kept the scores at 0-0. When Ancharmunn did have their few chances at possession they generally looked to Juanito Bucanero to be the one to do something with it, and it was through that source roughly midway through the first-half that they were finally able to make headway.
As another Euran attack faltered, Bucanero was on hand to pick up the ball just outside the Ancharmunn box. With his team-mates running around at sixes and sevens however he was quickly forced to trick his way out of a crunching tackle from a Euran midfield enforcer, before preceding on a mazy run up the pitch. Having already beaten several opponents Bucanero found himself being forced to the edge of the box and away from goal by a pair of Euran defenders, although a sublime bit of trickery saw him able to beat them, before turning round to beat them again with a rainbow flick, seemingly just for good measure. With the route to goal finally clear Bucanero was able to deftly chip the ball over the onrushing Euran keeper to score what even at this early stage has to be a serious contender for goal of the tournament already. Despite an ever growing onslaught by Eura throughout the remainder of the half, Ancharmunn remarkably had a lead and were able to hold on to it going into half-time. However, Ancharmunn were dealt a blow in the immediate aftermath of Bucanero's wondergoal, as Darragh Considine, Columba O'Ryan and Manus Quinn all had to be substituted having clashed heads and knocking themselves out in the celebrations. Such ridiculous misfortune is probably more akin to the chances most would give this Ancharmunn side at this tournament.
The second half would continue with Eura bombarding Leyland in the Charmunnry goal, although with the switch of ends, Leyland would thankfully now be sparred from the more raucous elements of the Euran support. However the match was plunged into chaos and darkness just minutes after the restart following a power failure. With the Hovikkära sky having darkened rapidly since sunset the referee was forced to call a halt to proceedings slightly controversially just a Eura found themselves three on one against Leyland and surely finally set to break their deadlock.
Whilst the authorities rushed to try and regain power, after a few minutes of no light, the players tried to make their way into the dressing rooms to wait the situation out.
“Well, this is bloody dramatic isn't it!” Ancharmunn boss Conlan said in the dimly lit dressing room having let reporters in, mostly so they could use their phone lights to light the room up. “Obviously there's a still a way to go in the match, and Eura are really pushing, but I think we can hold out and win and what a bloody win that'd be! Who knows, we might even get lucky and they call the game off because of this and award us the win!”
However, should power be restored and the match continue Ancharmunn's job might possibly be made rather more difficult with suspicions that their talisman might have suffered an injury in the power cut.
“Juanito has got a bit of a problem unfortunately” Conland admitted, “We're not exactly sure what happened but he tripped over something in the tunnel and banged his head a bit, so we'll have to look at that once we can see it properly. Let's hope he's alright though. It'd be bloody embarrassing if we were to big up our chances of holding onto this win and then we lost our best player and went and chucked it away once the match restarts wouldn't it? Ha!”
Conlan then found himself put on the spot about international relations by an Astograthian reporter who was determined to find out Ancharmunn's view on it's relationships with the wider Rushmori community.
“Er, yeah, that's not really my area of expertise to be honest” flustered Conlan, “I guess we've isolated away from it for quite a while now, but coming back into the Copa fold could be a way to integrate ourselves back in it. I'm sure if we beat Eura that'll do some good for the rest of Rushmore's feeling towards us!”
Update: Ancharmunn goalie under siege as play resumes
