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| Does anyone want to win this division..? |
With only the league now to concentrate on after last Friday's sixth-round Ultimate League Cup exit, Viking North Utsire's fate in Division 2b this season is not the slightest bit clearer after a tame 0-0 draw at 4th-placed Seaforth Highlanders this Monday.
The Utsirans looked out of shape after their Cup defeat to My-Tee Athletic, and created almost nothing at the Highland Arena so were the more grateful of the two teams to see the game end in a stalemate -- not least after senior midfielder Johan Kvalvik suffered what looks a career-shortening injury late in the first half. The 39-year-old veteran has still played an important role this season, and at Christmas time became only the third player in VNU history to reach a century of assists as well as pulling level with Toralf Austrheim in =5th place on the combined points rankings with 175 each. Now though this injury, only the third major one in his 22 seasons at the club, will rule him out of half the remaining fixtures at a point where experienced heads will really be needed.
Hilariously though, in a division nobody seems all that keen to actually try to get promoted from, Monday brought an exemplary display of non-commitment across the board. The entire slate of fixtures ended in draws, two finishing 0-0 and the other two 1-1. A solitary burst of excitement came at the very start of the second half, when both bottom club AC Assassins and their 5th-placed visitors More Mischief abruptly scored just moments apart, before lapsing back into the general torpor. The latter's 48th-minute equaliser indeed proved to be the last goal of the day anywhere.
With four rounds of matches to play, this mass outbreak of politeness-judo ("After you"/"No, after you!"/"Oh, no, I insist!") has left things precisely as they were, obviously. There are still only six points spanning the entire table, bar the nearly-down Assassins, who are ten adrift of the rest but whose battling point this week keeps them just about afloat for now.
Viking, for their part, remain just three points above the relegation line and their next game is at AFC Brza who currently sit immediately the 'wrong' side of it. At the same time the Utsirans are merely one point behind 2nd-placed FK Crvena Zvezda and one further back from leaders Beverley Town -- with those two clubs facing each other next in what could potentially be a decisive summit showdown. Or not, depending on just how indecisive they're both feeling.
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