Well, so much for that idea then.

After the enormous high of last weeks defeat of Hungary, we now find ourselves in a situation where the rest of Europe have painted a big target on our NT’s collective backside.

While there are a baffling array of permutations where qualifying from second place is concerned, some facts are clear.

Firstly, our fate is out of our hands now. In order to win the group we need to win and hope for a big favour from Azerbaijan, the upside being that all we need from them is an unlikely draw rather than a near impossible win.

Secondly, if Greece do take the group with us behind them then we are sweating on a raft of results from the other groups. Because Austria are bottom of our group a victory cannot help our cause in the ranking of second place sides that is being monitored on the forum.

Currently, we are second with five spots available between the eight groups. One group are out of the running but teams from the other five groups are all capable of improving their ranking. We have a good chance but it will be touch and go. Seeing that Armenia are capable of eliminating us for the second time running is a particular cause for concern.

Finally, we must win. It seems obvious but it needs to be said. Not only to give us any hope of reclaiming top spot but failure to win could see us overtaken for second place in our own group or, even worse, it could see us finish second in our group with Azerbaijan bottom in place of Austria. Now my head may be swimming from a wealth of numbers here but if that were to happen, we would basically eliminate ourselves from the tournament. So as you can see, the win does matter.

I know you’ve all tuned in for a scathing match report instead of maths for the terminally geeky but honestly, it’s been tough to even look at, nevermind assign blame.

CB picked the same side as beat Hungary, and sent them out in a more attacking frame of mind against a Belarus side that just seemed to want it more. I could argue for having used a Diamond against them but Butler’s performance last time out was compelling. Although that hasn’t stopped the NC with the hairy grapefruits dropping players in the past.

We had more possession and more shots on target but in key areas, our players didn’t step up to the mark and after a strong opening, we seemed to invite them onto us. What’s more, we were damn lucky to still have eleven men on the pitch by the time they took the lead, glynn somehow getting away with it on a night to forget for the Askeaton superstar.

The biggest criticism I can level at CB is that we shouldn’t have gone into this game needing a result to see us through. TM is a cruel mistress for us all and sometimes the players don’t show up at key moments but experimentation did cost us points early on.

All we can do now is put Austria to the sword, and hope.

D.Gaffer