"So just a few seconds on the clock left in the first half, and what have you made of it so far?"

"Well, to be fair Inflationistas must be feeling sick as a parrot. They came out storming against Deflationistas and managed to take that key early lead, Bullwhip heading in at both the left and the right post, totally unmarked - 1-0, 2,-0, bam!"

"That's right. Powell in the heart of the Deflationistas defence looked totally confused. Is his head right? I am sure they will keep him on for the second half because the only real sub, Brainard, is untested at this level: but if it goes to extra time, do you think we will see a substitution?"

"Very likely in my opinion. But would that help the defence or not?"

"Indeed. After going 2-0 up, Inflationistas kept pressing, and sent Biden off on a mazy run – but each he ran into his own team-mate, Manchin, before he could shoot!"

"Inflationistas had many other opportunities too. The powerhouse center-forward Labour -controversially given a one-off bonus even if he wasn't picked to play- really looked like he might score for the first time in years. But that niggling hamstring injury the team never seem to treat right saw him pull up – why don't they ever get that treated properly?"

"Yes, you could see it really deflated the whole team psychology – even the crowd too."

"Then one of the best-performing players for Inflationistas, Beijing, sat back just when the crowd thought he would press forward. He seems really out of puff – would you credit it?"

"Well, he has been doing so much running for the past few years – really carrying the rest. Maybe he is saving something up for extra time, or if there has to be a replay?"