‘Sometimes you have to wonder how they do it, from where it is they draw their resolve. Wasn’t the season already over? Couldn’t they see that 4-6 and a brutal closing schedule added up to 16 games and out? But that’s just it. They couldn’t see it. Or maybe, more honorably, they refused to see it, and won’t see it, not until the mathematics extinguish the final flicker of hope.’