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Every year at about this time, the nation is gripped by Cup Fever. Great idea - bring a game out and capitalise on it all.

Virgin's effort is not a football arcade game like the now legendary International Soccer, but a Football Manager-style strategy game. Now I'm a great fan of Addictive's classic league struggle, so it would seem no problem to condense eight or so rounds to allow you even more managerial control.

So from a potential winner how do Virgin come up with a game which is as about as interesting as watching Accrington Stanley play Warrington in a bog?

The faults are many. To start with, you have a 1-8 player input. If there aren't eight of you, you end up controlling eight sides. In one final I was actually managing both teams.

As the painfully slow draw takes place you discover your only actual tactical control over the game is whether to choose to defend, play a balanced game, or attack.

In later games the matches are brightened up with a bit of news which is often so banal that you want to reach for the happy pills. I mean does a piece of information like "The goal nets are stolen on the eve of the match" serve any use? For a game which harps on about its realism this is pathetic. During one final I was told that both teams were looking tired after three minutes of play!

Doing the same repetitive things at each round and for the replays which inevitably crop up is as much fun as watching paint dry. The only saving grace was that it only took me a couple of attempts to guide the Hammers to the final and on to win the Cup. Perhaps there is some realism after all.