We never play the same team twice
The Jollies march on..in March..to another rousing
victory, pushing the limits of realistic scorelines with a 7-5 win over Rubber
Tappers, and extended an astonishing 100% win record stretching back to the start
of 2013. Star defender Akhil made a fantastic goalkeeping debut with several calm
catches and colossal clearances, while Ross and Kannan were imperious in
defence and RM Andrew Johnny and Shan patrolled the flanks with sentry-like
efficiency. The midfield - Brad Oscar and Junwai – bossed proceedings and
hustled well, while the attack always looked dangerous on the …er… attack.
Barely 5 minutes in and the ref decides to stir things
up by giving a penalty from an innocent handball…the Jollies equalized
instantly as Muru ran clear of the defence and clipped a beautiful one over the
keeper, and then went ahead with a tap-in from the “combined schools Chennai
and Dhaka star” again … lol. Then the ref, who probably bought over 3.5 for the
first half, mystifyingly gave them a freekick on the Jollies goal-line…after
Akhil picked up a loose ball that came off Oscar!? #bookieatwork. So Jollies 2
– Referee 2 at half-time.
The opponents then scored very early in 2H to take a 2-3
lead. But then some inspirational roars from RM and TKan provided the impetus
for 3 blistering goals as the Jollies stormed back like Man Utd in 2012/2013 –
Tkan finished Muru’s cross after some cool tiki-taka between Brad Ants and Tim,
Ants dispatched a penalty after being totally unfairly obstructed in the box,
and TKan scored a golazooooo completing a stunning 20-pass move involving all
17 players (yes, tt’s probably what happened #nooneknowsactually).
After that, Jollies started to chill out too soon as
the midweek/all-week liver training regime for some took its toll, and carelessly
let slip the lead to 5-5, like Man Utd this season. The opponents by then had become generally quite upset with everyone ... us, the ref, their own team..and were whining about various trivialities, but the Jollies sidestepped all the
nonsense to finish strongly. After a weird period of pressure on the team,
which included a 10 minute soliloquy from the ref directed strangely at Ong and which
Andrew hilariously kept saying “yes ok ok ok” to, the Jollies powered on. Tim
won another penalty and new daddy Nige coolly stepped up… and conveerted the
penalty like a boss… following up by dedicating a famous celebration to baby
Mike! Then somewhere Ants also had a tap in and so the Jollies saw out the rest
of the game with relative ease.
Other highlights include the ref requesting Ross to
please give the other team a chance after a small fracas and sub himself off,
which he politely obliged, and Muru similarly politely declining to finish his
hattrick after dribbling past the keeper then rolling the ball slow enough
toward goal for the defender to hack off the line… very generous…Oh and
Kannan’s legendary reply to the opponent’s request for a grudge rematch..- “We never play the same team twice.” LOL!
The winning run may end sometime, but the memories will
… actually they fade relatively quickly (like that very same evening… it took a
few people a few days and many beers to piece this together).. hence the
resumption of recording match reports for when we need to remember these good ol
days!
