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!