TWFC

Most of the side who were undone by the Preventative Policing strategy last week indicated their unavailability for this match. Milo entered the fixture with a six match unbeaten run stretching back to 12 August 2015, during this spell he has orchestrated victories over everyone from AlMaher, Danny, JonF, LuteusMaximus, Mark, Nathan, S, Scott, Steve to Jorge, Niyi and Jake to name a few. No one seems to have escaped his wizard tactical genius. This evening the master was accompanied by Danny, Ben and Avvon, essentially one of the club's most attacking formations. Danny with the all time scoring record, Ben until recently the highest scoring debutante and Avvon the footballing academic with the pile driver of a shot that is always still accelerating as it hits the back of the net.

Against them was the enigmatic combination of Dave and Jake who like ninjas score goals every week and are quietly amassing a consistency record to rival anyone at the club. They were captained by the irrepressible genio del fútbol Jorge and accompanied by Niyi who had declared a desire to play against Jorge to take him to task for his recent post-match conference.

In the early exchanges the Coloured Tops opened the scoring and were then pegged back. One on one with the keeper Jorge spurned his chance to take the Coloured Tops 2 -1 up and his keeper explained to him and anyone that would listen that the Coloured Tops needed to take their chances as profligacy in front of goal would result in defeat.

Ben, fresh from a pre-match motivational thinking session, combined with Avvon and Danny to put daylight between the Light Tops and their opponents. Soon it was 3 - 1 to the Lights. Then it was 6 - 2 and the Lights were both building a healthy lead and rotating keepers in order to give players a breather. Curiously each time Ben scored the opposing keeper would celebrate with him and chant the hypnotic mantra 'You Are BEN!' . At our level of football we are all mates and sometimes it is good to revel in your opponent's success (a sort of reverse schadenfreude).

The Coloured Tops keeper had conceded six goals so eventually he was booted out on pitch. The change in formation was immediately rewarded with a goal which signified that the Lights might not be policing the opposition quite the way a Milo team normally would. This was further buttressed when the Coloureds scored again to close the gap to 6 - 4 to the Lights.

Kicking on again with Danny bossing the attack for his side and feeding Avvon and Ben the Lights took the score up to 9 - 5. The match was into the last quarter and members of the other team were seen at the fence watching. When Milo began pulling off point blank saves it became clear that things were unlikely to go well for the Coloured Tops.

The Coloured Tops brought the score to 9 - 6. As the minutes ticked away Dave was down the left, Jorge down the middle and Jake alternating between the center and the right. It was really a case of going for broke. Ben had earlier scored a goal which squeezed with pin point accuracy in between the keeper and his left post exploiting a gap that could not have been greater that the diameter of the ball. Not to be out done Jorge saw a similar opportunity and from a fair distance out rifled the ball past five players in a straight line just inside the Light Tops keeper's post to pull a goal back for the Coloured Tops. The sustained pressure re-awoke the primeval spirit of Dave that had been gently smouldering and getting ready to explode for months. Dave put his laces through balls from distance and tormented from the wing like the Dave of old. Jake was terrorising the Coloured Tops from the other side. Shots were driven in with ferocity. Even Milo could not have anticipated the vigour and artistry that was being rained down on his team.

Suddenly it was 9 - 7, somehow the Light Tops who had been winning the match at a canter were being pegged back. In going forward the Coloureds were open for the traditional counter-attack and normal service was restored to bring the match to 10 - 7 to the Lights. Jorge, Jake and Dave were not done and even as the cars for the other team began pulling up and with Niyi shouting 'just play percentages', they brought the score back to 10 - 9.

It was surreal, the players on the pitch had no concept of the time it was just total focus on the match. 10 - 9 was at least respectable but the Coloured Tops could see the draw beckoning. Niyi made a save. With the ball in his control, but without the quiet sagacious voice of Scott to advise him to take his time, he saw a counter attack move on and with a rush of adrenaline tried to float a ball down the centre of the pitch to set the attack on its way. The Light Tops read the move, cut out the pass and scored from the resulting free run on goal. Someone shouted from outside the fence 'two minutes to go' . In effect one mega lapse of concentration by the Coloured Tops' keeper had just thrown the match away. 11 - 9 to the Light Tops.

Jorge, Dave and Jake were in a zone. They had to go forward, anything else would result in a defeat. The Lights had won the match and they knew it. Bang! the Coloured Tops scored to make it 11 - 10. The Light Tops attempted to take control of the game yet again. The Coloured Tops took possession of the ball and Bang !! it was suddenly 11 -11. Each Coloured Top outfield player had scored his hat trick.

'Fall back let's defend the draw' Niyi screamed but Jake, Dave and Jorge were still in the zone. The Light Tops were in between the devil and the deep blue sea, they had won the match several times already and would need to do so one more time against the Coloured Tops who had scented blood. The next bit of the match was such a blur it is possible that no one can be sure how it happened. As if a voice had whispered 'will the real Dave, the real Jake and the real Jorge please stand up, please stand up' suddenly the ball was with the Coloured Tops and they charged down on the Light Tops goal and BANG!!!!! it was Light Tops 11 - Coloured Tops 12. Seconds later the other team walked on to the pitch.

Milo's illustrious record had been broken in the only way it could go by an inspired performance from a team that refused to be beaten. The Coloured Tops had been beaten virtually all match but they did not lose because they flat out refused to lose.

Match awarded to the Coloured Tops 12 - 11.

Image Showing Approximate Distribution of Goals