John Harvey, A Lepers Legend: Harvey celebrates his induction into the Leper Hall of Fame after 50 consecutive appearances by promptly going on holiday.
With their glorious championship winning season still fresh in the memory, The Seagullers began the season in sluggish fashion. First up was Sparta Lebowski. Narrowly missing out on promotion to Div 2 the previous season, Sparta were set to be tough opposition. Adding to the tension some Lepers appeared to be on friendly terms with the Sparta boys through some Southern connection or other. Friendliness with the opposition is not something the Rhino approves of.
Anyway, back to the football. In a largely defensive encounter, the Lepers took the lead through someone at some point and held it for the majority of the match until someone else decided a draw would be a fairer result and rolled the ball out to the Sparta forward before diving over the resulting shot. 1-1. Bugger.
Disaster was beginning to strike for the Lepers as a combination of Leprotic injuries (Ames – Knee, Stoner – Nose, Jerzak – Ankle, Sheen – General Malaise) and ill-advised vacationing (Webb, Hoskins – NYC) reduced the team to a bare minimum 5 going into the crunch match with league leaders and old foes Airlock. This, along with what I'm sure was some questionable officiating contributed to a rare HL defeat. 2-1. 1 point from 6. Crap!
At this point, head coach Sheen resigned, sighting a lack of support from the board, media intrusion and the constant speculation regarding his future as the cause. Despite interest from Koeman, Ramos and Klinsmann, the post eventually went to unknown Pole Jerzak. He would need a win in his first match against Monkey Magic to silence the doubting fans. The Lepers duly provided a 3-1 spanking of the monkeys (fnar fnar) to put the title challenge back on track. Subsequent demolitions of FC Zizou (3-0), Minc (6-2), Stokie FC (7-3) and a massive 10-0 pummelling of Thursday League Div 3 Vacancy, Jerzak had ensured the bad old Sheen days had been forgotten and at the half way stage HLFC were well poised for a title assault.
A defeated Monkey
As the season entered its latter stages, The Lepers faced the return match against Sparta Lebowski, who were by now sitting pretty at the top of the table. Again, a general sense of amiability pervaded the pre-match banter with the opposition, possibly contributing to the eventual 2-1 defeat. Lepers shouldn’t make friends! Facing the media after the match, Jerzak sounded almost Wenger-esque as he berated the opposition for their negative tactics as they were content to camp on the edge of the D and disrupt the Lepers beautiful, free-flowing football. A win against Airlock the following week was now a must.