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By and large, Hull City outplayed Aston Villa yesterday but at the end of the day had nothing on the table on the night. Villa went home with three points and they didn’t even need to score a goal to get that; an OG came in handy for them!

I remember vividly the Champions league finals between Manchester United and Bayern Munchen almost ten years ago. Bayern led from a first half goal and a hard looking guy named Carsten Jancker; hit the post twice after Mario Bassler had given them the lead six minutes into the match. And if those shots had gone in, the Red Devils would have been dead and buried; however, it wasn’t to be.

Sir Alex Ferguson sweated at the touchline thinking of what could have been. And just as the lines man indicated the three added minutes, Teddy Sheringham equalized and seemed to have taken the match to extra time. This too was not to be as Ole Gunner ‘baby faced assasin’ Solksjaer turned up with the winner. A most heart wrenching defeat for Bayern!

Most significantly, Bayern’s ribbons had been secured to the trophy in preparation for presentation! This, of course was not to be as the ribbons were changed and the Red Devils took their spoils home.

Samuel Kuffor, one of the most accomplished players to have come out of Africa played his heart out in the match but at the end of the day, he cried his eyes out! This, often times can be the lot of teams and players in the arena of the most beautiful game in the world.

Arsenal in May 2006 led Barcelona with a lone goal for 76 minutes and with only ten men! The rest as they say, is history. They lost that tie  (their most important match to date) by 2-1.

In the FIFA Under 21 tournament tagged Saudi ’89, the defunct Soviet Republic led Nigeria by four goals to nil at a stage in the match. Nigeria equalized and went on to win that match in the ensuing penalty shootouts. The picture of the dejected Russian players would never leave my memory. Some of them cried and refused to leave the pitch even after the match had been concluded.

When we played Brazil at the semi-finals of the football events at the Atlanta Olympics in the US IN 1996, only few people expected us to beat the ‘Samba boys’. When the first half ended with Brazil leading by 3-1, that expectation was even more reinforced. However, we came back! We defeated them with perhaps Nigeria’s most famous goal. Kanu Nwankwo, our current national team captain became renowned all over the world for that goal. He became the golden boy!

Remember EURO 1984, where Denmark (a team that did not qualify ab initio) became the champions? What about EURO 1996 in England when it took two quick fire goals from Oliver Bierhoff to haul Germany away from the brink of defeat? Italy suffered same feat in the hands France four years later. I could go on and on.

The world of football is filled with these types of stories-A team seemingly out of a tie suddenly becoming the winner. This unpredictability; this spontaneity is what defines this beautiful game of ours.

My words to Phil Brown and his troops: Keep on trying, do not be disheartened and one day, one-day, Mother Nature would give you the rewards you deserve. Surely, Hull City was the better side yesterday but such sides don’t win all the time in football!

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