Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor
Christopher Nicholas (right) will lead Tivoli Gardens' charge against newly-promoted neighbours Boys' Town as the National Premier League kicks off today with a full slate of games. - FILE
CHRISTOPHER NICHOLAS is heading off on one of those goal scoring tangents.
The Tivoli Gardens' goal-getting ace announced his intentions to run riot on opposing teams this season after slamming in his first hat-trick of the 2005-06 Wray and Nephew National Premier League (NPL) in a 4-0 drubbing of Seba United at Eward Seaga Stadium on Sunday.
"It seems as if everything is coming back into place right now, I just need to work a little harder off the ball," he said of his form and fitness after knee surgery towards the back-end of last season.
"I feel very good about this, it's 4-0 and I scored three goals. We had a number of players out and we were coming off a bad loss. That's where leadership comes in, I knew something had to be done," Nicholas added in reference to the forced absence of five regular starters from his team and the 4-1 thrashing they received at Arnett in the game prior to Sunday.
Actually, the 24-year-old striker had opened his seasonal account in the Arnett beating by scoring a penalty.
HIS REPERTOIRE
Against Seba, all his goals came from open play and showed different facets of his repertoire - controlling a cross before firing low past the 'keeper for the first; faking the goalkeeper into a dive then rounding him to tap in the second; and then fully extending his body to use his right leg and skilfully guide a cross inside the near post to complete his hat-trick.
A number of those special one-game goal-triples have served to enhance his reputation as a quality striker.
In one match, for St. Alban's Primary, Nicholas actually scored 16 times to lead his school to a 22-0 drubbing of Greenwich Town Primary. He went on to score 49 goals that season and led his school to the title.
Many titles, backed up by a bag of goals, have followed since including the Ken Matthews Under-14, the Minor League and then followed the Minor League triple, when he was the leading scorer for the Christopher Brown-coached Denham Town, playing alongside teammates Kevin Deerr, Damion Stewart and Roland Dean who, like himself, have played on national teams.
JUNIOR CAREER
He advanced his outstanding junior career by leading Tivoli Gardens to the Manning Cup title in 1999 with a 3-2 win over Jamaica College in the final. To boot, Nicholas scored one of his season-high 19 goals in the Manning Cup title game.
Several members of that team like Dean, Denroy Gordon and Oraine Simpson have teamed up with him to share happier moments by winning the NPL in 2004 for Tivoli Gardens, which his uncle, Ian Fogo, served as a top midfielder.
Nicholas, who has one sister and two brothers, again scored highly by netting 15 goals in that title triumph campaign.
He was hampered by injuries then and also last year when he scored more heavily in the premiership, scoring 23 goals despite missing part of the season through injury as well.
In fact, he was to miss the most important part of the season, having to watch the crucial semi-finals and finals from the stands because of a knee surgery.
"I felt down-hearted, knowing that if I was solid and was out there we'd have 100 per cent better chance to win," said Nicholas of the painful experience of watching his team being dethroned by Portmore United. "It wasn't a good feeling."
At this point, he is feeling much better, both mentally and physically.
"I did surgery and I have to say the surgery is successful because it's not bothering me right now, I haven't felt any pain," said the regular national senior team invitee who represented Jamaica at the Under-20 Youth World Cup in Argentina in 2001.
Staying injury-free is a major thing for the stockily-built Nicholas, who has been criticised for his weight. To those detractors, he has this to say: "Most people think I'm overweight but that's just me. There's no man who is overweight who can score 23 goals in the leading competition in the country," he argued.
"It's just injuries. If you're injured you can't train, so you can't stay fit. Injuries must affect fitness."
Staying injury-free is high on his agenda. But even higher is his desire to further his career as a footballer.
OBJECTIVE
Asked to list his main objective, without hesitation, Nicholas's response was clear, very precise and full of conviction.
"I must be stationary in the national team and get out of Jamaica."
The hat-trick against Seba is only a stepping stone towards that goal but Nicholas admits there is much work to be done right now, starting with Tivoli.
"It must be more victories home and away, more three points," he added of the remaining league fixtures for his team which is tied at third on 13 points with Arnett Gardens (who have a game in hand), one behind Waterhouse and five adrift leaders Harbour View.
"It's not like there are semi-finals now so when we can get the three points we've to take them," he added of the straight league system. "We lost three games ... so we have to capitalise and catch up on these teams because they are getting away from us, we've to work for these three-point games to get back on top."
One sure way for Tivoli to do that is for Nicholas to stay on this tangent where he's banging in the goals.
