“Against the run of play”
/əˈɡenst ðə rʌn əv ˈpleɪ/
phrase · soccer
Definition
A goal scored by the team that has been getting battered. Nothing about the previous twenty minutes suggested it was coming, and then it arrived anyway.
Origin
"The run of play" means the general flow of a match, borrowing the same sense of run as a run of luck or a run of form. Something happening against it is the game briefly ignoring everything that came before it.
Used in a sentence
"Newcastle had barely been out of their own half all afternoon, then Willock puts them 2-1 up. Completely against the run of play."
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