Starting Eleven (6 page)

But that wasn’t easy to do. Adam had moved into midfield, and for some reason each time I looked up he was close by. I grabbed Steven.

‘That Adam’s got it in for me,’ I told him. ‘Cover me.’

‘No worries, mate,’ replied Steven. ‘I got him.’

We gave away a free kick just outside our eighteen-yard area and as I looked for someone to mark, I saw Adam. He was standing on the six-yard line with his hand up in the air. I walked over and stood between him and the goal. He nudged me with his shoulder. It felt like it was made of rock. But I didn’t chicken out. I nudged him back.

‘I’m gonna score from this,’ he hissed to me. ‘You ain’t stopping me . . .’

I nodded but kept quiet. Suddenly I felt a presence at my side. It was Steven.

And behind him, standing by the goalpost,
was
Abs. I got ready for the ball to come into the box, but it didn’t. As Adam pushed me out of the way, the ball sailed harmlessly wide. That didn’t stop Adam though. He pushed me forward and into the ground and landed on top of me. As he did so, he dug his elbow into my ribs and my face into the grass.

‘
AGHHH!!!!
’ I groaned as I tasted mud for the second time. And then the wind just disappeared out of my lungs.

All around me it went off. Adam was having a go at Steven, who had pushed him. And Adam’s team-mates, Harry and Dave, joined in, with Chris and Abs having a go too. I heard the whistle go a few times and then I heard Adam call Mr Turner names.

‘RIGHT!’ I heard Mr Turner say as I slowly got my breath back. ‘I don’t want a thug like you in my team. You’re
off
!’

As I sat up to take some more air in,
Adam
leaned over and spoke to me.

‘Didn’t wanna play for this team anyway,’ he said. ‘I’m goin’ to the Eagles.’

‘Lucky you,’ I said, trying not to grimace as my ribs throbbed.

‘Look out for me,’ he warned. ‘I’m not done with you yet . . .’

And then he walked off, calling our team a bunch of girls. His two mates, Dave and Harry, went after him and finally, after I’d had time to recover a bit, Mr Turner told us he’d seen enough.

‘Trial’s over,’ he said. ‘Go and get changed. Mr James and I will be in shortly.’

We didn’t have to wait long. Mr Turner did the same as he had after the first trial. We stood and waited nervously as he read out each name slowly. Once again I didn’t hear my name. He’d called out eight names before one of my friends was called out. That
was
Jason, who shouted ‘YES!’ when he heard his name.

Then Mr Turner called out the names Leon, Corky, Steven and Gurinder, one after the other. There were only three names left to call out and me, Chris and Abs were still waiting. I had a bad feeling in my belly. I hadn’t made it . . .

‘Chris,’ said Mr Turner.

Chris looked at me and shrugged, as if to say ‘Sorry, mate’. I wanted to be sick. I had to be in the squad.

‘Abs,’ Mr Turner added a moment later.

Abs jumped up and down on the spot, whooping with delight. But then he saw my face and he stopped. There was one name left to call out and too many boys waiting to be told! I hadn’t made it. All my friends were in the team and I was going to have to forget about it . . .

‘And . . . Dal,’ Mr Turner called out after
what
seemed like five years!

‘YES!’ I shouted. ‘
Yes, yes, yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
’

After congratulating us and saying well done to the boys who hadn’t made it, Mr Turner told us to be back at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

‘We’re going to do warm-ups and tactics before the game against Clarendon United, which kicks off at eleven.’

I sat down on a bench, holding my sore ribs.

‘You gonna be OK?’ Steven asked me.

‘Yeah – just a bruise or two,’ I told him.

‘Forget the bruises,’ said Chris. ‘We did it!’

‘We’re all Rushton REDS!’ Jason sang out. ‘RUSHIE REDS, RUSHIE REDS, RUSHIE REDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

I sat down on a bench and smiled, relieved that I had made it. It felt great!

Chapter 8

Saturday

IT WAS COLD
and wet when we turned up for our first game. Abs was actually shivering and Jason had a bit of a cold. His nose was red and snotty. He was sniffing constantly.

‘It’s
freezing
,’ said Chris as we walked towards the changing rooms.

‘Like Eskimo cold,’ I replied.

‘Bet the inside of the clubhouse is going to
feel
like an igloo too,’ added Abs.

When we got inside we found three of the squad waiting for us. One of them nodded to us.

‘All right?’ he said. He was called Byron and the lads with him were Pete and Ben.

I said hello as Steven and Gurinder walked in too. We sat down and started talking about the game.

‘Who we playing today?’ asked Jason. ‘What are they like?’

‘Clarendon United,’ Byron told him. ‘They’re really good.’

‘How d’you know that?’ asked Abs.

‘My brother used to play for them,’ explained Byron. ‘They’ve got loads of teams; right up to adults.’

I watched as some more lads walked in.

One of them – a tall lad with blond hair and freckles – I knew already. His name was Anthony, although everyone called him Ant. He was followed in by Rajvir and Will, two lads I hadn’t met before the trials.

‘Corky told me that Clarendon are the best team in the league along with
Evington
Eagles,’ I told everyone.

Ant nodded and then rubbed his hands together. ‘Clarendon won the league last year and the Eagles won the City Cup,’ he replied. ‘And they’re our two closest rivals.’

‘If we can beat
them
,’ added Ben, ‘then we can beat
any
of the other teams.’

Chris and me nodded at the same time.

By the time Leon and Corky arrived, Mr Turner was already going through some tactics. They were closely followed by two lads who looked the same. Twins called Alfie and Tom. When the whole squad had taken a seat, Mr Turner continued.

‘OK, lads, let’s get down to it . . .’

Alfie held up his hand.

‘Yes, Alfie?’ asked Mr Turner.

‘Tom and I are injured,’ replied Alfie.

‘Oh – OK. What’s the problem?’

‘We were playing football at home and
hurt
our shins – they’re really badly bruised,’ explained Tom.

‘
Both
of you?’ asked Mr Turner.

They nodded together.

‘At the
same
time?’ asked Chris, grinning.

They nodded again.

‘Oh,’ said Mr Turner. ‘Anyone else got an injury?’

I turned and looked at the rest of the squad. I wasn’t expecting anyone else to put their hands up. But I was about to get a shock. Rajvir, Will, Pete and Ben all put their hands up. That meant we were down to
ten
players and
no
substitutes. It was unbelievable!

‘Right,’ said Mr Turner. ‘Looks like we’ve got a problem before we’ve even begun . . .’

Jason put up his hand.

‘You’re not going to tell me that
you’re
injured too, are you?’ said Mr Turner.

‘No, sir. I just wanted to know how
we
’re going to play with ten men?’

Mr Turner smiled. ‘
Well
 . . .’ he began as Mr James and Miss Rice walked in too, ‘there is something I wanted to tell you all at the trial . . .’

‘We’ve got two extra players with two more on their way,’ added Miss Rice.

‘Nice one!’ said Chris. ‘Where are they?’

‘Getting changed,’ said Mr James, ‘which is what you lot should be doing.’

Abs looked from me to Chris to Jason.

‘Why are they getting changed somewhere else?’

This time Miss Rice cracked a big smile. She looked at Mr Turner, who nodded.

‘Because they’re members of
my
team,’ she told us.

‘
Your team?
’ I blurted out. ‘But
your
team are—’

‘Yes, I know,’ she said, cutting me off. ‘My team are
girls
!’

‘
NO WAY!
’ shouted Abs. ‘No way, no way, no way!’

We were still moaning about girls playing with us when we got outside. Well, Abs and Steven were. But that wasn’t going to be the last surprise. The girls hadn’t come out yet, so we were doing stretches by the side of the pitch, led by Mr James.

‘We’re gonna get thumped,’ said Abs.

‘And laughed at,’ said Steven. ‘The shame . . .’

‘They should have told us,’ added Chris. ‘I mean, that’s not fair, is it – just telling us like that?’

Mr James told us to stop and gather round. There were a lot of disgruntled faces.

‘Listen, lads,’ he began. ‘I know it’s not what you were expecting, but we think that it’ll be really good for the team.’

‘Why?’ asked Corky. ‘Because we’ll get beat every week?’

Mr James shook his head. ‘One of the reasons you made the squad, Corky, was because you looked like a battler during the trial – now you’re just being negative . . .’

‘But he’s right,’ I told Mr James. ‘Boys and girls don’t play together. They’re just not as good as us.’

‘You might live to regret those words, Dal,’ replied Mr James. ‘The girls we’ve chosen are fantastic players.’

‘No way!’ said Byron. ‘One tackle and they’ll run home crying . . .’

‘And what happens if they break a nail?’ asked Chris. ‘My sister cried for two days when she broke one of hers.’

‘Yeah, but your sister’s mental,’ said Abs.

‘Good point,’ replied Chris, grinning.

‘Just give them a chance,’ pleaded
Mr James
. ‘You haven’t even met them or seen them play yet.’

‘Sir, where’s your accent from?’ asked Jason, totally randomly.

‘Middlesbrough, son . . .’

‘Are they like Newcastle?’ asked Abs cheekily. He knew that Newcastle and Middlesbrough were big rivals.

‘Leave it, Abs, or you’ll spend the rest of the morning doing press-ups,’ said Mr James. Only he was smiling when he said it. Lucky Abs.

We went through forty more minutes of training and working with the practice footballs. It involved lots of short sprints and stretching exercises and then a long run around the edges of the pitch. As our muscles warmed up, I wondered where the girls were.

‘I thought the girls were here?’ I asked Mr James.

‘They are, son,’ he replied. ‘Miss Rice has them warming up inside.’

‘See?’ said Abs, looking upset. ‘They’re already getting treated better than us!’

‘They’re just going through the same thing as you are,’ said Mr James. ‘And Miss Rice knows what she’s doing. Her team were league champions last season.’

‘Yeah, but that was in the Barbie league,’ joked Chris.

‘Let’s just give them a chance, lads,’ replied Mr James.

At the end of training Mr James told us to keep warm and practise with the balls in any way we wanted to. Freestyle, he called it. I teamed up with Chris and Byron and we formed a triangle and began to pass the ball to each other, with only two touches allowed. On my fifth pass I looked up to play the ball to Chris. But he was just grinning like a crazy man. And then he burst into laughter.

‘What’s up with you?’ I asked as someone came up behind me and tapped my shoulder.

‘
Oi!
’ I said, spinning round and coming face to face with Lily and Parvy. They were both wearing football kit and boots.

‘Hello, my darling boyfriend,’ said Lily with a huge grin. ‘Shall we
play
 . . . ?’