Perhaps because they had drank with their boss, their luck became better. May first, the second-last round of the league matches, was Nottingham Forest’s last chance to close in on West Bromwich.
In the end, Nottingham Forest beat Wigan Athletic on its home turf, with a score of 1:0. For that match, most of the Nottingham Forest fans were not focused on City Ground Stadium’s field. Instead, they were more focused on Reading and it’s home grounds, the Madejski Stadium. There, West Bromwich was met with Reading’s tough resistance.
When the match results from there finally came out, City Ground Stadium was in a state of jubilation!
1:0! Reading had beaten West Bromwich on their home grounds!
Lady luck had once again smiled upon Tang En and his team at the most crucial moment. Now there was only a one-point difference between Nottingham Forest and West Bromwich!
If Nottingham Forest beat West Bromwich in their last match, they would be able to surpass them and gain second place, thereby attaining the qualifications to be promoted directly to the Premier League. Tang En felt that his confidence had been completely restored. He no longer needed to activate plan B, to study the situations of his play-offs opponents. He had already analyzed West Bromwich for a full month!
Because they had lost a match at such a crucial moment, it was believed that West Bromwich’s morale must have taken quite a blow. On the other hand, Nottingham Forest’s morale was high, and its players had never been so confident in their direct promotion to the Premier League. The last match would be held at Nottingham Forest’s home stadium yet again, and over the span of a single night, almost everyone started favoring Nottingham Forest.
These people’s opinions just bend with the wind! Tang En did not pay much attention to the opinions of others. When they did not look upon Nottingham Forest favorably, Nottingham Forest still did not lose even once. Now that they favored Nottingham Forest, the still weren’t guaranteed to win.
The training plan had been arranged long ago, and the coaching staff was in charge of all aspects of it. Offense, defense, place kick, stamina, ball control, and various other things. Everything was going smoothly according to the plan.
The players’ mentalities, after going through so many matches, had also been optimized.
Tang En and Walker had already analyzed West Bromwich for an entire month. He knew about the team’s strengths and what kind of changes they had gone through even better than many of the die-hard West Bromwich fans.
What else did Tang En have to do? Before this extremely important match, he suddenly found that he had become the most idle person on the team.
It was almost May 9. Upon realizing this, Tang En felt that he should pay another visit to that place.
Exactly one year ago, Gavin had been laid to rest. One day later, Nottingham Forest had lost their first round of the semi-finals play-offs. One week later, Nottingham Forest had lost the entire play-offs. Tony Twain, who had been chosen as February’s best manager and pursued victory as his target, had instead lost his most important match.
Although he claimed that “I only pursue victory,” as long as he was still stuck in League One, he would always be a lying braggart, unable to raise his head in front of Gavin’s soul.
Now, one year had passed. The time to decide Nottingham Forest’s fate had come once again. As such, Tang En felt that there was a need to pay another visit to Gavin’s grave.
On May eighth, the last morning before the match day, Tang En headed to that small grey church on the hill after the team’s training.
Tang En figured that the cemetery would definitely not have any visitors aside from himself. However, when he finally got there, he realized, to his shock, that fatso John was there as well. He held a bouquet of white lilies in his hands, and was in the process of bending over and putting it down.
When fatso John stood up and discovered that there was another person beside him, he jumped, looking startled.
“Tony! You scared me.” He had really been frightened; the muscles on his face were trembling.
Tang En smiled dryly, chuckling.
“Why are you here? Doesn’t the team need to train?”
“Training has already ended,” Tang En said, shrugging.
“Isn’t the match tomorrow?”
Tang En walked up and placed the bouquet in his hands in front of the tombstone, right beside John’s. Afterwards, Tang En stared at the short tombstone and said, “It’s because the match is tomorrow that I have to come here.”
John understood what he meant, and he was also lost in thought while he stared at the name engraved on the tombstone. For a moment, neither of them said anything. This quiet cemetery seemed to be completely empty, and the only sound was the occasional chirping of birds above their heads.
After a long while, Tang En sighed and asked, “Do you and Michael still talk?”
John shook his head. “No. Phone number, new address… He didn’t tell them to any of us. It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“He must be living a good life in America.” Tang En did not know what else he could say. This did not seem to be a good place for them to chat.
“Michael… always liked football.” John murmured. “In the past, when we were together, he would always say that he loved football more than his wife, and that football was his everything. He won’t be able to live a single day without football. Can you imagine how crazy he must have been?”
Tang En nodded his head. For a person who had created a football hooligan firm with his own two hands, that degree of madness was normal.
“If it hadn’t been for Gavin, I think he might have still carried on with that madness of his,” said John. “We came together because of Football. After he left for America, Bill and I weren’t really in the mood to come out and drink for a while.”
“You guys actually stopped frequenting Burns’ bar too.”
“Because we had to spend time with our families.”
“Is Football still everything in your lives?”
Faced with that question, John did not answer immediately. “Personally, I feel like nothing in this world can be seen as everything in someone’s life. Of course, Gavin was the exception. Football was everything to him.”
After hearing John say that, Tang En recalled Michael saying something similar about Gavin. “From the day he was born till the day he died, he was always a Nottingham Forest fan”.
Perhaps feeling that the topic was rather depressing, John steered the conversation in another direction. “Tony. Tomorrow’s match… We will win, right?”
“You don’t sound too sure.” Tang En smiled. “What are you worried about?”
Fatso John curled his lips and said, “Alright, I know your answer… What a pity, Michael is unable to bear witness with his own eyes. Each time he watched a Premier League match, he would always shout at us, saying how Nottingham Forest would perform if it were in the Premier League instead…” He realized that the conversation topic had been steered back yet again.
“Nottingham’s performance in the English Premier League… you’ll know when the time comes.” Tang En gazed into the hazy sky in the distance and said, “I’m gonna head out, John. I hope it won’t rain tomorrow. That way, we can celebrate our victory to our hearts’ content.”
Fatso John waved at him and said, “Even if there’s a raging storm, we can still celebrate to our hearts’ content. Bye, Tony.” John watched as Tang En slowly walked out of the quiet cemetery, surrounded by forest.
※※※
Just like Fatso John had said, it rained heavily on the day of the match. The sky was dark; thick, black clouds filled Nottingham’s skies. Despite it being only the afternoon, City Ground Stadium had to turn on all of its lights. The rain droplets leaked from the skies, turning the area near the stands’ ceilings into something not unlike a waterfall.
Would the match even continue in such heavy rain?
Of course!
The drainage system of City Ground Stadium was pretty well-made. Even though the area near the stands, around the technical area, was being showered with heavy rain, aside from the field being slightly slippery, there was not much stagnant water on the field.
Tang En stood at the side of the field, letting the rain drench his suit. He was looking at the field with his brow furrowed.
This was the last round of league matches, and all of the venues commenced their matches at the same time. This was also the most crucial match, and the Nottingham Forest players showed obvious signs of nervousness. Their actions on the field were stiff, and in addition to the slippery field, the match was currently headed down an unfavourable path for Nottingham Forest.
The current score displayed on the scoreboard was 2:1. The team in the lead was the away team, West Bromwich.
When the match had just started, Nottingham Forest managed to seize the lead right at the start. At that moment, the entire City Ground Stadium erupted into a frenzy, including the technical area and substitutes’ bench. Everyone was jumping about and cheering happily.
All of them were thinking, This is a good opening! Rank two in the League and English Premier League are both waving to us!
However, after scoring a goal, the Nottingham Forest players became more relaxed, immediately allowing West Bromwich to seize a chance to counterattack, successfully launching a sneak attack on them. After the score became 1:1, the mentalities of the Nottingham Forest players underwent another round of changes.
They started to become impatient, and the thought of trying to score another goal made them press forward too far. Such a good chance for counterattack would naturally not be forgone by West Bromwich, the second-place team in the League. With another counterattack, the score became 2:1.
Nottingham Forest’s mentality went from relaxed to impatient, before turning into nervousness. Throughout the first forty minutes of the first half, this basically sums up the change in Nottingham Forest’s mentality.
Nottingham Forest started to worry. What if they lost the match? What if they could not be promoted directly? Thinking about this, their actions became sluggish, they became distracted, and their rhythm was non-existent. Nothing was going well for them.
How could they possibly win like this?
They had forgotten everything that was told to them before the match. We have prepared for more than one month, and all the hard work and sweat we put in will be washed down the drain alongside this heavy rain?
Dammit!
Only the fans in the stands did not give up. They were still singing and clapping tirelessly, rooting for the team. Perhaps all of them believed in Tang En and his team, and felt that the score of 1:2 was merely a small setback before they ultimately achieved victory.
Our future is bright! We have to replace West Bromwich and advance directly to the Premier League! As for who will become the unlucky ones to be eliminated in the play-offs, that’s not our concern!
The fans of the away team used singing to retaliate against the arrogant Nottingham Forest fans. Seeing that neither the match situation nor the match score were in Nottingham Forest’s favor, they began singing gloatingly, “We’re going to Premier League! West Bromwich! You’re going nowhere, going nowhere!”
When the whistle signifying the end of the first half blew, the score was still 2:1, with West Bromwich in the lead.