T.J. and the Cup Run (5 page)

‘It’s all down to you,’ Jamie said excitedly to Rob, as they made their way slowly out of the ground.

‘I doubt it,’ said Rob. ‘But I’m really glad they won.’

C
HAPTER
7

THE FOLLOWING MORNING
during registration the Parkview head teacher, Mr Burrows, put his head around the classroom door. When TJ had arrived at the school Mr Burrows had not been keen on football, and things had got even worse when TJ had accidentally knocked him over with the ball one day. But these days Mr Burrows was definitely a fan of Parkview’s football team.

‘Good morning, Mr Potter,’ he beamed.

‘Good morning, Year Six. How are the preparations coming along for our friendly with St Joseph’s? I’m really looking forward
to
it.’

‘Preparations?’ said Mr Potter, looking flustered. ‘Match? What match?’

‘Our fixture list was on your desk,’ Mr Burrows said, with a glance at the untidy mountain of papers and books that covered the teacher’s table. ‘I put it there myself. We’re playing St Joseph’s on Friday afternoon. They’re a jolly good team. We beat them in the District Tournament but it was a close match.’

‘But . . . but I haven’t had a chance to pick a team,’ Mr Potter said.

‘In that case we can just play our squad from the tournament,’ Mr Burrows replied. ‘I expect you’ve heard, Mr Potter, that TJ and Jamie have both been invited to the Wanderers Player Development Centre, and young Tulsi is a star of the Canby Road Girls Under-elevens? We have a very strong squad. I’m sure everything will be fine.’

‘Right then,’ said Mr Potter when Mr Burrows had left the room. ‘The team. TJ, Tulsi and Jamie, as you already play football elsewhere I think it would be best if you let someone else have a chance to shine.’

‘But, Mr Potter,’ said Rafi. ‘They’re our best players. We’ll lose. St Joseph’s are really good.’

‘That’s not the point, Rafi. Sport isn’t all about winning. Everyone should have a chance to take part.’

‘We don’t mind,’ said Ebony. ‘We want them to win. That’s right, isn’t it, everyone?’

The whole class murmured their agreement.

‘This is the squad,’ said Mr Potter firmly. ‘Jay can go in goal. Ebony, Rodrigo and Danny in defence. Tommy, Leila and Cameron in midfield. Diane, Rafi and Chay, you’re the attackers. That’s all I’m going to say. Now let’s get on with Literacy. We’ve got to play this
match
when we should be doing lessons, so we’d better work hard to make up the time.’

When Friday afternoon arrived the sun shone and it was surprisingly warm for November, so the whole school turned out to watch the match. Lots of parents showed up too. ‘This feels weird,’ TJ said to Jamie, as they walked out on the field with the rest of the class.

‘I know,’ Jamie said. ‘Jay’s never played in goal before. It’s crazy.’

‘But they’ve all had Mr Wood’s coaching,’ TJ said hopefully. ‘They might do OK.’

But when the St Joseph’s team ran onto the pitch and began to warm up even TJ found it hard to be cheerful. ‘They had eleven shots on target just in the first half the last time we played them,’ Rob said, consulting his notebook. ‘It was only Jamie’s amazing goalkeeping that kept us in the match.’

‘Right,’ said TJ. ‘And I remember that boy, Mac.’ He pointed at a small, tough-looking redhead who was now tossing up with Leila.

‘He’s a very good player.’

‘Look,’ said Tulsi. ‘Rodrigo and Tommy and Rafi are subs. They’re not even playing!’

Only Cameron, Leila and Danny had ever played in a proper match before and they were taking on one of the district’s top teams. ‘It’s hopeless,’ said Tulsi. ‘I don’t think I can watch.’

‘We have to support them,’ said Jamie, sticking out his chin. ‘Come on, Parkview,’ he yelled. ‘You can do it!’

The others joined in, and it seemed to make a difference. St Joseph’s passed the ball around with lightning speed but the weakened Parkview side worked hard to keep up with them. Leila raced around in midfield, challenging the red-headed Mac and forcing him to hurry his passes, and every Parkview player remembered to keep in position and concentrate.

‘Mr Wood would be proud of them,’ TJ said.

‘
I’m
proud of them,’ said Jamie. ‘Look at what a fantastic job Leila’s doing.’

TJ glanced at his friend. He remembered the day when Mr Wood had asked Jamie to help some of the girls who’d never played before. Jamie had taken the job very seriously and he’d done it so well that Leila had earned her place in the squad. ‘Danny’s doing well too,’ TJ said, watching the small, dark-haired boy make another tackle.

‘Not bad, I suppose,’ Jamie said.

‘I know you don’t like him,’ said TJ, ‘but I think Danny’s a good player.’

‘Maybe,’ replied Jamie. ‘Oh, no! What’s Mr Potter doing now?’

Mr Potter was shouting something to Leila. She had the ball at her feet, about to dribble past a defender. ‘Left foot, then right foot,’ Mr Potter called. ‘That’s it! Keep it under control.’

Leila hesitated, confused. Mac darted in and stole the ball. He whipped it out to the St Joseph’s winger who skipped past Ebony
and
hit a low, hard cross which the St Joseph’s striker side-footed into the net.

‘That was Mr Potter’s fault,’ Jamie said.

‘It’s only one–nil,’ said Rob. ‘We were doing quite well. I bet we can recover if we keep playing like that.’ He turned back to the pitch and shouted in a surprisingly loud voice, ‘Come on, Parkview! Come on, Leila. It wasn’t your fault.’

The game restarted, and the Parkview players carried on chasing and tackling, but Mr Potter began to shout out more and more instructions from the touchline. ‘Where’s the midfield?’ he yelled. ‘Get back, Cameron! No, push up, push up!’

The Parkview players began to look more and more confused, and St Joseph’s took their chance. Mac seized on a loose ball and ran straight through the middle of the Parkview defence to smash the ball past the helpless Jay. And seconds after the restart
he
chipped the ball over the heads of the Parkview players for the striker to run on and score. Three–nil to St Joseph’s.

‘I can’t stand this,’ said Rob, when the half-time whistle blew. ‘I’m going to talk to Mr Potter. If we bring Rafi, Rodrigo and Tommy on and we play how Mr Wood trained us, we can still beat them.’

‘Don’t,’ said TJ. ‘He won’t listen.’

But Rob was already on his way. ‘Wait,’ TJ said. ‘I’ll come with you.’

‘We’ll come too,’ said Jamie.

‘Right,’ agreed Tulsi.

‘No,’ said TJ. ‘There’s no point all of us getting in trouble. But I can’t let Rob go on his own.’

C
HAPTER
8

MR POTTER WAS
talking to the team. ‘They’re obviously much better than we are,’ he was saying. ‘So don’t worry about it. Just go out there and enjoy yourselves. Somebody has to win and it can’t always be us, you know.’

The Parkview players didn’t look as if they were enjoying themselves at all. ‘Excuse me, Mr Potter,’ Rob said. ‘I had some ideas about how we could beat St Joseph’s. I’ve noticed some weaknesses. We could—’

‘What are you doing over here, Rob?’ asked Mr Potter. ‘This area is meant to be for teams and their coaches only.’

‘Actually, Mr Potter,’ Leila said, ‘Rob is our official assistant coach. Mr Wood always listens to what Rob says. When we played—’

‘That’s enough, Leila,’ said Mr Potter.

‘Rob only wants to help,’ TJ put in. ‘He really does know a lot about tactics. He spotted what Wanderers needed to do to beat Milan the other night, and he—’

‘This is a school football team,’ Mr Potter said. ‘It is not Wanderers and we really don’t need two coaches, do we, boys? Off you go now, back to the other side of the pitch.’

‘You could bring Rodrigo on with Leila in midfield,’ Rob insisted. He didn’t seem to notice that Mr Potter was getting crosser and crosser. ‘And you could put Tommy on to help Danny in defence, and then Rodrigo could push forward because Leila’s doing a great job of stopping Mac, and I’d put Rafi up front because he’s fast. As long as we play the way Mr Wood taught us and keep it
simple
I bet we can beat them.’

‘That’s the stuff, Rob!’ said Mr Burrows, who had arrived while Rob was speaking. ‘Never give up! That’s Parkview. I was a bit worried for a moment there, Mr Potter, when I saw our first-half performance. I suppose you’ve been giving our star players a rest before the Cup match?’

‘I’m giving all our children a chance to shine, Mr Burrows,’ replied Mr Potter. ‘We’re playing a much better team than us today, and we’re bound to lose. But the children should go out there and have fun. Off you go, girls and boys. No changes. Do your best.’

The team stood up as Mr Burrows departed. ‘Try to ignore him when he shouts at you,’ Rob whispered hurriedly to Leila. ‘You were doing great before he started giving you advice. Just play the way Mr Wood wanted us to.’

‘It won’t make any difference,’ Leila said. ‘But thanks, Rob.’

‘You two,’ Mr Potter snapped. ‘This is your last warning. Back on the other side of the pitch right now. You’re distracting the team.’

‘How can they enjoy playing if they’re being thrashed?’ Rob asked TJ, as they walked away.

‘They can’t,’ TJ replied, as Parkview kicked off.

‘You can do it, Leila,’ shouted Jamie.

Leila played like a captain. She encouraged the other players and worked as hard as anyone could work. For a few minutes Parkview held their own and Diane even managed to get a shot on goal. Then Mr Potter brought on his first substitute.

‘What’s he doing now?’ gasped Tulsi, as a reluctant Rafi trotted onto the pitch and took the goalkeeping gloves from Jay. ‘Rafi can’t catch for toffee.’

‘Anyone would think he
wanted
to lose,’ said Jamie, as Mr Potter gave more instructions to Leila. ‘Look at this!’

Leila moved up into the striker’s position, Diane went back into defence and Danny moved forward into midfield. ‘He’s changing everything,’ said TJ. ‘It’s going to be a complete mess. I don’t think I can watch.’

But they all did watch. It was horrible. All the hard work that Leila had done getting the team organized was useless now. Mac had the ball in the centre circle and Cameron slid in to tackle him, but missed completely. Leila started to run back to help out. ‘No, Leila,’ called Mr Potter. ‘Stay up front. You’re the striker now.’

Mac moved forward into the Parkview half. He looked up and saw Rafi standing on the edge of his penalty area. ‘Look out, Rafi!’ yelled Jamie, but it was too late. Mac floated the ball over Rafi’s head and into the net.