by Theo Walcott
When they arrived at the school lots of people had arrived already. Jamie’s family were sitting at the table next to TJ’s. ‘I reckon Rob’s team will win,’ Jamie said. ‘Rob knows everything about sport, and Rob’s dad looks like he probably knows about everything else!’
‘I’m not so sure,’ said TJ. ‘Look at Mrs Logan and Mr Potter. They look like they mean business. And they’ve got Miss Berry too.’
The quiz was just about to start when the door opened and Mr Burrows entered with his team. ‘Look,’ exclaimed Jamie. ‘It’s Marshall Jones. And Mr Wood.’
It took a while for the excitement to die down. Even though the Parkview mums and dads were getting used to seeing Marshall Jones at events like this, his arrival always caused a stir. ‘Welcome, everyone,’ said Mr Coggins, the school caretaker, finally. He was quizmaster for the evening. ‘The first round is all about TV catch phrases. Off we go.’
Some of the teams did quite badly in the quiz but they had a great time anyway.
‘We have a tie for first place,’ Mr Coggins said when he had checked all the answers. ‘With a score of thirty-nine out of forty we have Mrs Logan’s team, and the Grant family.’
‘We were both right about the winners,’ TJ said to Jamie.
‘We have a sudden death decider,’ Mr Coggins announced. ‘The first team to get an answer wrong is the loser.’
‘Like a penalty shoot-out,’ said Jamie. ‘Go on, Rob. You can do it.’
‘First question,’ said Mr Coggins. ‘Only two teams have won the FA Cup ten times or more. Name the teams.’
There was a buzz of chatter. On the other side of the room Marshall and Mr Wood were both shaking their heads. But Rob was smiling.
‘Of course!’ said TJ. ‘Rob was bound to know.’
‘Right,’ said Mr Coggins. ‘The answer is that Manchester United have eleven wins, and the other team, with ten wins is . . . Arsenal!’
Rob’s mum and dad patted him on the back, but Mr Potter was on his feet. ‘That can’t be right,’ he said. ‘I’m sure it’s Tottenham.’
TJ saw Miss Berry mutter ‘I told you.’ Then he heard Rob’s voice. ‘Tottenham have won eight times,’ he said. ‘The last time was in 1991. They’re very good in the Cup, and when they’ve got to the final they’ve only lost once.’
‘Absolutely right,’ said Mr Coggins. ‘Congratulations to the Grant family!’
‘Great stuff, Rob,’ said Marshall, coming over to join them. ‘You’re like a walking football encyclopaedia!’
Rob went bright red and his dad ruffled his hair.
‘Excuse me,’ Mr Potter said, edging awkwardly up to Marshall and Mr Wood, and ignoring Rob and his dad. ‘I wonder if I could have a word, Mr Jones? I’m Adrian Potter. I’m the PE teacher here now. I . . . er . . . wondered if you’d mind giving our team a bit of help some time?’
‘Me?’ said Marshall with a smile. ‘I’m no coach. You’ve got a top-class coach here already, if you ask me. A tactical genius.’
‘Really?’ asked Mr Potter, looking confused.
‘That’s right,’ said Marshall. ‘Young Rob here. Best assistant any manager could wish for. Isn’t that right, Johnny?’
Mr Wood nodded and extended a hand to Mr Potter. ‘I’m Johnny Wood,’ he said. ‘Pleased to meet you, Mr Potter. Rob has been very helpful, it’s true. But I’m sure you’ll want to do things your own way.’
Mr Potter glanced at Rob as he shook hands with Mr Wood. ‘Exactly,’ he said. ‘We can’t really have the children telling the teachers what to do, can we? Nice to meet you, Mr Jones. I . . . er . . . I’d better go.’
Mr Potter walked away, and immediately Rafi, Rodrigo, Tommy, Jamie, Tulsi and TJ surrounded Mr Wood and Marshall. ‘Are you going to come back and work here again?’ demanded Tulsi.
‘I’m sorry,’ Mr Wood replied. ‘I’m working in another school. Mr Burrows invited me back for the quiz, that’s all. I bet you’re looking forward to the Cup semifinal next week. Are you ready?’
The friends looked at each other. ‘Well?’ asked Mr Wood. ‘What’s the problem?’
‘Mr Potter doesn’t think TJ, Jamie or Tulsi should play,’ Rob said finally. ‘He says they play plenty of football already and the others should have a chance.’
Mr Wood frowned. ‘I suppose he has a point,’ he said. ‘And it’s none of my business, you know. I’m not your teacher any more. Sometimes things aren’t easy and you just have to make the best of it.’
‘Right,’ said Marshall. ‘I remember when we had a new manager at Wanderers. I was just a kid really, and I thought I knew best. The manager dropped me from the team, and I thought I’d never get my place back, but I didn’t give up.’
‘It’s just, when we were doing well it made everyone so happy,’ Jamie said. ‘Losing 9–1 doesn’t make anyone feel good.’
‘I see what you mean,’ grinned Marshall. ‘But you’re a talented bunch of kids and you have got the world’s greatest assistant coach with you. I reckon you’ll be fine.’
‘It was good seeing Mr Wood and Marshall,’ TJ said to his dad as they walked home. ‘But I don’t think they really understood how bad things are.’
‘It’s not their problem,’ said his dad. ‘But I spoke to Mr Burrows and you know what? I don’t think he likes to see the team losing nine–one either. I think you might have some good news on Monday.’
CHAPTER 10
TJ’S DAD WAS right. On Monday afternoon they had training and Mr Potter seemed to be taking it a lot more seriously. They warmed up properly for a change and then they had to practise dribbling and shooting.
Halfway through the session TJ glanced over at the school building and saw Mr Burrows standing in one of the doorways, watching.
After a while, Mr Potter organized them into teams for some five-a-sides. ‘I’ll play with the Reds,’ he said, handing red bibs to Tommy, Danny, Cameron and Jay. ‘We’ll play against Rodrigo, TJ, Jamie, Tulsi and Rob. Miss Berry will organize the other teams.’
‘Do you think he’s any good?’ Rob asked TJ, as they pulled on blue bibs.
‘Don’t know,’ said TJ. ‘I can’t understand why he suddenly wants to join in.’
‘I can,’ said Tulsi. ‘He’s trying to impress Mr Burrows. How are we going to play? I’ll be striker, obviously. Get the ball to me and I’ll put it in the back of the net.’
TJ laughed. ‘Rob’s been doing these amazing passes,’ he told her. ‘We practised in the park, so be ready.’
He tapped the ball to Tulsi, and she gave it back to Rob. TJ sprinted forward down the right wing, expecting one of Rob’s piercing through balls. When it didn’t arrive he turned and saw that Rob had played a simple pass to Rodrigo, who’d knocked it on to Tulsi again. Then the ball was back with Rob and he played yet another straightforward pass. The old, careful, cautious Rob was back.
Moments later Jamie rolled the ball out to TJ and he found himself facing Mr Potter. The teacher was hopping from one foot to the other, trying to guess which way TJ would go. TJ played the ball between his legs and then darted behind him with a big smile on his face.
‘Look out, TJ!’ called Tulsi. ‘Man on!’
TJ had been so pleased with his nutmeg on Mr Potter that he hadn’t noticed Danny waiting for him. It was a fifty-fifty ball – both players had an equal chance of winning it – but Danny was strong. He put his foot behind the ball and TJ went tumbling over. Danny passed to Tommy and the Reds were on the attack.
‘Nice tackle, Danny,’ TJ said, as he climbed to his feet and raced back to help the defence. Tommy was tearing down the wing and he crossed the ball before Rodrigo could stop him. ‘Look out, everyone!’ called Mr Potter, as the ball flew towards him. ‘I’m going to volley this.’
TJ felt as if he was watching in slow motion as Mr Potter pulled back his foot and launched an enormous kick at the flying ball. He missed completely. His foot connected with thin air and he swung right round and fell flat on his back with a heavy thump.
‘Are you all right, Mr Potter?’ asked Jamie, coming out of goal and offering the teacher a hand. Mr Potter waved him away and climbed gingerly to his feet. He brushed bits of grass and mud from his face, which had gone very pale.
‘I bet that hurt,’ Tulsi said. ‘You’d better sit down, Mr Potter. You hit the ground really hard.’
The other game had stopped and Miss Berry rushed over to them. ‘Tulsi’s right,’ she said, and she led Mr Potter to a bench at the side of the field. ‘You should go inside,’ she told him. ‘I can look after the children for the rest of training.’
‘No,’ said Mr Potter. ‘I’ll be fine. Just help me to my feet.’ He tried to stand, then winced and sat back down again very fast.
Mr Burrows came across the field towards them. ‘A jolly good training session, Mr Potter,’ the head teacher said. Mr Potter looked slightly less sick, and even started to smile. ‘And I’ve been thinking,’ Mr Burrows continued. ‘You’re quite right, Mr Potter. We have a lot of children here who are turning into very good players and they all deserve the chance to play in a team. But there’s a simple solution, you know. We will have another team. Why, we could even have three teams . . .’
Mr Potter had gone pale again. ‘Impossible,’ TJ heard him mutter under his breath. ‘All that work!’
But Mr Burrows hadn’t finished. ‘We could have an Under–tens team too. The possibilities are endless! But in the semifinal of the Cup I want Parkview School to play our best team. I never want to see us lose 9–1 again. Whatever team you pick, Mr Potter, please make sure that TJ, Jamie and Tulsi are in it.’
CHAPTER 11
THE FOLLOWING MORNING Year Six found the deputy head, Mrs Logan, waiting for them in the classroom. ‘Mr Potter will be late,’ she told them. ‘I believe he had an accident last night, and he was limping rather badly this morning so I sent him to the hospital.’
Just before morning break, Mr Potter arrived. He had a large bandage around his right ankle and he was walking with a stick.
‘Just a sprain,’ he said to Mrs Logan. ‘I’ll be fine in a few days. I was demonstrating to the children how to volley a ball.’
‘But it went a bit wrong,’ said Rafi, and several people giggled.
‘Quiet!’ said Mrs Logan. ‘A sprained ankle is no joke. I hope you’re fit enough to take charge of the team for the semifinal, Mr Potter. It’s a very important match, you know.’
TJ had difficulty stopping himself laughing. He tried not to catch Jamie’s eye. Mrs Logan had hated football until the school team had started doing well.
‘Ah, yes, the team,’ Mr Potter said. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. I’m going to announce the squad now. I’ll decide later who will actually start the match and the tactics and so on. The squad is Jamie, Danny, Tommy, Leila, Ariyan, Rodrigo, TJ, Rafi, Tulsi, and Rob. You seem to know such a lot about football, Rob. Perhaps you’ll show us all how it’s done.’
He turned to Mrs Logan. ‘Will you tell Mr Burrows?’ he said, handing her the piece of paper.
All around the room there were smiling faces – even among those who hadn’t been picked. But at break time everyone was talking about the same thing.
‘Why did he pick Rob?’ said Ebony.
‘Right,’ said Cameron. ‘Rob’s great, but he never really does much. He’s more useful doing the stats.’
‘That’s not true,’ said TJ. ‘Rob hasn’t been playing long and he’s a bit nervous, that’s all. Mr Potter probably picked Rob because Rob made him look stupid at the Quiz Night and he thinks this will make Rob look stupid. But he’s wrong. It’s the best thing he could have done.’
No one else agreed. ‘Last night at training,’ Tulsi said, ‘you told me Rob would do something special, but he didn’t, did he? Anyone could have done what he did.’
‘You’ll see,’ replied TJ. ‘People can change, you know.’
Tulsi chucked the football she was holding at TJ’s head. ‘At least we’re all in the team,’ she said, as TJ ducked. ‘Come on, let’s have a game. We need all the practice we can get.’
The next morning the Parkview football team sat in the minibus waiting to leave. Their Cup semifinal was against Swinburne School and it was being played on the Astroturf pitch at the High School. ‘We’ve played this lot before,’ Jamie said.
‘In the District Tournament,’ said TJ. ‘They were good at tackling.’
‘But I didn’t have to save a single shot,’ said Jamie.
‘They finished third in the League last season,’ Rob told them, with his notebook open on his knees, ‘and they scored twenty-four goals which is an average of two a game, so they do know how to shoot.’
‘We just have to remember one thing,’ TJ said, as Mr Potter limped out of the school door and across the car park towards them. ‘We have to play the way Mr Wood trained us. Stay in position, and pass and move, even if Mr Potter tries to make us do something different.’
They all nodded, as Mr Potter climbed into the passenger seat. Mr Burrows jumped up behind the wheel, and Miss Berry got in the back with the team. Then they set off.
When they arrived at the High School the Swinburne Team were already climbing out of their coach. ‘Look,’ said Jamie. ‘It’s Leroy from the PDC. What’s he doing here? I thought he played for Meadow Green.’
‘Surprised?’ grinned Leroy. ‘I thought you would be. We moved house a couple of weeks ago. I play for Swinburne now.’
‘You can’t do that!’ said TJ.
‘Sorry,’ said Leroy, who didn’t look sorry at all. ‘Our PE teacher checked. It’s not against the rules.’
‘Come along, Parkview,’ said Mr Potter. ‘Get yourselves changed and then I’ll tell you the team and the tactics.’
Out on the pitch, Mr Potter explained. ‘I want to start with Jamie in goal,’ he said.
‘Then we’ll have Danny in defence with Rob; Leila and Rodrigo in midfield, and Rafi and Ariyan up front. Mr Burrows tells me that you’ve already beaten this team once, and Rafi scored a goal, so I think we’ll give him a chance to score another one.’
‘But, Mr Potter,’ said Rob. ‘I’m not really a defender. I’m not much good at tackling.’
‘Well, this will be a good chance for you to learn, Rob.’
‘You mean, TJ and Tulsi aren’t going to play?’ asked Jamie.
‘No,’ said Mr Potter, and TJ had a sudden memory of Mr Potter’s face as TJ had put the ball through his legs. It’s not just Rob, TJ thought, I made him look stupid and now he’s getting back at me too.
‘You can beat this lot easily,’ TJ said to the others, trying to hide his disappointment.
Tulsi didn’t even try to hide how she felt. She stormed off to stand at the side of the pitch with a face like thunder.
‘Right, the rest of you,’ Mr Potter said, with an angry glance after Tulsi. ‘Out on the pitch and warm up.’
TJ kicked a ball backwards and forwards with Rob. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,’ Rob said. ‘Did you notice that Mr Potter said he was going to tell us about tactics and then he didn’t?’
‘He’ll probably begin shouting when the match gets going,’ TJ replied. ‘Remember, just ignore him.’
The referee called for the captains and the Parkview players all looked at each other, and then at Mr Potter who was sitting down, resting his injured leg on a folding stool. Leroy laughed. ‘They don’t know who their captain is,’ he said to his team-mates.
‘And their best player isn’t even playing,’ said a spiky-haired defender with bandy legs who TJ remembered from their last meeting. The defender clapped his hands together. ‘Come on, Swinburne!’ he yelled. ‘We’re going to thrash them!’
‘Go on, Jamie,’ said Rafi. ‘You do it.’ Jamie went forward to toss up – and he lost. It seemed as if everything was going wrong.
Swinburne kicked off, and the semifinal of the Cup was under way.
CHAPTER 12
THE LAST TIME Parkview had played Swinburne the other team had defe
nded well but they’d been no good at attacking. Now, they had Leroy. He was a top player and every time he received the ball, danger threatened Jamie’s goal.
After a few minutes Leroy won the ball from Rodrigo in midfield and powered forward. Rob ran to meet him. If the situation hadn’t been so serious TJ might have laughed, because Leroy was nearly thirty centimetres taller than Rob and he towered above him.
Rob’s eyes were fixed on the ball at Leroy’s feet and TJ crossed his fingers by his side, praying that Rob would make the tackle. Leroy made his move, feinting to go left and moving the ball sharply in the opposite direction. Rob guessed right, but just as he was about to move Mr Potter’s voice rang out. ‘Come on, Rob! Tackle him!’
Rob glanced up. He couldn’t stop himself. And in that instant, Leroy was through. He had a clear run on Jamie’s goal, but Jamie was ready for him. He had moved out to the edge of his area, and spread himself as wide as he could. Leroy grinned and struck the ball hard and low. Jamie blurred into action.
Somehow he flashed out a leg and deflected the ball wide of the post for a corner to Swinburne. ‘Sorry, Jamie,’ Rob said, as he moved back to mark a Swinburne attacker.
‘Don’t worry,’ laughed Jamie. ‘It’ll take more than that to beat me.’
He spoke too soon. The Swinburne winger took the corner and the ball floated into the area. Jamie rose to punch it clear, but twenty metres out the ball dropped at Leroy’s feet and the tall striker drilled his shot past the stranded goalkeeper.
Jamie pulled the ball from the net and threw it to Rob. ‘It’s OK,’ Jamie said. ‘It’s only one–nil. Just remember, we’ve beaten them once before.’
‘Right,’ said Rob. ‘Only, that time Rafi scored a really lucky goal, and we’re not having any luck at all.’
From the kickoff Rafi laid the ball off to Rodrigo, who slid an expert pass out to Ariyan on the wing. ‘That’s better, Parkview,’ called Jamie. ‘Keep going. Come on!’