"We are no Ferdinand"

[Rien102]

Liberty Way was feeling so empty with just under 900 peoples in it.  The good thing though was that over 400 Bulls fans had come to the FA Trophy game so support their team.  “They’ll come at us with their 4-4-2” said Penny to her staffs.  She had just received the official line-up.  “We should be ok then!”

Penny felt the boys particularly focused and ready to play; which was good.  As they were passing Sam at the door, to receive the traditional fist bump, Penny felt that all the big games in FA Cup, had transformed this young squad into a bunch of seasoned young veteran.  It would be needed!  The match begun with Nuneaton working hard at keeping the ball and they were succeeding.  They had trouble going through Penny’s solid defense but the Bulls weren’t as dominating as usual midfield.  Penny asked Matty to close down a little more.  Slowly, she saw her team retake a bit of the lost terrain.  On the 26^th minutes, Josh (Barnes) kicked short to Tareq (Shihad) on the right flank.  He immediately kicked a long ball in front for Reece (Miller) to race the Boro’ left back and won it easily.  Reece did a nice low cross to Cameron (Walker) that was unmarked and coming at the penalty spot.  He just had to tap it in for the Bulls to take the lead!

At half-time, Penny told her boys that they needed to work harder than that!  Nuneaton was still having a better possession and too many tackles had been missed, especially in the midfield.  Before the team went to the pitch, she asked Max (Melbourne) to bomb the left flank more, Nuneaton’s right back was clearly having a bad game and she wanted to capitalize on that.  The change paid off quick.  55 minutes in, on an offensive transition made by Max who was receiving a pass, as he was starting is bombing left, he was fouled by the Boro’ right back.  Jake (Goodman) took the free kick.  He did a long one over the right side of the defense line, to Cameron who crossed it beautifully to Reece who scored!   Penny was happy by now; a two goal cushion was nice.  On the 74^th minute, Nuneaton’s left midfielder caught a straight red for a dangerous tackling.  Having only in mind the next big match, she asked her boys to sit tight and to slow things down.  The Boro’ went on the offensive and were able to get a penalty on a dubious foul inside the Bulls box.  They did score but it was too little too late, with only 3 minutes of injury time to play, the game was over. 

As they were on the road, going back to Hereford, she was talking to Sam and Dean, about some promo David (Boggins) wanted them to do for the FA Cup replay match when her phone rang.  Both saw the baffled face she was making as she was listening.  She then said: “It’s the first time I ever heard of it and I already have a job.”  After saying thank you, she hung up.  Sam was looking at her with a “What was that about” look.  She smiled to both of them and told them that it was a reporter.  Apparently, her name was on the line for replacing Greenock Morton manager that has just been fired in Ladbrokes Championship!  Sam let a small, impressed whistle, out.

-          “Morton is a pretty big club up there.  You know that, right?

-          I kinda know but I have a team to lead to League 2 here!” she said.  “And I intend to do it!”   She then circled back to the talk about the promo.

[Rien102]

Penny was in meetings all Monday morning.  After the game preparation with her staffs, she went to a PR meeting with Dean (Rance) and Andy (Jackson) to nail the last details of the promo they would do tomorrow morning.  The big commercial made after the first Doncaster match was aired on some TV channels, announcing the match at West Brom.  Penny found it a bit odd to announce an away game but for Hereford, it still was not your ordinary away game either.  Besides, the club would get part of the gates income, which was nice.

Later that day, she found out who the Bulls were going to face in the next FA Trophy round:  Morecambe!  All were in agreement among the staffs:  We had knocked them out of the FA Cup, we can knock them out of the FA Trophy too!  They still were having a tough season in Conference, so much the better!  Not to mention that they were coming at Edgar Street!  The odds would be much better against them than the ones against West Brom which was considered by the bookies, to be an impossible win for Hereford.

While she was driving back home, she was thinking about the insane day she’d have tomorrow.  She was working extra time to dismiss of her mind all the hype surrounding the West Brom game.  Everywhere in town, there was only one subject:  Hereford; could write a new history page in the FA Cup book of Cinderella stories!

When she arrived home, Britanny was in a full-fledged West Brom fever!  She talked only about the incoming game and, most of all, wanted mum’s permission to paint her face like some Bulls fans do.  When she looked at Mark, she saw in an instant that she wouldn’t have any support if she said no.  A compromise was reached with the seven years old:  If there were fans with their faces painted to the Bulls colors, she could, but not close to eyes or mouth.  Negotiations were more difficult than when she did the contract negotiations with Scott (Martin)!  What she was not negotiating though, was for Mark to make the trip by car, no way a seven year old would go on bus trip with football fans, even if they were Bulls fans! 

After dinner, once Britanny was in bed, Penny and Marked went to the living to wind off a bit.  Penny was feeling the pressure more and more by now.  Mark had decided to watch some bland rom-com; it wasn’t for the movie, which was as bland as bland could be!  It was about spending time with her mind off the Bulls, the big match, the whole world!  It was still hard to not review her tactical options for tomorrow’s game though….

[Rien102]

When they arrived at the Hawthorns, three hours before the game, Penny and the guys were pretty silent.  The last part of the trip was very calm, the guys being nervous or just bewildered by all of it.  For her, it wasn’t the first time she had come here.  In the last three years, she had come about ten times to come see matches.  It would be the first time she would set foot on the pitch though.

When the boys came out the bus to go into their dressing room, she saw that Albion had been a real nice host.  She also discovered that the visiting manager private office was…. bigger than her own at Edgar Street!  The, now, traditional basket of sweets was on the desk.  The staffs had outdone themselves for the boys this time!  A knock on the outside corridor door surprised her a bit.  She went to the door, unlocked it and opened it, she saw Javier Aguirre, the Baggies manager with about five peoples behind him.  “Hello Penny, I hope all is ok for you here?” extending his hand.

-          “For sure it is!” she answered.

-          Just to come and welcome you at the Hawthorns and to give that envelope from our PR department, there will be a little gig before the game.

-          Thanks.  I figured there would have been a little something too.”  They shook hands; a nice warm, hearth felt, one Penny noticed.  He then turned heels and went his way.

She closed and locked the door and saw that all the football staffs were in her office.  They went by the gig instructions.  The physio peoples were having a little tour of the grounds medical bay.  Sam quipped at Penny:  “It’s nice to know peoples in high places huh?”  She herself was surprised but when they had met for the first, all went smooth and it was like they had known each other for years.  Her phone rang: “Yes?

-          Penny, it’s David, I am with the West Brom President and he wants to know if you guys needed anything?

-          Huh…  I don’t think so” she answered.

-          I’ll text you a number; he’s the guy responsible to provide the team with whatever you need.  His name his Peter.

-          Ok.  Thanks” and she hung up.  “Premiere League was definitely not Conference North!” she thought!

[Rien102]

Penny was at the center of the dressing room, all the players were silent as she was finishing her team talk.  “You are not here because of charity you know?  It’s because you worked your butts off!  Now, go out there and have fun!”  Dean (Rance) got up and the players followed suite, going to the center of the dressing, with Penny in the middle.  Andy let a shout out: “WHAT ARE WE NOT?”  To which the entire team shouted back:  “WE ARE NO FERDINAND!”

Slowly, they went toward the exit of the dressing room to go in the corridor leading to the pitch.  Kids with football jerseys of both teams were waiting for the players and the staffs.  The players greeted their escorts and each other.  Penny saw that if some of her boys were tensed, the kids were showing them it was important to live the moment nonetheless!  Her escort was little girl, about 10 who had long blond hair and deep blue eyes who was named Melissa.  Penny got offered a big smile that she returned with no effort at all.  The lull lasted about five minutes and the kids were enjoying themselves while the players and staffs were returning the favor by talking and kidding them a bit too.  The crowd could be heard and Penny knew that there was about 15 000 peoples that came to see the game.

Just before the signal to go on the pitch was given, Javier (Aguirre), the Baggies manager, came to her and asked:  “Do you want the teams to switch sides since you obviously can’t hold the girl’s hand with your right?”  Penny became beet red instantly, wasn’t able to say anything but a few Baggies players had heard what their manager had said.  They started to switch side with the Bulls players instantly.  Penny was working hard to not become redder.  When the signal was given, on both sides of the corridor, the players started to walk forward.  The crowd was cheering louder now.  Penny was walking with Melissa on her left side, and she saw that the players were doing a little crisscross to get on their respective side.  She was already forgetting all of that when she finally stepped out.  She looked at Smethwick End right away, the designated area for the away team fans.  Over 1500 Bulls fans were in the 5000+ seats section and they were making themselves heard loud and clear:  “We are NO Ferdinand!  We are NO Ferdinand!”

All lined-up in front of the main stand, both teams stayed there with their little escorts for the little ceremony.  The Bulls fans were trying hard to be louder than the Baggies fans!  All were ready for the match.  Penny couldn’t wait for it to start!

[Rien102]

Once the ceremony was over, both captains went to the middle of the pitch for the coin toss.  The kids were directed to their seats.  Penny was shaking hands with the other team staffs when she saw her players going toward Smethwick End, encouraging the Bulls fans to chant.  They couldn’t ask for a better opportunity!  Penny was walking to her area, taking a last look at the stand, knowing that all her extended family was there; she felt content but dismissed the thought quickly, she had to.

The match would be even more difficult than last time.  Javier (Aguirre) didn’t bring a mixed team this time.  All but two, out because of injuries, on the pitch were First Team and those injured got replaced with rotation players.  She quickly noticed that the Baggies were pressing more than during the first match and were also changing sides on a whim more often.  Penny’s players were doing their best.  30 minutes in, a long ball from Max (Melbourne) to Reece (Miller) gave the Bulls a first chance but he was tackled expertly inside the box.

Josh (Barnes) and the defensive line were under attack pretty much all the time.  The Baggies could literally run circles around them, so fast they were!  Nonetheless, the Bulls defenders did what they were doing so well in FA Cup so far, they were foiling attacks over attacks, either by intercepting crosses or tackling well inside their box.  At the end of the first half, the Bulls had prevailed.  They couldn’t significantly get out of their own zone but the Baggies, of their 10 shots they got, only 3 where inside the box at a decent angle.  The rest were either from outside the box or with very bad angles.

All went into the dressing and Penny told them to hold on, that they were doing a good job.  It was all she could do, really.  She made some tactical changes too but other than that, she left the players in peace.  A few moments before going back on the pitch, Andy (Jackson) got up:  “Guys? Guys!  We can do it again you know?

-          YEAH!” responded the team.

-          WE can make THEM go packing like Doncaster!

-          YEAH!”  All the players were up by now.

-          COME ON! Let’s show them that WE…

-          ARE NO FERDINAND!” screamed the rest of the team!  They started moving toward the door.  Penny was looking at them with pride!

[Rien102]

West Brom’s 4-2-3-1 was intense in the first half and they didn’t slow down in the second half of the match.  Penny saw that now, both left and right backs were coming in on the flanks, deep.  On the 49^th minute, Max (Melbourne) was trying to get the ball out of the Bulls box but was pressed hard by a Baggie who stole the ball.  Max tried to retake it but ended up fouling him... inside the box!  Penalty!  Penny was screaming to Max to shake it off!  James (Maddison) was taking the penalty for West Brom.  Josh (Barnes) had dived on the good side and did a miracle save, by the tips of his fingers!  The Bulls fans, shocked and disappointed by the penalty, now were ecstatic and started chanting the “We are no Ferdinand!” gig as loud as they could!

On the 64^th minute, on a West Brom free kick that ended up being a battle for the ball inside the wall, Jack (Hunter) was able to steal the ball and kicked it quickly in front to Reece (Miller).  Both teams started racing down the pitch. He was working hard against two Baggies players that were on him but he managed to hold on to the ball long enough so he could kick it to Shaun (Okojie), deeper in West Brom territory, but he was called off-side!  Boo’s erupted from all over the stadium.  Even the Baggies fans knew it was a dubious call, to say the least.

On the 72^nd minute, working the ball on the right flank, West Brom was able to do a long floating cross.  Jerome (Opuku), who was having a bang-up match, missed the interception.  James (Maddison) was able to kick the ball in the Bulls goal! 1-0!  The Bulls players brought the ball quickly to restart the match, they weren’t dead yet!  The Bulls fans and Penny were screaming to the players that it wasn’t over yet!  Two minutes later, doing a great interception on a corner, Reece (Miller) was able to send a long ball to Shaun (Okojie).  He was running for the net but just as he was entering the box, he was tackled by a defender.  After that sequence, Penny saw that West Brom had asked both left and right back to tone down the bombing a bit.  She told both her FBs to bomb now.

When the referee called the game off after three minutes of injury times, you could feel a lot of disappointment from the Bulls.  Javier (Aguirre) came straight to Penny, shook her hand vigorously and said:  “You did a great show, you should be proud of what your team accomplished!  Heck!  I am proud to have just won for god sake!”  Penny was seeing some of her boys crying, trying to console themselves.  The Bulls fans though, they were saying to their team that they were proud of them!  Non-stop, they cheered and clapped and chant!  The best thing was that she saw that a lot of Baggies fans were chanting with them too, telling the Bulls that they had done something remarkable!  Penny was looking at all this, getting handshakes from the West Brom staffs at the same time and she thought “You bet we did good… we did great!”

[Rien102]

Once all the team was inside the dressing room, Penny and her staffs could still see tears on a lot of faces.  She, very slowly, went to the center of the dressing room, and she stood there, silent but proud.  Calmly and, to her own surprise, softly, she told them to gather around her.  Dean (Rance) and Josh (Barnes) were the firsts to come forward and then the team followed.  All gathered around her, they were a sad display of a lot of disappointment. 

“Boys, don’t be sad.  What you did today, is unheard off since the modern FA is operating!  In the last thirty years, no Tier 6 teams EVER” she put emphasis on that word, “had come into fourth round AND forced a replay!  You rewrote the book of records for the FA Cup, it’s what you did today!  I want you to be proud because ALL were giving us dead under a crushing number of goals but still, a Premiere League team was able to score only one, ONE, goal!”  She let some time pass; she wanted that to sink in deep.  She was seeing some faces changing, good!

“From now on, I want you to look at yourselves for what you are: a team that did great!  YOU did THAT, and it wasn’t by luck!  You did it because you have put all on the line, held nothing back and played the best football you could!  For that, my wonderful boys, I am proud of you.  All the staff is proud of you!  Not a single person in the organization looks at you with nothing but respect and in awe!  The fans…. The fans just told you, minutes ago, how PROUD they are of your performance!  Take it and believe it!”  She took another pause, the mood was changing in the room, and she felt it.  When she started to speak again, her tone was more assertive.

“Now, we will pull ourselves together! and we will continue the work against what is front of us!  We are in the play-offs on the league table and we will need to work harder to stay there!  The FA Trophy is also up for grab!  We’ve beaten Morecambe once, we can do it again!  I know that you will work harder now, we all know it on the staff, and do you know why?  Huh?  You will do it because YOU…are… NO… Ferdinand!”  All the team then answered in one loud voice: “WE ARE NO FERDINAND! WE ARE NO FERDINAND!”  They stayed huddled around her for a full minute before peeling off to go to the showers.

When Penny finally moved away to her temporary office, she saw David (Boggins) with the staffs, all were smiling at her.

[Rien102]

Penny has just finished the post-match interviews and was walking to the temporary office to change her clothes and to go to the bus.  She was wearing a satisfied smile and was truly happy with the way things had gone.  After all, to not be crushed was an achievement in itself!  As she turned and entered the door of the office, she came face to face with the entire staff accompanied by David (Boggins) who was holding a, rather big, elongated and heavy, wrapped box.  “There you are!” he said to her.  “Penny, we, of the Hereford FC, we wanted to offer you a little something, in reconnaissance of putting our phoenix club into the FA Cup record book!”  He was obviously holding something rather heavy because he was puffing!  “If you would come in the dressing room so that all could share it with you.”  All went into the dressing room.  The players, who seemed to know that something was coming, were waiting in the middle of the room around a table that was placed there.  David and Adam put the big box on the table and Penny then proceeded to unwrap it.  Under the wrapping, she saw a fancy wooden crate and in it, a Methuselah size bottle of Champagne!  All were clapping away!  As two other players were proceeding to bring a little table with about 40 glasses on it, Penny was wondering how she would be able to manipulate the giant bottle.  She couldn’t think of that very long because now, the players were urging her to open it up.

Dean (Rance) carefully removed the bottle from the wooden box and put the bottle upright on the table.  She started to remove the wrapping off the neck of the bottle while all were joking and talking and, basically, just having fun!  Once it was done, she looked up and saw that there was no light under the bottle, just the cork like tiles of the suspended ceiling.  Once she was sure no damage could be done, she started to unwind the little loop of the wire cage holding the cork in the bottle.  Once done, she removed the said wire cage just to see, instantly and violently, the cork popped through the cork tiles!  All were laughing hard, herself included.  “And I wanted to keep that cork!” she said, laughing some more!  It was gone now, stuck somewhere on the suspended ceiling tiles!

She then said to Dean (Rance) and Jake (Goodman) : “Since you are the two oldest players here, you will be the waiters!  Don’t drop the bottle!”  All the players cheered them!  The two started tipping the bottle while Andy (Jackson) and Shaun (Okojie) were bringing the empty glasses under it.  Andy gave the first glass to Penny who waited until all had theirs; she then lifted her glass and said out loud: “To all of us who are now in the history book of the FA Cup!  CHEERS!”  The Champagne was cold and so good!  About fifteen minutes in the little celebration, David presented the President of the West Brom Baggies who congratulated her and all the team for their good performance.

In half an hour, all had gotten one or two glasses of Champagne, had great laughs and talked.  Some West Brom staffer had gone to clean the bottle and put it back in the wooden box.  She made everybody sign the wooden box; it was a great souvenir for sure!  Then it was time to go to the bus and leave. 

[Rien102]

When she arrived home, she was greeted by all the family, again, and by a screaming Britanny still wearing her “Stiles” Bulls jersey and face paint, although a bit smeared by now.  Her daughter jumped in her arms and gave a big hug:  “You are still having your game face huh?” Penny asked her.

-          Yes!  I wanted to show you what I was like at the match in the big place!”  Britanny was all smiles.

-          “You are not disappointed because mummy lost?

-          NAW! You were against a super big team daddy say!  You are still the BEST!” and the kid gave her mum a big fat kiss, smearing a bit of her paint on her mum’s cheek, to everyone’s laughter!

Her sister in law came to congratulate Penny and rapidly brought Britanny to the bathroom to clean up the paint.  All were celebrating her for the achievement.  They were showing pictures of the game and, to her own pleasure, a lot of pictures of the ceremony at the beginning, with the teams lined-up with the kids by their side.  Penny just remembered about the bottle, she said to Mark and her brother.  “Would you two mind?  I was given a gift, it’s in the boot and I couldn’t carry it myself in the house!”  Both men went outside to the car without asking questions; they’d know the answer soon enough.

Her brother in law came to her and said: “You know Penny?  When I saw you enter the pitch at the Hawthorns, I could only think of one thing: If she made it there this year, she’ll be doing it everywhere soon!”  Penny reddened at the compliment.  All week she heard peoples talking about the game, the feeling of being there, the atmosphere it would be.  It was joyful, to say the least!   They all were astounded at the, now empty, bottle of Champagne that the two men brought inside the house which was as tall as Britanny!

When everybody left, Penny especially thanked her sister in law for cleaning the little girl.  She just smiled and said bye.  Once the kid was in bed, Mark came to her, offered her a nice hug and said:  “I want to show you something.”  He brought the laptop on the kitchen table and opened a vid taken from his cell phone.  In the middle of a pack of wild Bulls fans, with paints and banners, there was Britanny cheering, all painted and happy to tell everybody that it was her mum there, on the pitch!  Penny’s eyes started to water.  She turned to her husband and just said:  “Thank you!” and they shared a long embrace.

[Rien102]

When Penny arrived at the club the next morning, very late she could say since it was past 10h, she saw another article pinned to the main board. 

“When the boast meets reality, and wins! They really are no Ferdinand!”

“The Hawthorns was far from full, after all, the Baggies were playing a lowly Conference North team.  Despite the fact that it was a replay needed because, the said lowly Conference North, had gotten a draw against them on their first try, didn’t matter for most of the West Bromwich fans.  The Hereford Bulls were still decided to call on everything against them.  As soon as their fans started chanting the “We are NO Ferdinand” song, the players followed suite, in defiance!  The stage was set and the size of it didn’t matter to them one bit! […]

Some will say the match was lackluster since the Bulls weren’t able to get a lot of opportunities to attack or even, counter attack, so busy were they surviving the storm.  To those who think this, or that the result was a disappointment, I am inclined to call on you!  Those players rode that storm for over 90 minutes without flinching!.  Repeatedly, what we saw, was a tightly, woven together, team, fighting with all they have, all they could!  Many times, the West Brom players, nine of which were regulars I will remind you, were showing signs of frustration.  This was a great display of defensive football, not by choice, because they had to, and they did it in style!  Really, it was a moment when the boast came toe to toe with reality and said: I won![…]”

Penny was in some kind of awe in front of what was written in that article when a light touch on her shoulder made her jump scared!  “Sorry!” she heard.  Once she turned around, she saw Billy, one of the maintenance crew of Edgar Street.

-          “You scared the bejesus out of me!” and she laughed!

-          “I am sorry m’am.”  Billy was truly sorry to have scare jumped her, it showed!

-          “No problem Billy!  How do you do?

-          Doing good, thanks m’am.  I was wondering if you minded that I had put the article on the board…

-          No, not at all!” she answered.  “Were you at the match?

-          Wouldn’t have missed it for the world m’am!  Also, I wanted to tell you I had to go in your office this morning without asking you because I couldn’t reach you.”  He was shuffling his feet, clearly looking a bit nervous.  ‘There was a delivery and I thought it would be better to put it there myself since you probably couldn’t have done it yourself.”

-          No problem Billy!  May I ask what it is?

-          Oh no m’am, I think it would be better if you would see it yourself” is eyes looking at his feet, like a kid caught doing some misgivings.  She really was intrigued by now.

-          “Well, gotta go, still have games to prepare.  Thanks for the kind words Billy, I’ll pass them along!  And, by the way, you can call me Penny you know?”  Billy looked even more sheepish.  She decided not to push more and went straight to her office, curiosity was overwhelming by now….

[Rien102]

Penny was hearing Sam and Adam talking together, down the corridor.  As she turned the corner, she saw that both were firmly planted in front of her office door and they were visibly pretty amused.  Adam was the first to saw her, from about 20 meters away, and he said to her:  “It’s nice to have friends in high places!” and both the men started to laugh!

-          “I don’t know anybody but you in Brighton Adam!” she retorted, with a laugh.  When she finally arrived at her office door, she opened it and saw a giant bouquet of tens of lilies, half of them black, the other half white!  The flowers arrangement was taking just about her entire desk!  The smell of lilies rushed at her!  She was wearing a totally surprised face.  “Someone clearly did his homework!” she thought; lilies were her favorite flower.

She proceeded to go to her desk, in awe in front of the beautiful giant bouquet.  The lilies were placed in such a way that it was, vaguely, recreating the Bulls home kit: white in the center and black on the edges.  She saw a big wrapped box at on her chair, with another one, not very big, on top of it,  both wrapped in West Brom motifs.  On the flowers, she saw a note.  It was written: “To the unexpectedly difficult opponent you were.  I know you really are no Ferdinand: you love to fight, and it shows!  I thought you would appreciate those, nonetheless.  Success to you and your team for the rest of the season.  J. Aguirre”.  She was truly touched by the gesture.  Sam and Adam, always outside, by the opened door, finally broke the silence:  “Who is it from?” asked Sam.

-          Come in and see for yourselves!” she said.

As they were all coming in, she took the small box and saw a little card, taped on it, with these words: “Something you forgot at the Hawthorns yesterday”.  Intrigued, she unwrapped the package and saw a little Plexiglas box, with the cork of the Champagne bottle and a little golden plaque inside.  On the plaque was engraved: “Hawthorns Visitors Dressing Room, 22 January, 2020”  She laughed out loud and passed the box to Adam who said, after reading the little plaque: “Talk about a nice knick-knack huh?!

She then proceeded to open the big box.  On top, there was an envelope, with a card fronted by the Baggies club logo on it.  Inside it read: “To use at any auction, for a charity of your choice.  West Bromwich Albion”.  In the box she first saw a framed photograph, of about 70 centimeters wide, of both teams with the kids.  A little golden plaque read on three superposed lines: “FA Cup 3^rd round replay match / West Bromwich Albion, Premiere League vs. Hereford FC, Conference North / The Hawthorns, 22 January, 2020.”  She saw that the back of the photo was autographed by all the Baggies players and staffs.  Under the picture, there was a bundle of official Baggies shirts, all autographed too, of the starting eleven of the game.  “Class act!” she thought.

[Rien102]

Important disclaimer.  This match was something I was dreading since the beginning of the story.  If the end result is in conformity with the match itself (i.e. score and bookings), the timeline of the goals and bookings were manipulated to create the storyline of this particular chapter.  You can find the real timeline of the match here: ( Stockport - Hereford.pkm )

 

The 1^st day of February, Penny was very tired and she did a little siesta in the bus driving to Stockport.  It was the 5^th game in a row played away and she was restless.  Since the FA Cup loss, the Bulls had had two games, both wins and she wanted to add another one, Hereford was now fourth on the league table and she intended to stay there.  The calendar wasn't difficult for three straight games, playing against two teams that were barely over the relegation zone.  Stockport was the toughest of the series, them being in 10^th place.  The players were also showing some signs of fatigue, which wasn’t surprising, the crunch was hard on the body, but also the stakes of some games, like the FA Cup and the FA Trophy, was putting a lot of stress on them, on everyone really!  She had already decided, and told everyone, that after the Morecambe game in the FA Trophy, all would get five days straight of rest!  That week would be the first one in the last seven with only one game to play; she wanted her boys ready for the last stretch!

The Stockport match was a good, physical, one.  The tension was getting higher as the game progressed and it was visible on the pitch. At the end of the first half, no team had scored yet.  The Bulls players were focused, they had put good pressure so far and they had the feeling it was just a matter of time before the gate would be unlocked at some point.  On the Hatters side though, frustration was creeping.  When the second half started, the Bulls started to push again, and in style too; scoring three times in less than fifteen minutes!  At the 67th minute, the play was stopped just a few steps from the Bulls bench for a throw in.  Penny was on the sideline, screaming some instructions to her defensive line when a Stockport player, a few meters away, let out a loud: “Shut up you bi**! And go back where you…”  He couldn’t finish his insult because Dean (Rance), who was just there, punched him in the face!  A brawl started by the Bulls’ bench.  Penny’s players were racing toward where it was.  Penny, and all her staffs, were screaming at them not to come.  Andy (Jackson), she saw, was holding her entire back-line, Josh (Barnes) included!  The brawl lasted for about three minutes, all the referees and some of the coaches from both teams were separating the players!  The final tally of the first noticeable incident, for all to see, about her, being a woman, was one straight red for Dean, a second yellow in the match for Matty (Dixon) who got expelled too, and 6 more yellows evenly distributed between the two teams!

After the game, Penny was conflicted about what had happened but didn’t want to let it show.  She told her players that the brawl was something she never wanted to see again.  Ever!  “It’s the first time you hear it but a lot are saying it already.  I know you came to defend the Bulls honor, my honor too, but it is unnecessary, ok?  You want to tell them I belong here, with you?  Humiliate them by scoring goals, tons of goals! and by denying them the opportunity to retaliate!”  She then turned to Dean and said, in a stiff tone:  “Dean, whatever the suspension you get from FA, because they will surely review the matter, I suspend you for two more games for what you did.  I’m sorry but I cannot tolerate violent behaviors in any way, shape or form, for whatever reason.  You understand?  And before we leave, you will go to that player you hit, and you will apologize to him for doing so too!”  Dean just shrugged but then Matty (Dixon) told him:  “You should have hit that fu**** harder!  I just couldn’t reach that as***** in time!”

Penny was starting to get mad about all this.  “Matty?  I won’t tolerate that kind of behavior either, you understand me?”  Matty looked at her, clearly riled-up.

-         “Boss, it’s not fair!  That fu**** said something that was WAY out of line by MILES!

-          Matty, what he said is beside the point.  What I care about is how you guys react to all this!  You think he is the only one to say stuff like that to women? Huh?”  Matty’s gaze went down to the floor.  She was sweeping the room with her eyes.  “Look, you defended my honor, I am touched, really!  But in the end, it had no real impact but getting booked.”  She made a sign to Sam to give her a chair; the pain in her ankle was too much.  As she sat down, she saw the players thinking.  “Ok, I’m not into sermons, I think you all know it by now, but I think it is as good a time as any, to talk about it.  Feel free to talk, I’ll take all, no impact at all.  Let’s just clear that crap that we never spoke of, together, as a group.

-          Boss?” answered Scott.  “If it was such a big deal to us, we wouldn’t have signed with you anyway!

-          Fair enough, Scott.  I’ll take the problem from another angle than.  If outside of the pitch, you hear someone bad mouthing me, not as a “not good manager”, but as “a woman being a manager for a team of men in pro football”, will you punch him? Punch them? Punch them all? All the time?

-          Boss, I don’t know about all the rest of the idiots” Dean shot back, “ but I won’t let ANYONE walk away bad mouthing my boss, man or woman.  As far as I’m concerned, the only thing I care to know is if my boss do the job or not… and you do!”  At that moment, there was a knock on the door and Adam (El-Abd), who was closest, opened it a wee bit, then went out.

-          “Dean, you can’t fight everybody.  And stupidity, the only way I know how to fight it, is to fly so high above it, it can’t reach you.  Otherwise, you’d spend your entire time fighting!

-         I think it is wrong boss.“ Josh (Mitchell) said, “I think you showed in spade that you belong here and I say and do like Dean, nobody will get away with something like that in front of me either!  I don’t care to get booked or expelled or benched for that!

-         Discrimination comes in many forms, Josh” said Shaun (Okojie) to his tutee, “sexism is like racism, it’s just ret*****!”  Being black, he sadly knew a thing or two about that.

-         Yeah, discrimination is like cancer…” added Tareq (Shihab), being born from parents who are immigrants in the UK, he knew a bit about that too.

Adam came back in the dressing room and went straight to Penny and murmured in her ear: “Penny, the Stockport President, the manager and the player are by the door.  I think you really should let them in….”  Penny looked at him, his eyes were pleading.

-         “Give me a minute Adam” she said to him.  Turning to her players, she continued “I’m not saying you should do like nothing happened.  What I want to tell you, is to use your head when it will happen because, and don’t kid yourselves, it will happen again.  Be smarter than them.  You are, in some ways, examples, guinea pigs even!" she was trying to lighten the mood, "by now, whether you like it or not!  You are the first men, ever, being led by a woman in a pro football team, people who doesn’t know what to think, or are conflicted by the issue, will tend to look at you for answers, for some at least.”  She then made a sign to Adam to let the group in.

Now, was entering the Away team dressing room, a rather large group of people, Penny saw.  The Bulls players were becoming a bit stiff, their faces showing their feelings.  There was the President of the club, the manager, the assistant manager, the physio (she was a woman), the two captains of the team and the player that had insulted her.  The President went straight to her.  She got up, despite the pain.  He offered his hand, which she took without hesitation:  “Thank you Penny to let us in, I’m sorry to interrupt but there is something that needed to be done in, hmmm, urgency” he told her, with a contrite expression.  “May I take some of your time? and your team’s too?  It won’t be long, I promise.

-          Sure sir, go right ahead.” She answered.  The man stood in the middle of the room, it clearly was painful for him.

-        “I am here to apologize to you, to the Hereford Bulls organization in general but“, turning to Penny, ”to you in particular.  I am here to tell you how sorry I am about the sad attitude and poor sportsmanship demonstrated by one of my players today.  Here, at Stockport FC, we don’t tolerate any kind of discrimination, we believe the game is and must be played by the bests, whatever the color of their skins, their religion or their gender.  For us, this is unacceptable behavior and I want to guarantee you that this… this…  ” he clearly was trying to find his words,” well, I promise you it won’t stay there, unpunished!  First, I want you to know that he is suspended for 5 games, starting right now, on top of whatever sanction he will receive from FA.  Also, he will see two weeks of his wages be cut.  To this money, from his own salary, our club will put five times more.  The total amount will be distributed to local organisations of girl’s football, players and referees, in the Hereford FC name!  Second, I needed all of you to hear me say this...” the President turned toward the publically punished player and said, with a very stern and solemn voice:  “You are formally warned right here and now.  If you ever step out the line again, you will be fired from this club so fast, you won’t even have time to pack your things!”  Turning back to the Hereford players, he added in a contrite tone “I sincerely hope this… this… despicable incident can be put behind us, I can only wish that you will be as graceful with me, and my club, as you were defending your manager, and accept these sincere apologies.”  He turned to Penny once again “As for you Ms. Stiles, your results this season demonstrate, to everybody, that you deserve your place in pro football, among men AND women!”  He extended his hand again.  Penny was thunderstruck.   She took the hand and shook it, smiling rather sheepishly.

Silence was deafening in the room.  The Stockport captain came to Penny and said, clearly uncomfortable in front of her:  “I am truly sorry m’am.  If there is anything I can do to help heal this wound, please tell me and I’ll make what is necessary.”  He then offered his hand, which she took and shook without hesitation.  Behind him, the vice-captain was pushing the player toward Penny, rather forcefully.  Once the captain was done, he went to each Bulls, players and staff, apologizing personally to each of them.  The player concerned by the incident was placed in front of Penny by the vice-captain.  He was wearing clear marks on his face, that would probably be a world class Blackeye tomorrow!  He offered his apologies, and said he had been out of line, and that it would not happen again.  He then went the same route as the captain, doing the same thing.  The vice-captain came to Penny and said the same thing as the captain and also went down the line, to apologize to all for what had happened.  Penny Stockport - Hereford.pkmmade sure that Dean saw that she was watching him when the player was in front of him.

The bus ride was pretty silent, especially since, as a punitive measure, she forced all phones and electronic devices to be shut down and given to the staffs.  “You need to reflect on all of this” she had said, harshly.  About halfway home, Jack (Collison) elbowed her, handing her his phone.  On it, the Stockport FC web site, with a press release, condemning what had happened today and mentioning all the sanctions to the player.  She had a sudden thought; she took her phone out of her purse and called David (Boggins), her President of the board.  The talk was not long.  About 15 minutes after Jack showed her the press release, it was a done deal.  Hereford FC would organize a friendly with Stockport FC at Edgar Street.  Both teams would put their best eleven on the pitch for the game, publicised it, and all the proceedings would go to the FA fund to promote women in football.  The match would be at the Bulls grounds just because there usually was a bigger crowd coming.

When she finally was home, she found Mark, awake and waiting for her.  He had followed the match on the Bulls radio, he knew what had happened.  He also knew that the news of the brawl have been catching up, slowly, to the bigger media but said nothing.  She didn’t say a thing, went straight to bed and just wanted to cuddle on her husband.  She hoped so hard to fall asleep fast that night, but all she could think about was the awful match…

[Rien102]

The next day, when Penny woke up, she was hoping all that had happen the day before would have been a nightmare.  When she took her job phone in her purse, which was vibrating non-stop (she had shut down the audio), she knew it wasn’t the case!  She opened up the tablet and saw that the brawl was national news worthy.  Fourfourtwo, the BBC, Sky Sports and all the big sports news outlets, and some regular ones too, were talking about it.  Her hearth sank.  She took out her phone and called David (Boggins), her President of the board: a meeting was going to happen, first thing in the morning.  He also told her the board would want to talk to her.  When she hung up, she could have smashed the phone!

Penny was going through the press review Mary had prepared.  She was disgusted mainly by the fact that a good portion of the pundits were all praising Dean (Rance), for defending her!  It was now a big discussion on the place of women in pro men football, most seemed to say that it was ok, that if she had what was needed, why not have her?  She also saw that David had worked late into the night, including with the FA, because there was a lot of quotes coming from him in the news but also on the FA site.  Among some:  “Penny Stiles belong here, she is the manager we need her in Hereford and we won’t accept anyone saying she doesn’t.”  and  “Defending against discrimination must be done in other ways.” Or even “I am sure measures will be taken by Penny against the players involved in this sad display, that shouldn’t have been in the first place.”  She was feeling awful.  “David?” she said, “I am sorry…” she couldn’t finish because he interrupted her swiftly.

-          “DON'T be sorry.  It is done and, to be honest” Mary was looking at him, curious “I think Dean’s reaction is commanding BUT, we can’t accept it nonetheless.  Especially since he is the captain!

-          I already told him he would get 2 games on top of what FA would decide to give him.

-          Well, that is something.  I had a long talk with the President of Stockport.  What we want is to try and make sure the public doesn’t think we are both a bunch of Neanderthals, if you know what I mean.

-          We settled it already, no?

-          In private, yes.  He made nice comments about the way you reacted by the way; he said you showed great leadership and civility.” She could only gap at the words.  “The idea of that friendly is a good inspiration on your part too, but we need to do more than that.  We need to nip all of this in the bud, fast.

-          Penny, I am wondering why there are no quotes from our players, or our staffs?” Mary asked her.

-          “I confiscated all electronic devices of the players, as punishment, for the ride home.  As for the staffs, I would tend to say they were more intelligent than the pundits, not difficult if you ask me!

-          I can tell you the Stockport President is on his way here” said David.  “We will do a press conference together, to say that we don’t accept this sort of thing and also, the solution we came up with, etc.

-          Do you want me to be there?

-          That is part we need to think about.  I do know, that if all of it, is just a pure PR show, a publicity stunt, you wouldn’t want to be part of it!  My gut tells me he is sincere so, don’t go anywhere, ok?”  The rest of the meeting was productive at least, because it was far from being a pleasant one as far as she was concerned.

Before lunch, a big news conference was called by the club for 3pm.  Both Presidents of the board would be there, both managers too.  At lunch, Penny already knew that over 20 reporters would come.  Since Hereford was a bit out of the way, there also was an internet feed that would be set-up for those outside of the area, and they would be able to ask questions too.

At lunch, Penny had a long talk with her staffs about the entire situation, the news conference and all.  They told her that their phones were ringing non-stop.  She just asked them to stay within the lines of the clubs message; they already were there, she knew it, but felt necessary to say it nonetheless.  Mary, which was in the cafeteria to reheat her lunch, came to the staff table and gave Penny her phone with the FouFourTwo site on it:  “Nobody will call my manager a bi***!”  It was a direct quote attributed to Matty (Dixon).  She knew what the questions would be by now!  Penny thanked Mary and told her staffs:  “I want you to call all the players, one by one, and tell them that they need to stop this bravado bullcrap!” she was angry and let it show!  “They should talk about what happened AFTER the brawl!  I will take care of Dean (Rance) and Andy (Jackson) by myself but you guys do the rest of the roster, ok?  Sam?  You call Matty personally; make sure the message is understood!”  He bobbed his head up and down.  “I still have to go meet the board, who came in for an emergency meeting about the situation…”  The staffs gapped!

-          You are brought in before the board?” asked Jack.

-          “Yes, they are pi**** and scared about the bad publicity.”  She didn’t tell them that David had said that they weren’t pleased with the brawl but that they seem to understand the reaction of the players, and that they were pleased of the way she had handled the whole thing afterward.

-          “Bad publicity?” retorted Sam.  “You are attacked and we are the bad guys?

-          Sam, there was a full fledge brawl, it IS bad publicity.”  Penny was seeing that her staffs were getting angry at the whole thing too and that they all sided with the players and their reaction.  She continued, for all intend and purposes “Look, I know you are proud of the way the players reacted.  I also know you understand why we did what we did after.  It is conflicting for all of us, for me too, but now, I tell you the same thing I said the boys yesterday:  We need to go higher than this, we need to aspire at bigger things instead of petty comments.”  She really was conflicted, she truly admired Dean’s reaction, in some way, but she needed to get everything back on track.  She than took a softer tone:  “Guys, I know you are all above that, ok?  You are working with me and, I see it on a daily basis, you respect my abilities, just as I do yours.  The key is about going back to what we are all here for, together: football.  We are playing Morecambe in two days for the FA Trophy quarter finals huh?  So I want us to refocus on that.  Those five days of rest should help; everybody would have the chance to calm down too.”

[Rien102]

The meeting with the board was has David (Boggins) had said it would be.  She was relieved to see that the board was happy about what she did in the dressing room after the game.  They also had invited the Stockport President, since there was only one point to discuss.  He told them that Penny had been a beacon of leadership!  She became beet red.  He said that this friendly was her idea! and that it should be used to make things better, that it should become a mean to reaffirm, in one clear voice, that discrimination and viloence were unacceptable behaviors.  David was ordered by the board (her inner self laughed a little at that), to make sure that the friendly would be well publicized.  That all the resources should be made available to make sure it would be known throughout football, that Hereford FC and Stockport FC (the President thanked them) were united in promoting football the way it should be: a gathering of sportsmanship, a display of abilities and inclusion for all.

The conference was “packed to the rafters”, as the Americans would say.  About ten cameras were in there and over 35 reporters!  Both Presidents were there, accompanied by both managers, Mary was also present to, basically, manage the crowd.  A mutual statement was read, saying that what happened wasn’t the result of club policies and that both Presidents were condemning it forcefully.  Then, the Stockport President recounted the event, that a player of his team had insulted Penny with words that were meant to offend only a woman, and that the Hereford players, in response, had come to defend their manager.  He repeated that the player involved had been severely warned, that he was suspended and that he was, in essence, on probation from now on.  David told that he was pleased with the reaction from Stockport, that Dean (Rance) would have 2 more games of suspension for the punching and that he wouldn’t comment any further on it.  He then talked about the friendly, that it was Penny’s idea (she was red again) ant that both clubs agreed that the best way to fight discrimination was to promote inclusion even more.  Both managers said that they had managed the situation the way it should, that there was no animosity between each other over this and that it became an occasion to talk about the subject with their respective team.  They also said that the players were united in the condemnation of any form of discrimination, whether it was based on race, creed or gender.

The questions period was intense, to say the least.  David stole the show, stating multiple times that Penny had demonstrated over and over again that she was the right woman, underlying the word “woman” heavily each time, for the job and that he was proud of her being the manager of the club.  At one point, a reporter was asking Penny what was the impact, the insult had, on her.  She never could really answer the question because, seeing she was a bit uncomfortable, the Stockport President barged in, saying that he was hoping that the sad and deplorable action of his player would only encourage her even more, to prove even louder, if she ever felt the need to do it more than she already did after knocking Doncaster out of the FA Cup!  That she deserved her place, not because she was a woman, but because she was, indeed, the best person for the job.  The Stockport manager even piled up on his boss, saying that Penny was about the most formidable adversary he was facing this year in the league, and that a lot of other managers were thinking the same thing:  “You think Doncaster and West Brom managers thinks she is an easy target?  Just look at the teams coming against her, including mine!  We all come with defensive settings and it’s not because she is the manager of a particularly strong team!  It’s because she come at us with a system that is effective and most difficult to play against!  I’m not proud about the fact that we lost both matches against her but I can tell you this, she won because she came at us prepared and, on the pitch, she was better than me and my team, period!”  Penny was as red as she could become!

[Rien102]

The next day, the same day of the match against Chorley, Tuesday the 4^th of February, a full page ad was in all the major newspapers and news web sites, paid by FA.  In this page, all the managers part of FA, male pro and semi-pro clubs, signed a letter stating that discrimination based on gender, just like the one based on race or creed, was unacceptable behavior; intentionally putting the gender first.  That the bests should compete against the bests and that nothing else mattered.  FA also made a big deal of the friendly between the Bulls and the Hatters, of the cause that it would serve.  To top it all, Penny was transmitted by about thirty peoples, the West Brom manager declaration, Javier (Aguirre), saying to a reporter:  “What more do you need to believe she belong in football?  her Conference North team winning against my team,, a premiership team?  You wouldn’t ask for a fraction of what she already did with her team if she was a man!  Get lost mor**s!” 

All the team came in only for the pre-game training (because of the crunch, she had them rest two days instead of one) and she had a little talk about all that with them, again.  Dean (Rance) came to her and apologized for his bad behavior, looking at his feet, ashamed.  She, deep down, only wanted to hug him but instead, she told him:  “Dean, you are the captain, and because of that, you are asked to be a better man than everybody else.”  She then smiled at him and added:  “I am proud of what you just did, to come to me and apologize.  Honestly, it shows me, like it needed to be done anyway huh? that I made the right choice by giving you this responsibility.”

When the players entered the pitch that night, the crowd welcomed them with louder cheers than usual, and when she arrived on the pitch, the crowd started to chant: “She’s one of us!”  The Chorley manager came to her, shook her hand and said, with a smile:  “You are indeed!”  The game was a good one!  All the players giving all they could.  Penny had, pretty much, put her B team since Dean and Matty (Dixon) were out because of FA sanctions and also because she was resting some for the Morecambe game next Saturday.  Mitchell (Glover) opened up the score on the 28^th minute, with a well-placed kick in the top right corner, on a corner.   On the 83^rd minute, on a very aggressive counter attack, Matty (Hughes) scored the equalizer.  The match would end on that 1-1 score, but it wasn’t over yet.

All the players went to the middle of the pitch, shaking hands.  Once done, both teams lined-up, faced the main stand of Edgar Street, and made the crowd chant the “She’s one of us!” thing again.  It lasted for about five minutes!  The crowd and both teams, staffs and players, were chanting to Penny that she belonged here!  The Bulls board and the Chorley Chairman came on the pitch too, chanting with the crowd.  She felt a tear rolling down her cheek when the Chorley manager came to her and made her face the crowd.  She saw Mark and Britanny, right behind the Bulls bench chanting with the crowd!  All Mark’s and her’s family was there too, chanting for her!  Mark and her dad, she saw, were squishing tears of their own.

[Rien102]

The FA Trophy game was today, finally! and to Penny’s joy, the Stockport event, and its repercussions, had died down a lot.  It would take a lot of time to completely vanish though, if ever, and she knew it.  She was in her office and had just received the Morecambe official line-up: “They’ll use a 4-2-3-1 and the FBs will probably go bombing, hard” said Sam.  Just before entering the pitch, she gave some instructions to the team: “ Jack (Hunter), I want you to be anchor ok?  Go plug the holes on the sides and close down more in the middle!”  Jack bobbed his head. “Don’t tackle hard, just make them rush things.  Defenders, I want you to play at a normal height.  I know we spoke of playing a tad higher but we thought they’d use their 4-1-2-3.  FBs?  I want you both on support, not to high but ready to move and offer options!”  All the defensive line made thumbs-up.  Penny then let them go on the pitch.  As she was stepping on the pitch herself, she was worried.  If all her players were fit for the game, they all were tired of playing loads of games for the past 7 weeks, not to mention the additional stress from the stakes of those games and, of course, the “b*** event”. 

Right from the start, the Shrimps game plan was plain for all to see:  the FBs on both sides were high on the pitch, like WBs, at all time and she noticed the two CMs were playing rather low.  Penny screamed at both her FBs to stay on defend, not to support for now.  She still was using her low block approach but with the box formed in the Morecambe back line, she was scared her FBs would be caught, being too deep by roaming wingers high on the pitch.  She asked Matty (Dixon) who was playing as a BWM to play on defend too.  In the first 15 minutes of the game, her boys had to foil over 14 crossing attempts.  The counter attacks were moving up nicely but were all dying inside the box.  She knew it would be hard.

The Bulls were controlling the midfield like champs but at the other end, the Shrimps were defending well and were tight, making little mistakes.  At some points, Sam told Penny that the Morecambe left CD was a little slow and was getting caught off position a little more often than not.  She asked Scott (Martin) that was playing a BBM role, on the right side of the middle, to go onto a CM role, on attack.  She wanted to have him, suddenly and without warnings, bomb on the right of the box to destabilize the defenders, even use the little space left by that slower left CB.  On the 44^th minute, he was able to create space by doing so, for Shaun (Okojie) who was able to get a superb opportunity but to waste it by hitting the framework.

At the end of the first half, no goals had been scored and only 7 shots total have been taken.  “At least, three of our four shots were from inside the box and two had been clean cut chances” Penny thought, retreating into the Bulls dressing room.

[Rien102]

The half-time team talk was brief; no points in stating the obvious.  She gave some modifications to the players and let them think, alone.  They knew what was at stake, during the pre-game briefing; Penny had made it clear…really clear.  Andy (Jackson), about 2 minutes before it was time to go on the pitch, stood-up and said:  “We can’t score if we don’t play like we can, like we SHOULD!  COME ON!”  The team stood-up and gathered around him.  All were silent.  Penny from her office was seeing them and was told by Sam, that was alongside her: “It’s gonna be ugly; mark my words!”

The Bulls got the first touch for the second half and right at start, Tareq (Shihad) bombed the Shrimps left side and did a great low ball cross to the penalty spot to Reece (Miller) who got frustrated by the Morcambe goalkeeper.  On the 53^rd minute, Morcambe got a corner on the right side.  The header was deflected twice and ended-up in the goal! 1-0 for Morecambe.  “A fluky goal!!” grumbled Penny.  The Bulls players started to push once more.  Coming on the left side, they got another clean cut chance but it was off target by centimeters!  The crowd started chanting the “We are no Ferdinand” gig.  Penny was seeing she would need more punch, she told Josh (Mitchell) to warm-up.  Once she said that, she saw the Shrimps make a sub and, also, changed their formation.  From a 4-2-3-1, they became a 5-4-2, the two wingers up front moved down to midfield and they brought in an extra CD, subbing their AM.  Penny made a sign to Josh: “You go replace Cyan.  Here’s what I want you to do.  You’ll go on the right side, take Shaun’s (Okojie) place and I want you to play poacher, move into channel and run wide if need be.  Say to Shaun that I want him as DLF, in the middle of both Reece and you, and to feed you two.  Ok?”  He bobbed his head up and down.

The change was finally done, 63 minutes in.  Penny told all to play long ball.  She had to force the issue, she had no choice.  She made signs to Josh (Barnes) to do long kicks over the defense.  Sam, that was close by said: “You sure?”  She never answered.  The players were pushing hard now and Morecambe started to play lower.  They made another change; their striker was pulled-out for another one, more defensively minded.  One minute into injury time, Andy (Jackson) intercepted what was a through ball in the center and kicked it up front.  Shaun scraped with the Shrimps middle CD and slowed him down.  Reece ran to get the ball and was all alone with the goalkeeper who had no chance, GOAL!  The crowd was chanting even more, adding the Reece name to the chant!  1-1!  Shaun went fast into the goal to get the ball and bring it in the middle while Andy was screaming to all to stop celebrating!  There still was 4 minutes left of injury time.  Three minute later, on a throw in for Morecambe, the play was sketchy and scrappy, tackles and interceptions on both sides, both teams battling hard, trying to get an edge.  It was dirty now, all the players battling fiercely.  Midfield, Jack (Hunter) was able to steal a ball to the Morecambe’s midfielder and kick it on the left flank to Max (Melbourne) that was pushing forward.  He then kicked the ball in the left corner, far from everyone but Reece who ran to the ball, the right back that was covering him, never able to catch him.  Reece then crossed the ball violently and Shaun was able to head it into the net.  GOAL!!!!  Andy was calling all the players back again!

The referee let the game play for 2 more minutes and whistled the end of it.  Penny, on the sidelines, fell on her knees and started shouting to the sky!

[Rien102]

When the players finally decided to get off the pitch, Penny had had ample time to clean the dirt off her pants by then!  One by one, they were coming to Penny for the traditional fist bump.  Andy (Jackson) was staying behind with Dean (Rance), who was in civilian clothes due to his suspensions, congratulating everyone individually.  Then, Dean came to Penny, with a great smile on his face.  Both didn’t need to say anything.  Dean then let Andy come in.  Penny gave Andy his fist bump but then, grabbed is left shoulder and told him: “You did great today young man….  You did great!”  Andy was beaming under the compliment; he finally went in the dressing room, where all were celebrating.

Penny came in and went in the middle of the dressing room, she wanted to talk to them fast, wanted to have the moment mixed-up with the festivities:  “BOYS!” she said loudly. “Boys! Just a few seconds…  First, to say that I am proud of what you did, proud of the way you did it, is an understatement!  If anyone.  Anywhere.  Still have doubts about you guys, well, if they don’t change opinion today, they are nothing but a lost cause…. Or a Shrewsbury fan!”  All laughed in the dressing room.  Penny continued:  “We are now officially in the quarter finals; you know what it means, huh?  It means that all is possible!  We slew a small giant in the FA Cup, there is nothing to say we can’t do it again in the FA Trophy derby!”  The players cheered!  Penny then changed her tone, to a calmer and poised one.  “I don’t want to see any of you until next Friday.  Rest, I mean it!  Rest yourselves.  In front of us, there is still a steep and difficult road: the FA Trophy quarter finals AND 13 regular games.  And those 13 games are all capital because I don’t know about you, but if we are where we are right now on the table, it’s not to be knocked out of those play-offs spots!  So go home, rest, relax and next Friday, when we see each other again, I want you ready and fit to work harder than you never worked before!”  All cheered at that and Penny turned heels to go into her office.

Jack and Adam were mulling over the preliminary stats sheet and Sam was clearly waiting for her.  “Andy crossed a threshold today” she said to Sam as she was coming in.

-          “Yep, and he did in a great way too!” he answered.  Penny closed her door and went straight to Jack, just to pull the stats sheet out of his hand. !

-          It’s our turn too to get some rest.  I want nobody in here until Wednesday morning!”  The coaches smiled at that.  “I want us to do one thing Wednesday, only one.  I want us to look at the last ten games in details.  I want us to extract all that was good and bad, all that happened, and put it to good use.  Why? Not because I want to stay in the play-offs, because I want us to go in the play-offs and win our promotion!”  The coaches smiled at that.

-          “Like we thought you would tolerate to go in there and not gun for the promotion!” said Jack and all started to laugh. 

As she was closing her office, she had the feeling she was going to work harder that she never did before…. Starting Wednesday morning.

[Rien102]

Penny, for the first time in months, decided not to put her alarm clock.  Mark didn’t mind since he was able to get up at the desired time without an alarm anyway!  That Monday, she spent the entire time, basically, sleeping!  After getting up to see Britanny and Mark leave for school and work, respectively, she went back to bed and woke up at 1 in the afternoon.  The rest of the day was spent doing what she hasn’t got time to do since she became manager for the Bulls:   She relaxed.  When her number one fan arrived from school, she spent some time doing nothing but talk with her.  Penny found it so funny to hear Britanny telling the entire story of her trip to the big place, to see mum play against the big team!  Naturally, it was accompanied by a slideshow of the pictures dad took that day on the family’s laptop.

When Mark got home, she just told him not to undress, that she wanted to have some Thai food from a little restaurant that he take out from.  He simply said: “Ok!”, took the women’s orders and then left to go get the food.  When he came back, Penny and Britanny had prepared everything for a meal all together:  An animated movie Britanny particularly loved (and had watched about 100 times!), some sodas and a giant bowl of popcorn that was already done!  All the family went into the living room and started eating, relaxing, watching the movie with Britanny who loved to eat with “sticks”!  At some point, Penny got up to go prepare some tea for Mark and her.  As the water was heating up, she was looking at the two most important persons in her life, pretty much in awe at how lucky she was.

Once the daughter was fast asleep, Penny cuddled on Mark as they were watching some thriller that she didn’t care about.  She was so comfortable; she fell asleep by her man.  When he woke her up, it was around 10pm.  They went to the bedroom together.  Just before closing the light, she told him: “You are a beautiful seasoned man, you know that?”  She never gave him the chance to say anything; she closed the light and locked her lips against his.

She woke earlier than usual the next day.  “Not surprising, I did nothing but sleep yesterday!” she thought as she was carefully getting out of the bed.  She didn’t want to wake-up Mark.  Tip toeing out of the room, she went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for all.  Once all the family had eaten and that those who had to leave were gone, Penny opened her job laptop and decided it was time to go see who she’d be playing against in the FA Trophy quarter-finals.  The draw had been done the day before, but she just didn’t want to do anything job related.  As she opened the site, she saw that she would be playing Kidderminster, at Aggborough.  The good news was, she had played them before and had won by a good margin earlier this season; she could do it again.

[Rien102]

She arrived early that Wednesday morning.  Penny thought she would probably have an inbox full of emails.  She felt refreshed though.  That great Monday spent in the bed and with the family was a restful occasion and yesterday was one of pure lady care to rejuvenate the body and the soul; manicure, pedicure and beauty salon.  Not to mention a little trip to the local spa for a long massage, guaranteed to get all the stress out !  All of those were good but now, she had a season to finish and a FA Trophy to win!

She was going through her messages when David (David) knocked on her opened door: “You look great, new hairdo?”

-          Hair, nails, waxed legs and the whole enchilada!  Couldn’t ask for more but more days like that!” she told him with a laugh.

-          I thought there was some glow!” he shot back with a wink.

-          Well, it’s probably the sheer surprise that the world kept turning while I relaxed!

-          Yep, it did!” he said while coming to sit down. “Speaking of which, I got the official dates for the beginning of the facilities improvements, both the training and youth facilities.  All is done, contracts are signed.  The day after the last match, the contractors are coming in!

-          That is good news indeed!

-          Also, the board asked me to convey to you their most warm congratulations for the job done so far.  They are impressed.  This is a direct quote by the way.

-          So, this means you don’t regret the pressure you put to get me in in the first place?” she asked with a smirk.

-          “Well, it was touch and go for a while you know?” he said trying to keep a straight face, but couldn’t.  Both laughed.

-          “David, I’ve been wanting to ask you something for some time now.

-          Huh oh!  Not more money huh?

-          Naw!  I wanted the board to consider trying to get a senior club to affiliate themselves with us.”  The laughing time was over and David’s face showed some doubts.  “That way we could get some good young players on loan, saving on the salaries.

-          Penny, to be honest, I am very dubious about that method, to put our faith on players on loan.

-          I promise I’ll make sure that we are not overly reliant on them.  I’ll keep them motivated and engaged too.”  David was thinking hard about that.

-          “You clearly thought about his, huh?

-          I’ve been thinking about it for some time now but wanted to weight everything before asking.

-          Alright, I give a provisional yes.  I’ll talk to the board about it, but will say I think it should be done.”  He got up and shook hands with her.  Just like that, the impromptu good morning drop by became another need fulfilled.  Once he left, she thought: “Well, now to hope to get a decent club!”

[Rien102]

Wednesday went like a flash of light!  All the staffs and Penny went through all the matches, analysing them to the hilt.  She really was happy about the way things went.  Thursday morning though, was spent doing what she didn’t like, PR  and press.  First, she agreed with the Bulls radio to do a season review next week, just before the Kidderminster match in the FA Trophy.  After that, it was time for the FA doc interview.  She would do it on March the second, right after that FA Trophy match.  They would talk about what it has been since she started managing teams.  It was about her experience as manager before she came to Herford and what she thought of the differences between what she did before and now.  No one talked about the car accident; everybody clearly remembered the train wreck it was.  She was sure that they would want to talk about the incident at Stockport though…  Finally, she returned the eight calls she got from reporters and answered all the questions.

After lunch, first, it was budgets time; she usually hated that, but not now.  The results were good.  The average attendance had come up and there were details about what it would cost to do all the improvements.  Then, it was time for something she didn’t thought possible at the beginning of the season but that now, was a realistic goal: meeting with the staffs about what should be done to prepare the club for promotion to Conference!.

“You know Penny, I think what we should be more careful about, next year, is our own expectations.  This year, we are doing better than what was expected, but next year, if we get promoted, the expectations will be much lower and maybe we should place more emphasis on managing our own expectations, it will be tough and if we overachieve at the start of the season, to make sure we don't panic if we slip to where it was expected of us to be” said Adam.

-          I would tend to agree with Adam on this” answered Jack.  “This year, we got on with a good start and it brought us solidly into play-offs spots.  However, the great results we have in attacks, I think, overshadowed some of our weaknesses and shortcomings.

-          Such as?” asked Penny, even though she knew the answers.

-          “You sure?"  she said yes with her head.  "Ok then.  On the left, we can barelycross the ball, but we don’t have the speed or the anticipation needed to feel secure when we attack.  In the middle, Jake (Goodman) was a good call, experienced, determined but we found pretty quickly that he dreads to play the big games.  Jerome (Opuku) is developing well, yes, and he is a first rate jumper but he still need to grow a lot to be fully comfortable, especially between the ears.  As for Andy (Jackson), he is becoming better each game but he still not the best jumper.  On the right, Tareq (Shihab) is still learning to be a right back; he’s not that fast but got excellent positioning and good anticipation.  He still and won’t, ever, be able to cross the ball in any way, shape or form, so, we're condemned on using him on a defense format or, at the very best, in a support role, not too far ahead.  Our DMs, mainly Jack (Hunter), but Matty (Dickson) too, are offering good defensive support but they miss a lot of tackles (all positions, not only as DMs) and some anticipation.  Overall, our low block works great, yes, it is mainly because of our capacity to intercept the crossings, also because of how well, and surprisingly well I might add, Josh (Barnes) developed as a goalkeeper.  But let’s not forget that we have the lowest successful tackles ratio in the league![…]”

When Penny was going home that evening, she was thinking at how, in a few phrases, Jack had deflated the great results they had gotten.  In the end, he was right; they had been able to cover their shortcomings by some awesome offensive and a system that all could follow:  simple and natural.

[Rien102]

Kidderminster game was going to be good, she knew it.  Was Penny confident about being able to finish on the winning side? Of course she was!  On the other hand, The Harriers were in good form lately and playing at home too.  It would be a tough match.  She couldn’t wait!  In the stands, there was a least one third of the crowd that were from Hereford!  They knew the stakes too and showed their support in a great way!

No edge was grabbed on any side by the first half; 0-0.  The Harriers, with a highly structured 4-4-2 came in very defensively.  Penny decided to come in with their usual 4-4-2 Diamond formation but this time, fluid, building plays from the back, methodically.  The show was one of pressure from the Bulls and counter attacking from the Harriers.  The thing was that both defenses were playing good and a lot of opportunities died inside both box.  A grand total of only six shots have been taken, 3 for each team.  At half-time, Penny told her players that this was far from enough! that they needed to push harder!  When the Bulls entered the field for the second half, they were fired up.

Right at start, it showed, with a nice interception midfield from the Bulls.  Tareq (Shihab), took the risk of moving up the pitch and was able to land a great cross to Shaun (Okojie) who headed the ball square on the bar!  The Bulls were pushing harder indeed.  On the 48^th minute, after a stunning series of 17 successful passes, ending up with a violent crossing, Reece (Miller) opened up the score! 1-0 for Hereford!  61 minutes in, inside the Bulls box, Dean (Rance) shoved a Kidderminster player on a set piece, penalty!  The Harriers didn’t let the opportunity pass and Eoin (McKeown) scored!   1-1!  On the 70^th minute, through traffic and intense marking, Reece did it again!  Receiving a low cross from the right edge of the box from Shaun!  2-1!  The Harriers were coming at them again.  Penny told her players to play defensive now.  On the 77^th minute, the Harriers stole the ball midfield, with a great sliding tackle and went hard on a counter attack.  Josh (Barnes) couldn’t do anything against the great pass from Shaquille (Hunter) to Scott (Wilson), GOAL!  2-2!  When the referee blew the whistle to end the match, Penny was more sadden by the fact that there would be another match than from the late draw; what an awesome game it has been for the crowd!

In the dressing room, she saw sad faces so she concentrated the message on the excellent possession and control they had gotten, that they would not miss a chance to go in the semis again!  The players regained a bit.  In the bus, Penny felt the disappointment within the team so, she took a walk inside the bus and decided to joke with them, trying to lift their spirit a bit.  As she was getting out of the bus, back at Hereford, she really hoped her little stint had worked…

[Rien102]

If Penny was able to make the radio man to not talk about the incident in Stockport during her regular weekly interview on the Bulls radio, it only was because she had promised to talk about it during the next review of the season with him.  He had played ball, as usual, she could have add, but she knew it would come today.  She was ready for it.

“Calendar will be tough for the last ten games, you believe the Bulls will be in the play-offs at the end of the season?” asked Bruce, the radio man.

-          “I’m am very confident about that, despite the fact we play all the top teams, ranked one through five in that last stretch.

-          Are you surprised by the standing we hold at the moment?  Honestly?

-          In a sense, yes, and no.  I think the biggest surprise is coming from Josh (Barnes) in our goals.  I had some doubts but less than some.  He developed very well and became a wall in the goals for us.

-          You attribute to him the fact that we have fewer losses than any other teams in the league?

-          In part, yes, for sure!  He showed he was solid and very strong, especially in between the ears, if I can say that!” she laughed a little and it was echoed by the reporter.  “He gave us great stability and gave confidence to our defenders that knew they could take, a little, more risks. […]

-          Ball possession has been improving, game after game.  Is this something you are particularly proud of?

-          Possession is worth little if you can’t do anything good with it.  This is where it was crucial and why it’s valued so much by fans, and us.  We developed plays, were aggressive and were intelligent with it, which was our strength. […]

-          Shaun (Okojie) is still third in the league goals scorer but he is now accompanied by Reece (Miller) who is just behind him.  Is this only a matter of talent on their part?

-          Absolutely not, and yes at the same time.  To have them score goals like they are doing, they need the talent to make themselves available for the passes, to be well positionned and opportunistic but, the other side of that coin is the effectiveness of the rest of the team.  Ball possession, vision and composure made it possible to feed them balls on a regular basis so, it’s not only the capacity to put the ball in the net, it’s about giving them the opportunity to do so and the boys had been impeccable so far, from the defenders to the midfielders.[…]

-          We will go on commercials but don’t go away, because when we get back, we will still talk to our manager, Penny Stiles.  We will talk about that amazing FA Cup run and other subjects!”

As the ads started playing, Bruce was looking at Penny and asked, off mic: “You still ok with it, right?

-          Sure Bruce, no problem!” she answered with a smile.

Her inner voice just wanted her to scream “Leave me alone with that thing!” though.

Pos	Team            Pld    Won    Drn    Lst    For    Ag     GD     Pts   
1st	Boston Utd      32     21     6      5      54     25     29     69
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd	AFC Telford     32     21     5      6      65     37     28     68            
3rd	AFC Fylde       32     20     5      7      60     32     28     65            
4th	Hereford        32     17     11     4      58     23     35     62            
5th	Darlington      32     18     8      6      63     36     27     62            
6th	Stalybridge     32     15     7      10     63     50     13     52            
7th	Blyth           31     15     6      10     51     43     8      51            
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
8th	Nuneaton        32     13     10     9      43     31     12     49            
9th	Spennymoor      32     13     10     9      62     53     9      49            
10th	Kidderminster   32     12     12     8      38     31     7      48            
11th	Stockport       32     13     6      13     32     36     4      45            
12th	FC United       32     12     8      12     42     47     5      44            
13th	Tamworth        32     10     12     10     45     45     0      42            
14th	Chorley         32     10     11     11     45     49     4      41            
15th	Stourbridge     31     9      8      14     45     52     7      35            
16th	Kettering       32     9      6      17     35     44     9      33            
17th	Harrogate       32     6      12     14     44     55     11     30            
18th	Alfreton        32     6      12     14     40     58     18     30            
19th	Solihull Moors  32     6      10     16     29     50     21     28            
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
20th	Chester         32     6      9      17     39     52     13     27            
21st	Bradford PA     32     5      3      24     33     74     41     18            
22nd	Guiseley        32     2      7      23     32     95     63     13 

[Rien102]

“Welcome back to Bulls radio, I’m your host, Bruce and we have Penny Stiles, the Bulls manager herself, in the studio with us.  Thanks again for your time Penny.

-          I’m happy to talk with you and the fans, Bruce!” she answered.

-          “First, FA Cup, third round against West Brom… with a replay?

-          Playing a Premiership team was an awesome experience for sure!

-          How we did it?  Is it because of you?” he let out a laugh, which she echoed!

-          “Me? All I gave was a way of playing, the players did the work and they did it without holding anything back!

-          We must admit all of us, fans, that it’s kinda cool to say that in the last years, in FA Cup Cinderella stories, there is Lincoln City, Lutton…. And Hereford!”  Penny laughed out loudly at that!

-          “I can tell you for us, in the team, it sounds cool too! […]

-          Stockport was something else though, it was a sad chapter for us, for football I think.

-          Bruce, I’ll tell you the same thing I told the boys:  It was inevitable.  One day, it was boundd to happen, sadly.  The key here is to ask ourselves:  “How can we be better than discrimination?”

-          Is the friendly that was announced between us and Stockport part of the response?

-          Partly.  First, it was a statement that both teams knew something happened, that it wasn’t about the teams, it was about individuals, this is where it is part of the response.

-          A lot of people, I must include myself here, still don’t understand why you suspended Dean Rance over this.  He defended you, did he not?

-          Bruce, the response to discrimination is not with punching people, it’s about showing them that they are on on the wrong side of time.  Dean is our captain and, because of that, he is bound to be above all this, to be a leader, in every sense of the way.  I know he understand it.  I think that the tension in the match, the stress of some high stakes games, like the FA Cup ones, added to a very real tough crunch made him lost it.  For me though, it cannot and will not be an excuse. Violent behaviors are not tolerated at the club, period.

-          Last question, then I let you go, promise!

-          Ok, shoot!

-          Will the friendly will be held this year, before the season end?

-          During the season, I can tell you that it is a no go for sure.  There is too many games already.  We will see if it is possible to do it at the end of the season, if calendar permits.  Otherwise, we already have agreed it would be at the beginning of the pre-season, next year.

-          Thanks a lot Penny for your time!  I won’t say good luck for Kidderminster in two days because you once stated that luck had nothing to do with anything!”  Both laughed as they were going off the air.

[Rien102]

Penny was anxious to play the replay against the Harriers, and she felt her players anxious too.  She already knew that tonight’s winner was going to meet Sutton in the semis.  They would be a big challenge, they were higher than mid table in Conference and, for what she saw, were on a streak, their last loss being over 7 weeks ago!  But first, she had to win against Kidderminster!

In the dressing room, Penny took the shortest route she could think of with the players:  “You know what you have to do!”  The assertive tone was one in sync with what she saw of them today, at training,  When the players went on the pitch, they were fired up and it showed.  They were dominating the middle of the pitch and the Harriers could do nothing but go on the flanks.  Penny’s defenders did a bang up job, keeping the opponents at bay, leaving them room to shoot only thrice in the first half: two free kicks and a header inside the box on a corner!  The problem she was having was with her forwards who were getting shots but, for reason unknown, were missing the target over and over again, without being under a great deal of pressure.

At half-time, Penny told her forwards they needed to be better than that!  It was getting ridiculous!  She also asked Max (Melbourne) on the left side to go on attack a little more, to offer options there and, to Tareq (Shihab) on the right, she asked him to go on support.  The right flanks was getting neutralized a little better than the left with Scott (Martin) being hyper aggressive. 

After ten minutes in the second half, Penny saw that the scenario was repeating itself.  She needed new options and she asked Josh (Mitchell) to warm-up.  Again, her defenders were foiling the Harriers, pushed inside the box but their forwards couldn’t hit a darn barn door!  On the 65^th minute, she sent Josh in, as the right finger of a forward trio, and brought Cyan on the bench.  If Penny’s low block was working well, the Harriers middle block was working equally well… and very low too.  Most of the times, their two midfielders were playing inside their box, defending.  After three minutes of injury time, the referee called the regular time off.  Penny was disgusted by then because her forwards must have shot about 15 times so far but only 3 or 4 were on target!

She was seeing her boys motivated and engaged but she was also seeing some frustration building, especially for the forwards.  She worked to tone everything down a little, saying that they were working good (they were) and that it was only a matter of time.  She knew her main problem was confidence in themselves and she had to find a way to boost it a little.

The overtime was more of the same.  Both teams midfielders were doing a good job defensively, the defenders were doing a good job inside the box and the forwards were building up frustration, not being able to score.  Penny made two other changes about two minutes before the end of the overtime, making sure all her best penalty takers would be on the pitch at the end of it.  Into injury time, Cameron (Walker), which was number 3 on her penalty taking list, twisted his right ankle!  Her hearth sank!

[Rien102]

The Hereford crowd, as ever, was working hard to let her team know they were here!  Penny sent her list to the referees and brought her guys in.  She spent time trying to calm the boys down, not too much but a little none the less.  It was confidence building time.  To Josh (Barns), she told only one thing:  “Do what you can and leave out what you can’t!”  He was clearly happy at the remark and smiled.

The coin toss was going to see the Harriers shoot first.  Scott (Wilson) stepped up and tried to go in the middle but Josh did a great save!  The crowd chanted again!

Dean (Rance) would be the first shooter.  He placed the ball carefully and surged forward.  He tried to go in the middle too but the Kidderminster goalkeeper; Scott (Kelsey) made the save!

Dan (Strugnell) was the next shooter.  He placed the ball in the lower left corner of the goal!  Josh couldn’t do anything against such a great shot!  The Harriers had the lead!

Josh (Mitchell) was next.  He was nervous, and it showed.  Placing the ball carefully.  He kicked the ball with forced in the middle but the Harriers goalkeeper guessed good!  The Bulls were trailing by one.

Akin (Adimayo) was next.  He, unceremoniously, placed the ball on the penalty spot.  Took steps back and came in like a horse!  The ball landed squarely on the right post!  A big sigh of relief went through Edgar Street!

Scott (Martin) was next.  When he kicked the ball, he already knew it!  The ball went sky high on the left side!  Silence fell on the stadium as Scott went back with his teammates, holding his head in disgust!

Mitchell (Bradford) was next.  He went by his routine very quickly and kicked with force too!  Josh dived to his right but the ball went left!  Kidderminster had a two goals cushion!

All Hereford’s hopes rested on Andy (Jackson)’s shoulders.  He went, slowly, to the penalty spot, took his sweet time.  When he did kick the ball, it went on the right side.  Scott was able to deflect the ball… but not enough!  The Bulls were back in the game!  The crowd was chanting Josh’s name by now!

Joshua (Webb) was the one that could bring the Harries into the semis.  He placed the ball with great care and then took his steps backward.  The crowd was chanting louder than ever by now, encouraging Josh.  The ball was kicked with force into the right side.   Josh had dived on the right side but was unable to reach the ball that went in and sealed the match!  The Kidderminster Harriers were going to the semis, knocking the Hereford Bulls out of the derby!

[Rien102]

As Penny was letting in the last Bulls player into the dressing room, she waved one last time the crowd, which had been so great tonight.  Now, she had a big job to do.  Many of the players had shed tears on the field after the game.  She felt like doing the same but there was too much on the line.

As she passed the door, she saw them, prostrated, holding their head, many still crying:  “BOYS!  She went to the center of the dressing room, some reacted but not all of them.  “BOYS! Look at me!”  She stood erect, in the middle of the dressing room.  Some more lifted their head.  “Come see me, come here my boys, come!” she said in a softer tone.  “Come on, come here…”  Josh (Mitchell) and Josh (Barnes) stood up, very slowly, tears still rolling on their face.  “Come here my boys, I need you here, with me” she added.  More came up and started moving toward her.  She was in pain, both from her ankle, that was fully awake, and by the hearth breaking loss.  Sam (Walker), Jack (Collison) and Adam (Al-Abd) , her staffs, went around the room, to the players and were pushing them softly toward Penny.

Scott (Martin) was the first to arrive close to Penny, he looked at her, eyes reddened by tears and bowing his head in shame: “I’m sorry to have missed the kick boss.”  Penny took his head in her hand, and lifted it up so he would see her eyes.

-          “It happens to all, it’s alright.  Even the great Baggio did it, on his most important kick of his career even!” she answered softly to him.  She saw that almost all the players were close now.  She continued a bit louder but just as softly “Come here, around me.”  After a few seconds, all were around her, all wearing disappointment or shame.  All had tears, still liquid or plastered, dried out.  She was making 360 degrees turn, all the time; she wanted and made sure that all would have theirs eyes onto hers.  She continued turning while talking.  “Today, we shot… and missed, for the first time this season.  We were close, oh so close, but we missed.  It happens to everyone, at some point, some time, somewhere.  It’s normal!”  She let the seconds go by before following.   “Today, we all did what was needed to win.  The defenders played an awesome game.  The goalkeeper was alert and responsive.  The midfielders owned the middle of the pitch like nobody thought possible.  The forwards were able to create chances, create space, enough to take shots, a fair number of them quality shots too!  But, for some reason, we missed them!  Missed them all!  It’s one of those days where you do everything, like you should, but the end result does not conform...  It’s ok!”  She saw that some players were relaxing a little, their respiration less choppy because of the sobs who were dying slowly.  “Today, you did something no one, in his right mind, would have predicted at the beginning of the season!  This season, you did some things NOBODY” she let time pass a bit, “ NOBODY, in his right mind, would have bet on!  Nobody.”  She let time pass some more.  “Yet…” seconds flew, “yet, you did them…” time passing a little more, “you did them all!”  As she was turning, getting all of them in her sight, she was caressing hair, touching shoulders, smiling at them.  Then, suddenly, she stopped.  Her facial expression changed.  It became very fierce, determined:  “The question is though, what will YOU DO NOW?”  Her voice was stronger, a bit stiffer.  “What will you do now?”  She was moving out of the circle of players.  “You gonna sit down, crying and feel sorry for yourselves?, huh?”  She was outside the circle now, facing them, standing in the lined-up staffs.  “Will you let them think you are a bunch of wimps? Huh?  A bunch CHOKERS?”  She saw that some didn’t like the word, the words, used.  “It’s your choice you know?  Either you are, indeed, wimps, chokers, or you are that kind of group, that fall down… and get itself back-up… to go at it again?”  Some players, she didn’t know whom, let out a “Yeah”.  She knew she had them where she wanted.  “Who will YOU BE?”  All of the players were looking at the staffs and her now, their faces weren’t teary anymore.  “SO? Wimps?  SCHOKERS? Or FIGHTERS?”  She saw Andy (Jackson) and Dean (Rance) and Scott (Martin) starting to say:

-          “Fighters!  Fighters”  the chorus grew rapidly, more and more players joining it “Fighters! Fighters!”  All of them were in by now, and the voice was louder, determined, defiant!  “Fighters! FIGHTERS! FIGHTERS!”  Suddenly, out of nowhere, Josh (Barnes), usually the silent one let out:

-          “WHO ARE WE NOT?

-          WE ARE NO FERDINAND!”  The shout was against the world!  And all were in, to call it on the world, together, players and staffs!

As she was closing her office, all she was thinking was:  “Four to five weeks without Cameron!  The damn season will be almost over by then!”

[Rien102]

The day after the Bulls knocked out of the FA Trophy derby, Penny was at her desk, doing some paperwork.  Her thoughts always were going back at Cameron’s (Walker) injury that would keep him out for over a month.  Suddenly, her phone rang:  “Penny Stiles here.

-          Hey you loser!”  It was David (Boggins), the President of the board and his, always, cringy humor.

-          “You're the worst, you hired me!”  They both laughed.  Therapy came in many forms…

-          ‘Can you come join me in my office?  I have someone I’d like you to meet.

-          Oky-doky.  Coming!”  she hung up, took her crutch and started the trek to David’s office.  She knew it would have been important.

As she arrived at his office door, she was hearing an another man talk.  She knocked on the open door.  “May I come in boss?

-          Only with your best not loser look!”  he answered.  She came in and saw two men with him, one seemed familiar.  “Penny, I want you to meet the President of Wigan Athletic, Matt Sharpe.”  She offered her hand to him.  “This other fellow is Head of Youth Developpement, Gregor…

-          Rioch!” she said, interrupting David.  “I knew you were familiar!  Must feel weird to be in here huh?

-          I guess it’s something I never thought possible!” he laughed as he was offering her his hand.

-          Why is that?” asked Matt Sharpe, clearly not in on the quip.

-          “He played with our arch-rivals, in the olden days!  He’s an ex-Shrewsbury Town player!” she told him, with a smile.

-          “Darn!  I didn’t saw that!” said David, with a shocked face!  All laughed!  The atmosphere was light and pleasant.  “Anyway Penny, I wanted you to meet those gentlemen, who would be interested to become senior affiliate to our club.”  Penny’s face became real serious.  “They wanted to visit the facilities and see you too.

-          I am truly impressed with your work Ms. Stiles.  That FA Cup performance was really something!” told Matt.

-          “Better than our FA Trophy though” she added.

-          “Non sense!” chipped in Gregor.  “Quarter finals?  That was a nice one too.  Sorry about the way you lost by the way.

-          Happens to all, one time or another.  We’ll have more time to concentrate on getting promoted.” She retorted, wearing a defiant face by now.  

-          “What we are curious about, Ms. Stile, to be honest, is about your thinking and approach if you get some of our prospects in your club, on loan?” Said Matt, going at the hearth of the matter.

-          They’ll be evaluated fairly and, if they have a level that is adequate, and that the players are working the way they should, I can guarantee you, sir, that they will have time on the pitch, and not only in lower derby matches.

-          Would you accept to work certain attributes in particular that we would want you to improve on the players?  Maybe even some roles and positions?” asked Gregor.

-          “Absolutely!” she retorted.  “The only thing is, and I don’t want any qui pro quod on this, is that I won’t, I say it again, I will never change my system to accommodate your players and your planned development you have for them. “  Gregor and his big boss bobbed their head, acquiescing.  “For example, I play without wingers here, and I won’t throw in a system with wingers just because you sent wingers here![…]”

The meeting lasted for an hour, they all left, smiling and shaking hands all around.  David, gave a thumb up to her, as he was escorting them to the exit.

[Rien102]

«March 10^th, 2020

Press Release

Wigan Athletics FC – Hereford FC

After many years of prospection, Wigan Athletics FC are happy to announce that an agreement was reached between Wigan Athletics FC and the Hereford FC so that the latter will be the affiliate club of the organization.  In concordance with the said agreement, Wigan Athletics will let players go on loan to Hereford, paying the wages of the players.  Those loans will be done with two objectives:  To give an environment to young prospects, inside a club with a great team of coaches, which would give them the opportunity to progress and reach their potential.  On the other hand, it will offer an opportunity to Hereford FC to have access to players with great abilities and potential, that will give a hand in their progression in the ranks.

Wigan Athletics will play a friendly at Edgar Street once a year, without monetary compensation.  All the proceeds of the game will be kept by Herford FC, to help develop the club.  Also, an annual fee will be paid to Hereford FC by Wigan Athletics.  The amount will not be disclosed.

The Wigan Athletics FC is happy to have had the opportunity to team up with a club that is, clearly on the rise.  They are aware that Hereford FC will pursue their own objectives within this agreement but are extremely confident that both clubs objectives will be met, to achieve excellence and success in their own divisions.

This agreement has no time restriction other than, when both teams will be playing in the same division, the agreement will be terminated.

Matt Sharpe, President, Wigan Athletics FC

Davd Boggins, Chairman of the board, Hereford FC»

[Rien102]

Penny was driving to work when her cell phone started to ring.  On her dashboard LCD, she saw it was from Jordan (Cranston), a right back, unhappy with Sutton in Conference.  After some thinking with her staffs and her scouting team, she decided to make an offer.   The left back was definitely better than Max (Melbourne,), being faster and more powerfull, he was also better at crossing the ball.  If Max had been able to do the job so far, she knew she needed more punch on the flanks, especially with her narrow system.  Since Sutton was willing to let him go for nothing, she made an offer.  “Penny Stiles here” she said as she punched the button to pick-up the call.

-          Hi, this is Jordan.  I just wanted you to know that I’d be happy to take on your offer.

-          I’m happy to hear that Jordan.  How about you come at lunch, I’ll have all the paperwork ready, we’ll eat something at the same time than, it will offer you the opportunity to meet the players in the afternoon?

-          Sounds like a plan m’am.  I should be able to be there at around 12h30, with all my stuff.  I was wondering if you have some people to help me find an apartment.

-          That can be arranged Jordan. No problem there!

-          Great.  See you later m’am” and he hung-up.

While she went back on the road, she was thinking about that comment Jack had made, about managing expectations.  She was working hard on that since the loss, on penalties, against Kidderminster.    The Blyth game had been a draw and they barely got away against Guiseley and she was getting frustrated.  The club was firmly in 4^th place now, with 9 games to go but she had a tough calendar ahead.  Only three home games and she would met the teams ranked 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd 5^th and 8^th spots all on their grounds too!  The last three games were, a relegation team, at home but then, Kidderminster on their grounds “Huhg!” and finally, AFC Fylde, 3 points behind Telford, fighting for the top spot of the league, on their grounds!  “Yep, to manage our own expectations indeed!” she said out loud.  “I hope Jordan will help us…. and fast!”

[Rien102]

That Friday was becoming an important day, that started ever since they were eating breakfast, because Britanny was telling her mum of the first big decision in her life:  “I want to play football for real now!” 

-          Ok.  What position?” asked Penny.

-          “I want to score goals!  Tons of goals!

-          Hmmm, like who?

-          I want to be like Shaun (Okojie)!”  Penny smiled, and laughed interiorly, at that!  Shaun was one of the tallest players of her team and he was basically scoring goals because of the way she was using him.  He would become a great target man soon, she thought, wouldn’t be scoring goals that much once the change would be made.

-          “Ok.  Daddy and mummy will put you in a league, and they will say that you want to be a forward, to score goals.  You sure you don’t want to do like mummy and stop the goals?

-          Naw!  It’s boring, you never do anything!” her daughter said in a very stern voice!

-          “Alright then, daddy and I will ask that you play in front.”  Britanny had a giant smile plastered on her face!

-          “Will you teach me to be good like Shaun?

-          Of course I will!”  Penny received a big hug, accompanied by a big sticky kiss too, by her daughter.

The rest of the breakfast was spent telling Britanny to eat instead of talking about all the goals she would score!  The little girl almost had to be disciplined just to get ready so Penny could drop her to school.  Mark was meeting clients early this morning and it was one of the rare occasions where she had to care of the seven years old whirlwind!

After dropping her daughter at school, she was driving toward Edgar Street planning her day.  Jordan had arrived at the club last Wednesday and she had taken the decision to make him play tomorrows match against Chester.  She thought that to bring him, for the first time against a low ranked team would be better.  She had high hopes for the young veteran, he was 26.  The question, really was if he would he meet those expectations?

When she arrived to the grounds, she was still mulling over those expectations management Jack (Collison) had spoken about a few weeks back.  For her, her entire life, there was only one set of expectations that she cared about: wining.  Over the years, as she started to manage, she started to learn that winning wasn’t possible every time, all the time.  Despite that, it was a struggle for her, even to go into a match basically playing for “not losing”.  She always was frustrated by that.  The thing was, she thought as she was walking toward her office, Jack had nailed the issue right on the head;  it was making her angry nonetheless when she didn’t win.

[Rien102]

This match at Deva Stadium was the opportunity for Josh (Barnes) to get a game’s rest and to bring Nathan (Wolland) in the goal.  With the injury to Cameron (Walker), Pennywas going to give a start to Josh (Mitchell).  He was struggling in scoring goals when he was on the pitch, as a sub but, he was intelligent and he was aware of his surroundings, never being caught off-side.  “He may be too young Penny.  Maybe you should send him with the U18 crew.” Sam commented when they were talking about his lack of goals.  Penny had stayed on her grounds there.  He had progressed, a bit, he was focused when he was playing and she had that feeling it was just a matter of time.  Shaun (Okojie), who was his tutor, had told Penny many times that the kid was a good kid and that all he needed, was a few good games to boost his confidence.  It’s why she was sending him today.  All the players she was putting on the pitch tonight were regulars, other than Nathan and Josh; by piling up the options, it should help.  She didn’t know why, but she just had that feeling about Josh that he would become a more than decent poacher…  Not to mention that Chester was having an awful season at that!  Predicted to be in mid table, they were barely above relegation, being on a ten games streak without a single win (0-4-6).

Inviting the Chester team to come at her on the flanks, with their 4-2-3-1, she rolled out the red carpet for them… and they fell deep into the trap.  On a free kick counter attack 20 minutes in, Reece (Miller) brought the ball to the right side of the goal, delivering an awesome cross on the ground to Josh who scored in a tight space!  1-0.  Two minutes later, on a throw in by the Blues box, Jordan (Cranston), who was making his debut in the Bulls kit, made a great pass to Matty (Dixon) that was just outside the box.  The Chester goalkeeper could only partially block the cannonball shot coming at him.  2-0!  On the 27^th minute, Cyan (Kavanagh) twisted his ankle and had to be replaced.  Penny tried to dismiss the worries that were invading her about the injury…  One minute into injury time, Dean (Rance) got his fourth goal of the season with a deflected shot.  3-0!

At half-time, the physio came to Penny:  “It’s not looking good for Cyan m’am, he twisted his ankle real good…  I’d say, five weeks, at least, if not eight.”  She was pretty shocked at the news.  This would mean that, in the worst case scenario, Cyan wouldn’t be available for the play-offs!  That was a real blow.  After telling her boys to stay focused and to roll down the intensity a little, she let them go on the pitch for the second half.  At least something good came heal the bad news about Cyan.  One minute into injury time, Reece crossed the ball high to Josh who did an amazingly difficult header in the top right corner of the net!  4-0!

On the road, going back to Hereford, Josh came to see Penny in front:  “I just wanted to thank you, boss, for believing in me.” He said, shyly.  She just smiled and grabbed his right shoulder lightly.

-          Thank you for working hard Josh!”  He looked at ther, thousands of thank came through his smiling face.

[Rien102]

April 1^st was a day of reflection for Penny.  As she was expecting to meet her staffs in a few minutes for the training review, she still had the draw against Boston United 3 days prior in her mind.  The fact that her low block at worked well, again, against their 4-2-3-1, it was the low number of chances on the part of her team against their mid-block that was occupying her thoughts.  When her phone rang, a reporter asking her if it was true she had been approached by Lincoln City, who was 21^st in League 2, she answered like always:  “Never heard anything about that.  I have a team here to bring into Conference.”

Some nice surprises came in with the training reports, no less than 4 players had spectacularly progressed in the last month!  This was combined to the fact that, despite being almost at the end of the season, only one player was feeling jadedness in an important way.  They decided to lighten the training activity for the last month of the season, giving two days rest after every match.  She was getting paranoid with injuries after Cameron (Walker) and Cyan (Kavanagh) were with the meds with long term injuries, no less than six players had been put aside with little injuries like abductors and bruises.

With 6 games to go, Hereford was clenching a decent grip on the fourth spot, and a place into the play-offs.  Nothing was done though; she still had to face Telford next Saturday, on their grounds and AFC Fylde as the last game of the season, on their grounds too, in 1^st and 3^rd place on the table respectively.  Boston United was 2^nd.  What would be hard was the fact that she play only twice at Hereford for those last six games.  The fans were definitely a twelfth player for Penny.

As she was doing some paperwork late in the afternoon, her phone rang:  “Penny Stiles here.

-          Hey Penny, it’s Jeff, from accounting.

-          Huh oh, we’re broke?

-          Not quite!” both laughed.  “Just wanted to remind you about the contracts.  I know you pushed this thing away but, you have to remember there are only 3 contracts in all the organization, relating to your team, players and staffs, which are not finishing on June 30^th.

-          Oh?  Can you send a list of all the players and staffs with their contracts ending soon?

-          Sure Penny, you should have it in your emails tomorrow morning.

-          Thanks Jeff.  How's the baby?

-          Keeping both the wife and me awake!

-          The little bundle of joy will sleep some day, I promise!

-          May the gods hear you cause all he is right now is the bundle of I-don’t-sleep-and-nor-do-you!”  Both were laughing when he hung up.

[Rien102]

Penny was looking the road passing by as the bus was going back to Hereford.  She still couldn’t believe the steal her boys had done against AFC Telford; 2-1!  They took the lead early on a counter attack, six minutes in but Telford got the equalizer on the 33^rd minute, on a set-piece.  IT was only on the 87^th minute, with a great run of Shaun (Okjie) on the right, crossing the ball to Reece (Miller) to tap the ball in that they got the win.

There were some very positive notes.  Jordan (Crantson) had done an excellent match, positioning himself advantageously, he tried to tackle 12 times and succeeded 11 times!  Reece and Shaun, him being faithful in his performances since the beginning of the season, had been very solid too.  Reece in particular, Penny was happy.  She decided to put him into AM position, replacing Cyan (Kavanagh) and being scared to put the young Mitchell (Glover) against the top team of the league, as a shadow striker.  If they didn’t control the front of the box as good as they usually do, her team had committed only 12 fouls, against 20, showing intelligence and good anticipation.

The downsides were few but very real.  Andy (Jackson) had played his first tough match, making some mistakes, one given the equalizer to Telford.  His second half was better but still, he struggled.  The worst though, was Cameron (walker).  She had noticed that he was struggling lately, even had a little pep talk with him last week, saying she was confident he could turn things around, to which he was grateful for the vote of confidence.  Nonetheless, today he was so bad she had to sub him after 56 minutes, bringing her young Mitchell (Glover) as AM, relocating Reece to his usual poacher position, on the left side.  Six off-sides and four mistakes were just too much, that is on top of an extremely low number of passes actually reaching their destination.

Adam as given the results of the games in the league and she was skimming them by now.  All the teams had 5 games to play until the season end.  AFC Telford was still far in front, with 74 points, they were already guaranteed to be in the play-offs.  Boston United, in 2^nd place, ad gotten a draw against Bradford PA and at 74 points, they had just gotten the guaranty that they would be in the play-offs .  Her team had passed AFC Fylde, who had lost to Chester today, with that win today, having 73 points now but she did clench a guaranteed play-offs spot yet, two points in front of them.  Darlington was fifth with 66 points, a lost today too.  The other real fight was from 6^th to 11^th place, all within 5 points from one another:  60 to 55!  To think that she was going to meet 2 of those 5 teams!  Not to mention AFC Fylde at the end of the season.  She sighed at the thought…

[Rien102]

“You were excellent young man!  Congrats!”  Cameron (Walker) was beaming at the praised he just received from Penny, as he was getting out the pitch.  .The 3-1 win against Stourrbridge not only gave Hereford their spot in the play-offs, it also allowed them to pass Boston United and clench the 2^nd place on the table.  AFC Fylde had won against them and they had slipped in 4^th.  It was doubtful they could grab the 1^st place because AF Telford was a good 5 points in front.

They were going to play at Nuneaton in two days.  Penny decided to gather her staffs right after the match to talk about the plan until the end of the season.  “I think I will put Jake (Goodman) out of the CD trio and bring TJ Culpepper instead” She told them.

-          “I don’t mean to pry, but Jake as way more experience than TJ, you sure about that that?” asked Jack.

-          “You saw it, over the last five games, he constantly made mistakes.  He dreads big matches and it shows.

-          Will you change his status than?” asked Sam.

-          “Yes, he will be my permanent sub until the end of the season.  I’ll talk to him Monday morning.

-          He’ll not like it.

-          If he cares about the team, he’ll take the blow and say he’s ok with that.

-          Does it means he won’t start in the play-offs too?” asked Jack.

-          Yep, it means that too.”  None said anything more.

As she was driving home, with Mark and Britanny, she wasn’t as happy as she should.  “Why the long face honey?  It’s official now, you are in the play-offs, right?”  Penny just turned her head toward her husband and answered, rather sadly.

-          My biggest salary on the team?  I decided he would be my sub until the end of the play-offs.”  Mark didn’t say anything until they were home.

As they entered the house, Britanny ran to the backyard.  She was practising her “winning goals!” ever since she had told her mum she wanted to play in league.  Mark had made a little goal, with planks and in front, a wooden goalkeeper shape.  Penny started to prepare dinner, watching her little striker screaming, hands in the air, like Cameron had done a few hours ago, after another winning goal.  She was smiling when, distracted by the winning goal, she cut herself peeling a potato.

[Rien102]

It was raining hard at Liberty Way.  Penny had a bad feeling about the game.  Cyan (Kavanagh) was out for the rest of the season or close to, Jerome (Opuku) got a bad bruise in training and was out until next Friday, James (Carvell) elongated an abductor last Thursday and was still out.  She was playing with a seriously shortened roster, not to mention the ones that she scratched herself out of  it.  Sam had an up-beat face when he was fist bumping the players going on the pitch for the match but when it was only him and she, both were wearing pensive looks.

Seven minutes in, Nuneaton had a corner on the left side, a fierce battle raged in the box and it was TJ (Culpper) who got the last word on it, and got the ball out in front of the box.  Mitchell (Glover) ran to the ball and kicked it fast to Josh (Mitchell) who was midfield.  As soon as the ball was off, Mitchell ran across the field, like a striker!  Josh was running out of option, the CD pressing him.  He was still able to cross the ball in front of the box where Mitchell was.  From 25 meter, he placed a perfect ball in the lower right corner of the goal!  1-0!  Screaming to the sky, he came to the Bulls bench and hugged her boss!  “I can’t believe it went in!!!” he screamed to her!  All the players rushed him.

The rest of the match, she pretty much played to preserve the lead, and her players!  Max (Melbourne) was subbed 50 minutes in, the Boro’ was pushing hard on the right side and he was getting caught off position multiple times.  She pushed TJ as left back and brought Jake in as CD.  She crossed her fingers.  The defenders held good, and the score stayed the same until the end!

In the bus, going back home, she saw that AFC Telford and AFC Fylde drew.  So Hereford grabbed two points on Telford's top spot and took two points on Fylde that was in third place!  Hereford was now three points behind AFC Telford.  The problem was, AFC Telford had no real tough game until the end of the season while Penny’s team still had two:  Kidderminster, that was fighting for a spot in the play-offs, one point behind the magic 7^th place and then, AFC Fylde.  The key in all of this was that, if there was a tie on points, Hereford would be way ahead in front because, as of tonight, AFC Telford had a 35 goals difference as Hereford has 44.

Adam (El-Abd), who was sitting across the aisle and who was watching the same thing said to her: “1 chance out of 8 I’d say.

-          Reading my mind?” she told him, with a smirk.  He smiled back.

-          “I disagree by the way, 1 out of 10 that we can clench that top spot.

-          You forget that we have a way better record on the road than at home and two of our games are away.  Not to mention that they don’t have a bang up form lately, 2-2-1 I think, no?”  She was truly hoping it would matter in any way!

[Rien102]

Bradford PA should park the bus, she knew it.  It was the last match at Edgar Street for the regular season and there was a big stint to underline the great results of the team.  The wind was pretty calm so, on a whim, she decided to break with “tradition”.  Just before going on the pitch, she instructed her boys to play long, on the wings, in the empty spaces.  She needed to create space and she thought the best was way was to make the defenders stretch the defensive line.

Barely one minute, she thought it did work, Shaun (Okojie) making across into the box, from far right but the referee called an off-side.  The crowd booed very loudly!  30 minutes in, Avenue opened the score because of bad defensive mistake on the left side.  The rest of the first half was spent, battling on the flanks, nobody able to do anything good.  When Penny retreated to the Bulls dressing room, she was angry.  The talk wasn’t long, one word:  “Awful!”  The rest was clear by her body language.  She then pulled Dean (Rance) and Max (Melbourne) out, both making numerous mistakes.

The second half was spent playing catch-up but again, Bradford was all sitting inside the box.  At one point, Penny asked the team to play wider; she needed to stretch the play.  She was getting frustrated by the wasted opportunities.  Not that they were bad but the pressure was so intense that the players were running out of option real fast.  Then, on the 70^th and 72^nd minute, on crossing, her players hit the bar then the post!  She was livid and cursing the skies!  On the 80^th, she thought they had a good chance on the right side just to see, again, the referee call another dubious off-side!  At that point, Adam (Abd), who was sitting on the bench, came to see Penny, telling her to calm down a bit or she would be in trouble.  The crowd was angry and was in no danger to get in trouble and they were booing and booing the referee’s non-stop.  On the 87^th minute, Reece (Miller) was almost knocked out of his shoes on the right side of the Avenue box.  The crowd were screaming like mad for a straight red!  Some Bulls were surrounding the referee, angry for not giving, at least a yellow!  She saw Andy (Jackson) trying to get the boys move on, to shake it off.

James (Carvell) took the free kick, he made a lob into the box, Andy was able to redirect it with a perfect header to Jerome (Opuku) that was at the edge of the box.  He kicked the ball with all he had and it went in!  FINALLY!  The equalizer!  Then, two minutes into injury time, Josh (Barnes) threw the ball to Andy who redirected it fast with a header to James in midfield.   Never giving the chance to the ball to touch the ground, he passed it to Jack (Hunter) about 5 meters to the left.  He hoofed the ball, in mid-air, to Reece (Miller) on the right side in front.  He barely got control of it that he made a fast cross to Cameron (Walker) that was charging the box on the left side and with a swift kick, placed it inside the goal! 2-1!  As Tommy Brookbanks, the Avenue manager came to shake her hand, he said:  “You know what you are woman?  You are one he** of a fighter!

-           Tough luck Tommy.” She answered.

-          “Could be worst you know!  Good luck in the play-offs or even in Conference!”  They both smiled to each other, the compliment was genuine, she knew it; he was a nice chap on any other day. 

She stayed on the pitch, until, as usual, the last of her boy had gotten a fist bump.  She smiled and waved to the crowd, smiling, despite the fact she was fuming inside!  Once she finally was in her office, she smashed the garbage bin across the place with her crutch.

[Rien102]

The next morning, Penny was in her office, looking at yesterday’s results.  There was a knock on the door, Sam (Walker) popped his head in:  “Can I come in without getting killed?

-          If you enter, you do so at your own risk!” she answered, with a face without expression.  He searched in his front pocket and took out a coin.  He flipped it, put it on the back of his hand.

-          “Head, I’ll risk it!” and he entered.  They both started to laugh.  “That was bad one yesterday!

-          Tell me about it, I had to make a requisition for a new garbage can, the one that was here yesterday night is dead!

-          I know the feeling, trust me!  Anyway, you saw yesterday’s games results huh?

-          Yep!  AFC Telford drew once again; we are barely one point behind them!

-          What are we gonna do?

-          I am still mulling it over.  Something tell me to push as hard as we can... By the way, what are you doing here?  I thought I gave everybody off today?

-          I didn’t sleep very well last night.  I could only replay the match in my head.  So, instead of grumbling at home, only thinking about the match, and getting in trouble with the wife, I decided to come here and watch the match for real.  Oh, you saw that thing on Conference North website?  About Shaun (Okojie)? Penny’s face showed clearly she had not.

-          “No, what is it?

-          He is in the race for Conference North Player of the Year!

-          Shut the front door!  For real?

-          Yes m’am!

-          Darn!  I must have missed the email; I am supposed to vote on these things.  It must be buried under the hundreds of emails I got last week... and didn’t check!

-          He’s got some big competition against him though, not to mention the fact he slowed down in the last five games.

-          Hmm…  Well, the fact he is there, it means he have a chance, doesn’t he?”  Sam bobbed his head at the comment.  “Let’s say we make this Sunday morning, away from our family productive, huh?  Let’s go watch the last match together?”

Both Sam and she got left the video room over 5 hours later.  So focused on the review, they forgot to eat!

[Rien102]

In the dressing room, after the match, all were pretty happy, except Cyan (Kavanagh).  He, just coming back from his injury, got knocked out by a Harriers player who tackled him with both feet upfront!  He got expelled straight away, yes, but Cyan was definitely out for good this year!  He was disgusted, so was Penny.  If Cyan was out because of a dangerous play, Shaun (Okojie) had the game of his career!  Five goals!  He had destroyed the Harriers by himself!  His ex-tutee, Josh (Mitchell) went on the pitch after the fifth goal to clean Shaun’s right shoe!  The 1500 Bulls fans who had made the trip to the Aggborough gave a well deserved chant to Shaun, under the disgusted look of all the Harriers team and their fans!

The most satisfying thing in the game, apart from the stellar performance Shaun, was the fact that her defensive line has played a truly excellent game!  Tareq (Shihab), Andy (Jackson)  and Jerome (Opuku) would all have been in line for a Man of the Match any other day than today!  As for Jordan (Cranston), he was showing, game after game, all his talent and intelligence on the pitch!

On the way home, all the staffs were talking about today’s results.  They’d learned that AFC Telford had won their game too, still holding to the top spot by a little point!  Boston United had won too but, they were four points behind.  This meant, with only one game to play, that the Bulls would finish nothing worse than second on the table!  Jack (Collison) also commented on the fact that, with those five goals, Shaun was in third place as the best goal scorer of the league, one goal behind the two at the top!

When she arrived home, she quickly noticed, understatement here, that Britanny was in full “Shaun the goals scorer” fever!  Mark recounted that, while they were coming home, she had spent all the time of the ride talking about only one thing:  Shaun Okojie!  Penny found it funny but Mark, didn’t thought so!  She laughed and then offered him a kiss.  After the embrace, she started to make tea, watching her daughter being the queen of the pitch in the back yard!  As she was waiting for the water to boil in the kettle, Mark told her:  “I bought the tickets for next week, Britanny and I will be in the fans bus convoy too!

-          It’s not even three hours!  Why you don’t take the car?

-          Because I really want to be with all the fans!  Besides, there will be about ten of us to watch over her.  Your dad said that if you were nagging me about it, to give him a call and he’d come here to talk to you  in person!” Mark answered, with his best smirk!

She didn’t mind at all, really, but still loved to see her husband riled-up a bit.  She was smiling when she was pouring the hot water in the cups.

[Rien102]

“The rage of the Bulls!

As the Hereford Bulls are closing the regular season today, at Mill Farm, home of the AFC Fylde, they are showing that they, indeed, love to fight!  After the dramatic loss on penalties against Kidderminster on penalties, in FA Trophy quarter final, Penny Stiles’ players had told everyone that they were fighting to the death from here on end![…]

For the last nine games, the Bulls had gotten a record of 7-2-0 and by doing so; they came down hard on everybody in the play-offs spots in Conference North, particularly, on AFC Telford who is not having a great run lately, with only two wins in the last five games (2-2-1)!  It was without surprise, and well deserved, that Penny Stiles got crowned Manager of the month in Conference North[…]

Injuries have been piling up in Penny’s squad lately but she still managed to get her crew focused.  The few veterans on the team had responded, but not more than the younglings, as she calls them.  Tareq Shihab and Reece Miller had been crucial, every game they were in, by playing with determination and aggression!  The only dark point in this last stretch is Dean Rance who seemed to be out of his depth sometimes. Being pulled out of three games in the six he started, he didn’t live up to the expectations on the pitch.[…]

A lot of fans have been complaining that, except the last game where Shaun Okojie was on fire, that the Bulls have been playing uninspired football.  Well, I think that, considering the opposition they faced, with the squad they have, and the way they got played against, to lose only six time in the season (four in league, the other two being FA Cup + FA Trophy) is a testament to pretty solid football.[…]

Since Penny Stiles became manager of the Bulls, I always wondered about one thing only:  Did she have what is needed to bring that team where it belongs?  At the beginning, considering the comments I gathered from her old teammates and ex-players, I gave a tentative yes.  It’s been a long time by now and she showed everyone that, indeed, she has what it takes.  To you Ms. Stile, whatever the outcome of today’s game, I want to thank you for this exciting year!  Not only in league, you brought us in the play-offs, at the very least, but you have rewritten a little piece of the FA Cup record book by going into a rematch against a premiership team!  To you, I give a respectful bow and a tip of my hat!  Well done!”

[Rien102]

“All is done by now boys; all we have to do now is wait!”  The mood in the dressing room wasn’t good.  That pesky irregular pitch, short and insanely wide made it difficult but in the end, there was nothing to add.  Penny still needed to keep the guys upbeat, the play-offs was something in itself and they would still have a chance.  “Come here boys, come here around me.”  All the players came around her, their faces long; they knew they hadn’t played the way they should.   “Look, we got a draw, and we can’t change it but, there are still the play-offs and you know what?”  Nobody was reacting.  “Come ON! You know what?

-          We can still go Conference next year!” Andy responded.

-          “Finally!  You did all you could and…”  she was interrupted by Adam (Abd) and Jack (Collison) who barged in the dressing from the temporary manager office.

-          “THEY LOST!” screamed Jack!

All exploded with joy in the room!  They had done it! Despite the draw, they had gotten the top spot on the league table on goal difference!  All were celebrating!  Bottles of bubbly popped everywhere!  Sam (Walker), that was close to the door leading to the pitch saw that the Bulls fans were still in the stands and they were celebrating right now!  He ran to Penny and said:  “How about we go see them?”  Less than ten seconds later, the players and the staffs were starting to go to the pitch, to be with their fans.  As soon as they realized the players were coming back on the pitch, some rushed out of the stands to go meet their team!

Penny and Adam were the last one out; they were squishing tears together!  Both of them were closing the march toward the group of players and fans who were celebrating.  Despite the stress that was finally gone by now, she was feeling a sharp pain in her right ankle and calf.  The fans were surrounding the players and the staffs, congratulating them!  She wanted to find her husband, her family but most specifically, Britanny.  She was scared the little girl would get squashed by that compact, happy, jumping, group of fans.  As she was walking around, shaking hands and thanking all that came to her, she saw Mark.  He was standing a bit outside the group, with his daughter in his arm.  She was wearing her Bulls shirt and her face was painted.  Penny felt tears rushed again, she started to walk toward them and they finally realized that she was there!  Britanny screamed her lungs out and started to wiggle to get out of her dad’s arms.  He let her go to the ground once he knew the distance was short enough that there was no danger.  Britanny screamed:  “MUMMYYYYYYY!” and jumped in her mother’s arms.  Penny cried for minutes in the arms of her daughter, her husband and all the extended family!

The last thing the team did was to take a picture, players and staffs with a gigantic banner: “Conference North Winners 2019-2020 / See You in Conference Next Year!

[Rien102]

When Penny woke up the next morning, she still felt her ankle and calf burning.  She stayed immobile for a while, looking at her husband that was sleeping peacefully at her side.  She tried to put back together all that happened yesterday but was having trouble focusing on the events, as they were so emotionally disjointed; the nervousness during the ride to Fylde, the tension in the dressing room before the match, the dissatisfaction, “Utterly insulting!” she thought, of the way her players played, the anger after the match, that she buried as deep as she could, the waiting… The infinite waiting….  Then, the news of AFC Telford losing against Kettering!  The celebration, the tears….  The interviews….  She think she did about six or seven but other than the Bulls radio, she can’t remember who she spoke to… or what she said!  She also knew the FA camera crew was there but, well, she never really sees them anymore…

She started to get up, carefully, trying not to wake Mark up.  As soon as she moved her right leg, the pain shot all through the leg!  She cringed…  It has been quite some time that the pain had not been that sharp but now…  A single tear appeared at the corner of her eye, so sharp the pain was.  Reluctantly, she took the second crutch…  She wouldn’t be able to put her foot on the ground…  Rage was filling her up now…  She went, oh so slowly, to the bathroom to take what she hadn’t taken for about two years now:  a pain killer.   As she was about to enter the bathroom, the tip of one of the crutch got blocked by the frame of the door, a reflexive gesture made her put her right foot on the ground, to get her balance back.  The pain shot through her entire body, through the spine.  Penny let out a pain full scream, lost balance and fell face first on the floor.  Under the intense pains, her body just shut itself down…

As she was regaining consciousness, she was in her bed, with Britanny by her side, gently caressing her mother’s hair.  As soon as she saw her mum open her eyes a little, she screamed:  “DADDY, MUM IS AWAKE!”  Penny flinched under the scream…  “You ok mummy?”

-          I’m ok dear.”  The pain was still there in her right ankle and calf but, it was, a bit, less intense.  Mark was entering the room.  “Honey, can you bring me some painkillers?”  He let out a silent “oh” and went straight to the bathroom, in the cabinet.

-          “What happened mummy?

-          I fell down my love.  It’s ok.”  Britanny got on her mother’s side and started to hug her.  Mark finally arrived with the medicine and the glass of water; she took it, with a large sip of water.  As she was handing the glass back to him, she said:  “I think my leg told me to rest today…”  Sadness dripped from the comment….

[Rien102]

Monday morning, May 4^th, two days after the championship was confirmed, everybody was in for the end of the season meeting.  All the players were happy and giddy, to say the least.  The staffs too but, unlike the players, they already knew they’d have two full weeks of work before going on vacation.  For Penny, if her morale was high, the painful realization of her physical limitations of yesterday morning was taming the whole ordeal for sure.  She was working overtime to not let it show, it was a joyous occasion after all; the Bulls were going in Conference next year!

Everybody was in the dressing room by then, she wanted to get it over soon so that all could get out for a well-earned vacation!  “First, congratulations are in order, again, for a difficult but fruitful year!  We made history this year, all together, in FA Cup, we did very well in FA Trophy but there is room for improvement here, and, against all odds, not only we snatched a play-offs spot, we snatched the one that was making us go early on vacations!”  All laughed at the quip.  “Now, for next year, I won’t surprise you by saying this is out of the question that we come back here, huh?”  More laughter.  “I can already tell you that a vast majority of you will stay with us.  The final decisions have not been made yet, you should all know by the end of the week if your contracts will be renewed or not, for those ending by June 30^th.  I intend to keep most of you because I know that, as a group, you can do the job, and do it very well!  That being said, I will seek for some reinforcements though.  Mainly, I’ll try to bring players that will offer us either more options or more quality or both those things together.”  The players were bobbing their heads up and down; they knew there were shortcomings to be addressed.

“Just a reminder, don’t forget to sign the jerseys for the inter-season auction, it will be both to the benefits of the club but also, for the children hospital.  Next season, I want you to expect doing more of those visits and maybe, one or two events here, at Edgar Street.  I think you all grew from the visit we did before New Year” the players all made yes signs, “and I can guarantee you, it helped them too!  Also, at the beginning of the pre-season, there will be the friendly against Stockport.  I still don’t know the exact format but, just so you know, you’ll work for women again next year!”  All laughed!

“Finally, during your vacations, I invite you to rest yourself, not to party too much…  Yes Andy (Jackson), I’m looking at you and your, cough cough, proneness for partying and bubbly and Champagne!”  A thunder of laughter rocked the place!  “See you on June 29^th!”

She was standing at the exit, fist bumping all to vacations!  All were grateful…. She was too!

[Rien102]

The next day, Penny went to the Bulls radio, for an hour long interview with Bruce.  They touched pretty much everything, from the excellent season, to the FA Cup and FA Trophy performances to what would happen.  The last fifteen minutes had been to answer questions from callers.  She hated it and, like she should, didn’t let it show one bit.  She hated the fact that some were saying all of this was because of her “Yeah! Sure!  I was on the field scoring the goals or making those headers!” she was thinking, all the time…

That afternoon, there was a meeting with David (Boggins), President of the board.  It mainly was boring, boring to tears.  Financial review and stuff like that.  The only interesting part was about the friendly against Stockport.  Some talk of the format was done.  Mary, from PR, would be called in for another meeting next week, specifically on the subject.

The rest of the day was done planning the player review that would occur until the end of the week.  She also offered new contracts to all her staffs.  She didn’t want to break things up just yet.  Next year, there would be some changes for sure but for now; there was no point in doing so.  The search for the new players to bring in was far more important in her eyes.

She ended the day setting up the last interview with the FA crew for the doc.  She was angry at that point, she didn’t know if it was because of the day, the setting up for another darn interview or the lingering pain in her ankle and calf.  As she was going out the door, she met Jeff, from accounting, which was going out the door too:  “Hey Jeff!  How you doing?

-          Pretty good!  Not as good as you must be though!  I didn’t have the chance to say it in person but, congratulations for a job well done!

-          Thank you!

-          Just so you know, you’ll have the detail of the allowed wages and transfers budgets tomorrow morning.  For the scouting though, David told me you still had some talking to do about that.

-          Yes, I will most probably get another scout but I’m still mulling over it.

-          Don’t fret!  We have room, the question is how to manage it!” he said as he winked.  You have plans for your vacations?

-          I’m still looking to see if there is something like hibernation therapy, to stockpile sleep!” they both laughed.  “Take care Jeff!”  as they split in the parking lot.

[Rien102]

Friday the 8^th of May, the players who would come back next year were offered a new contract (three of them) or saw the extension called by the club for one more year.   The first main decision was to let go of Cyan (Kavanagh), TJ (Culpepper) and Josh (Askew).  The hardest decision had been about Cyan, he was tethering on the fence but, after along hour of talks among the staffs, it was decided to not activate the extension clause.  As for TJ and Josh, it mainly was that they didn’t have and would never have the level necessary to be useful in Conference.

The second main decision would be that the three veterans on the team, despite not having, exactly, the level to play as starters in Conference, would get their extension clause activated but they all became subs, mainly because of what they could bring as tutors.  Dean (Rance), Matty (Dixon) and Jake (Goodman) were told they’d mainly be tutors and that their play time would be reduced.  For Jake and Matty, the decision had been made because they both dreaded big games and their performance was severely dropping, hence, there was no way they could be part of the first squad.  As for Dean, if he was intelligent on the pitch, his speed was the main factor.  He’d stay captain for the year but his main job would be to tutor two young prospects.  What Penny had said to him though, was that if he had in mind to become a coach, she would seriously look into it.  He was as gracious as he was graceful.

The best surprise in the squad had been, by far, Josh (Barnes) in the goals.  If at the beginning of the season, she had some doubts, he proved her he had what is needed to be a good goalkeeper!  All the staffs were in agreement, like her, that if he was a bit shy of Conference level, his blooming wasn’t over yet!  He had the potential to be an excellent goalkeeper in Conference.  His main improvement had been his positioning and his decision making.  She was proud of him, especially since, well, as the coach for the goalkeepers…. it was a bit of her doing!

So what they needed to find, if keeping the same 4-4-2 diamond system, was one AM, two CMs and one CD.  This opened the door to get some wingers in the mix too.  Nothing was telling that, with Mitchell (Glover) that is a natural right winger, to bring a left winger would offer some options, especially against wide systems.  One thing was certain though, they would really need to bring a leader in the place because Dean was on the way out, but she bought herself one year for doing this…

[Rien102]

On Saturday May 16th, Penny was home, sipping a glass of wine, talking to Mark with an audio stream opened on the Conference North final between AFC Telford and Darlington.  The latter had finished the season in fifth place and were, just like Hereford, a phoenix club.  The game went into overtime and Darlington scored on the 97^th minute!  When the game ended, AFC Telford had lost 3-2!  She was torn between feeling sorry for Telford or smile at their incapacity to get their promotion.  After all, they had been in first place for a good part of the season, at the beginning, until week 20, to have a drop in second spot until going back on top on week 33, and to finally lose the top spot on the very last day!

 She then went onto the Conference North website because, as tradition was, they would call the results for the Player of the Year and Shaun (Okojie) had been in the shortlist submitted.  AFC Fylde’s right winger James Hardy had been selected as the Player of the Year!  He had had a great year for sure but, of course, not as good as Shaun’s in her eyes.  She picked up her phone and called him:  “Hello?” Shaun answered.

-          Hi Shaun, it’s Penny!

-          Oh! Hi boss!

-          I just wanted to call you and to say that, for me, you still were the best player on the pitch this year, in Conference North!

-          Oh!  Gee! Well, thanks boss!” His shyness was showing and it made her smile!

-          “Enjoy your vacation young man cause we’ll need your magic again next season!

-          Will do!  I hope you have great vacations too boss!” and he hung up.

Mark was looking at her, with a smirk plastered on his face.  “What?” she asked.

-          “I thought you were called Sergeant Stiles!

-          Only when you suck, when you are nice, I am nice too!

-          Oh?  This mean I’m nice?

-          Most of the times…” she laughed and kissed him swiftly. 

As she was putting the laptop on the coffee table, she saw that the Conference North website had been updated.  The shortlist for the Manager of the Year had been revealed.  She was on the list!

[Rien102]

Her last week before going on vacations was hectic, tedious and…. boring to tears!  With no trainings to prepare or players to review, it was time to do a big meeting about prospections and, on the last day, talking about scouting budgets.  All her staffs, directly related to football, were there from Monday to Wednesday.  All the coaches and all the scouting team was on site.  It was a bit weird to see her entire scouting crew in there…. She had barely seen them for the entire season, doing all the business on the phone.  One of the players they talked about in length was a 25 years old midfielder, with a boat load of international experience for a Caribbean Island.  He was interesting for sure, determined, courageous, intelligent and physical, with a great work ethic and very team minded.  Salary wise, she would have had to go out of her way, pleading a little with the President of the board to get some room but it was manageable.  He was potentially, a real team leader.  He had only one flaw that she, and Adam (El-Abd), kept coming back to: he dreaded big matches!  In the end, it was that flaw that derailed the whole thing.  She wanted to play those big games!  “There is no point in getting the perfect player if he can’t be it when we need him the most!” she said, sealing his faith.

Thursday morning had been all about budgets for next year and also, meeting with Mary from PR and David (Boggins) for the friendly against Stockport.  She got all those done by 1pm because she had invited all her football staffs, her scouts and the medical ones too (basically, anybody that was of use to her when it comes down to winning football games) to her house at 2pm for an afternoon of leisure time, food, drinks and fun!  She quickly found out that both Adam and Sam (Walker) were excellent with a barbecue!  Anna, one of the physios of the club, and Penny spent the entire time mocking them!  It was a great afternoon!  When Britanny arrived from school, she found her mum with 11 peoples around a make-shift table in the backyard (it wasn’t raining), with bottles of wine, half empty plates of food, laughing their butt off at some jokes!  Jack (Collison) was the first one to see her and said out loud:  “Here’s our official Penny Stiles fan!”  Britanny beamed at the comment!  She bolted back inside to her room, to put on her Bulls shirt with the “Stiles” name in the back.  Mark joined them about two hours later, making sure the daughter was not bothering the people too much.

Once all were gone, late that night, she wore her devilish smirk and said:  “You wouldn’t know how good a cook Adam is with a barbecue!  Way better than you!”  Mark made some kind of sulking face… to which she answered back by blowing a raspberry!  Both laughed!

In the bed that night, she was thinking that there was only one day standing between today and three weeks fully out of the office.  The dreaded last interview for that FA doc was scheduled at 10 tomorrow morning…

[Rien102]

“How did professional football as treated you?”  Paula and George were both there to ask the question for the documentary.

-          “I’d say it treated me very well.  Most people came to me as nice and welcoming.  If I look back on this year, apart from the first match, where all the media were there, including some international ones, most peoples accepted the fact that since I had the competence, the fact that I was a woman meant nothing, really.”  Penny was hesitant when she was responding, she felt herself on unstable grounds.  George saw through it instantly and followed through.

-          “We are feeling and hearing that you are hesitant, why?

-          To be honest, I think that part of the fast acceptance, at least for some, came from the performance of the team early on.  For some others, they took it at face value:  I was hired, I must have the abilities.  But the thing is, at least for me, I always wanted to play against the bests because I wanted to be the best among those bests.  This, in no regard of gender; it was measuring me against whoever was best to prove myself I had it in me.

-          So, is it false to interpret what you are saying, that if you had not performed the way you did, the acceptance factor might have been different?”  Penny was pensive; her brain was going thousands of kilometers an hour.  She felt that to interpret that this way, might say that gender was still at the core of it all.  At some point she made a stop sign.

-          “Look, I’m not good enough with those talking the finer philosophical details like that, ok?  I don’t know if it would have been different if the results on the table had been different, ok?  I don’t know and, to be honest, I don’t care, ok?  For me, I do, I don’t think of doing.  So, this last question, leave it out, ok?”  Her face was showing some the same resolve she usually display on the pitch.

-          “Fine Penny, we’ll scratch the last question and answer out.” Said Paula, let’s go to the “Stockport incident”, ok?”  Penny sighed heavily.

-          “Fine, Stockport.”  She took a few deep breaths.

-          “During a match at Stockport, where your team was leading by a good margin, a player insulted you, is it correct?

-          Yes.”  Penny was shutting herself out.

-          “Insulted you in a way only a woman could have been concerned by the insult, right?

-          Yes.

-          One of your players, who was close by and heard what had been said, reacted violently, in response to the insult, right?

-          Yes.

-          After that, a brawl ensued, right?

-          Yes.

-          What was your reaction at the time?

-          That my players shouldn’t respond to it in any way, shape or form.

-          Why?”  Penny was getting impatient and was getting a bit angry.  Despite all the time that had passed, she still wasn’t able to cope with all of that.

-          I’m gonna cite one of my player, in the dressing room after the game.  He said, in essence, that discrimination comes in many form.  For me, I’ll much prefer to focus on the others that came to me and welcomed me.  Why?  Because this player was alone when, before that, thousands had said to me I belong there.  Even more, way more, said it afterward.  In the end, I just don’t think violence is the right way to fight discrimination, you do it by example, by putting yourself so high above them, they can’t reach you.  If I would be so bold, I’d add what Javier Aguirre, the West Brom manager, said in an interview about the brawl and the cause of it.  He basically said to those, thinking that I didn’t belong there, to go and get lost.  It’s said in a more negative, way but it’s the core of it.  You are so far ahead that those can’t catch up to you […]”

[Rien102]

That first Sunday of vacations was sunny and "kind of" of warm.  In a general feeling of “You’ve got catching up to do!”, as Mark said it, they invited both families for a big lunch.  There were a lot of peoples in the houses, with all the sisters and brothers and in-laws and their kids and the grandparents, the atmosphere was light and happy.  For Penny, it would also be an opportunity, and an excuse, to not watch the FA Trophy Final, which she still had a bad taste in the mouth about… losing to Kidderminster in the quarter finals...  The Harriers ending up being crushed in both legs of their semis…

Everybody had brought a dish, wine was pouring and there was a lot of laughing all around.  Britanny was having a ball, playing with her cousins in the back yard.  In the middle of the afternoon, all were in the living room, it was now raining outside, and there were extra chairs everywhere.  It felt good to Penny.  As usual; Mark had been spot on the nose with his comment.  The opportunity to catch up with everybody close to her, catch up on their lives, on things that mattered to them, on the kids too...  She realized that, she had basically lived in a bubble; always thinking about her job, the next opponent, the training, the contracts, etc.  Mark even made some quips about finding papers with player combinations she had made in the middle of the night.

As all were talking, nobody noticed a delivery truck, now parking close to Penny’s driveway.  About two minutes later, the doorbell was rung.  Mark, who was closer, went to the door.  He signed a delivery receipt and took the box that was given to him.  Penny, could see him from where she was: “What is it Mark?

-          A big box for you!

-          What?” Mark was now holding the box, which was big but wasn’t that heavy, by the way he was manipulating it.  As he closed the door with a little kick, he went up the little flight of stairs.

-          “It’s for you.  I don’t know what it is.” He said, while giving her the box.

There was an envelope taped on the box.  She opened it and found a little card.  Inside it was written a little message: “Go on Conference North website if you haven’t done it by now.  Congratulations!  David.”  As Mark went to get the laptop, Penny opened the box.  It was a big bouquet of white lilies.  All were in awe and didn’t know what it was about.  Mark now was on the website, the top of it was reading:  “Manager of the Year in Vanarama South:  Penny Stiles, Hereford FC”

Penny didn’t really had the time to react because the phone rang, Britanny answered and cried: “MUM! IT’S FOR YOU!”  Penny went to take the receiver, leaving the flowers on her chair.  After thirty seconds, everybody saw Penny become ghost white.

----------------------

 “Penny, what do you want?” ‘Mark was holding her wife, which was cuddled to him, in bed.

-          “That’s the thing, I don’t know.”   The phone call had troubled her, deeply troubled her.

Nick Blofield, the Chairman of the board at Coventry City, a club that has just been promoted to Championship had called her, congratulating her for her work with Hereford but also, to ask her if she would come to the club for an interview!  She had told him that she had a lot of guests and asked him if it was possible to call him back next morning.  He agreed, ending the conversation saying:  “I believe you are ready for Championship!”

She wasn’t able to fall asleep.  She was conflicted in a way she never would have thought possible!  During the season, a lot of rumors in the press got thrown around, saying she was considered for clubs in higher tiers.  She always said she had a job to do here, in Hereford.  She even got three phone calls for interviews too; one in Conference, one in League 2 and one in League 1.Other than saying thank you, she never even considered going.  When the offers came, she was either fighting in FA Trophy, or FA Cup, even right after the loss against Kidderminster in the FA Trophy derby, it was Chesterfield FC, the League 1 club, that was fighting for survival with 9 games to play who’d called her.

Despite the fact it was 11 at night by now; she got up and went to call his father.  He always was great at putting things into perspective.  She called his hotel room (they were living in London).  After about an hour of talking with him, she hung up.  She then went back to bed.  Not before putting her alarm clock at 6.

[Rien102]

The alarm clock woke Penny, as promised, but she had barely slept.  After hanging up with her dad, she went to bed where she tossed and turned for a long time before falling asleep.  She got out of the bed and went straight to kitchen, where her job phone was on the charge.  She took it and dialed David’s (Boggins) number.  He answered after three rings with a sleepy voice.  Less than a minute later, she had arranged a breakfast at a local restaurant with him.  She then went to the bathroom, to start the morning mechanics; she had to be at the restaurant in 45 minutes.

As she was getting out of her car, she saw David arriving in the restaurant’s parking lot.  She waved to him, then went to the door and waited.  She quickly saw that he had his “I’m worried” face, which she havn’t seen very often.  They both said hi and went in.  When the lady at the door welcomed them, Penny asked for a table out of the way.

As they sat, they asked for coffee and Penny started talking.  “David, first, thanks for the flowers yesterday, they were magnificent!

-          Nothing compared to what you achieved this year, Penny!” he answered.

-          “David,”  Penny was uncomfortable, and it showed.  “I’m sorry to have called you this early but it is important.

-          I guessed it by myself you know?

-          Look, I’ll go straight at it.  I didn’t sleep well last night.

-          The red eyes are telling the story already!” He said, smiling, as the waitress was giving them the coffees.  They gave their orders and she left.

-          “Yesterday, I got a phone call from Coventry City.  They are asking me to come for an interview to take the manager position.”  David was stunned!

-          “They just got promoted to Championship!

-          I know, Mark Robbins jumped ship to go back with Huddersfield.  It’s why I want to talk with you, I told them I had guests and that I would call back this morning.” David’s face was showing how fast his mind was going at that point, the surprise was way past by now.

-          “You are considering it?

-          I’m conflicted.  Really conflicted.”  Penny eyes went to the table; she was ashamed to admit that.  “To wave off rumors last years.  You know about those.  Or to receive phone calls during the last stretch of the season from teams who are in relegation area, to try and save their seasons.  These were easy to discard, even from big teams.  This time though, it’s not the same thing…”  Silence took hold, it being uncomfortable pretty fast.

-          “Are you conflicted because of money?” he asked, tentatively.

-          “No!” she shot back.   “Money as nothing to do with my unease about the whole thing!

-          Penny, I had to ask, ok?”  She bobbed her head up and down.

-          “David, I’m conflicted because of you!”  He gapped!  “You offered me my big chance, but it still is Championship, you know?”  David was taking the hit, knowing that just to offer her a new contract wouldn’t be a viable solution, he decided on a new approach.

-          “Penny, I brought you to Hereford because I knew you were capable.  You had everything to be successful, and now you showed it to everybody.  Nonetheless, you are what, 35 years “young” now?” he said with a little smile, which she responded with a smile of her own.  “Do you feel you will not have the same opportunity down the line?”  As he was finishing his phrase, the waitress was arriving with the orders.  After both had thanked her, she left.

-          “Honestly David, I don’t really care about that.  I always knew that once I’d have a chance, I’d be noticed for the good reasons.  The reason of my inner conflict is you, personally.  To be honest, I would have gotten calls like the one I got yesterday from League 2 teams, I wouldn’t even have had to think about it; I’d have brought the Bulls there fast enough thank you!  The League 1 teams, it would have been the same answer, because of you!  But now, it’s a full Championship, at the start of the season…”  David was pensive.

-          “Penny, can I talk as the guy you know for the last five years, not your boss today?

-          I hope it’s more with him I will talk this morning… to be honest…

-          Alright, don’t take what I’m gonna tell you against your boss than!”  He made a little smirk.  “Since the first day I met you, I always saw an extremely driven woman, with a giant potential and a way to do things that would make that potential being fulfill down the line!  Do I think you can be a Championship manager?  I am convinced, after five years looking at you from afar and the last one from very close, that you have what it take to be with a Premiership team manager someday, and succeed too!  Now, do I think you have it, right now, to be it?  I can’t tell, honestly because I’m too emotionally attached to you, and your energy, to make a decent call.  What I can tell you though, because of the affection I have for you, is to do what you want, to do what your hearth tells you to do.  Ok so far?”  She nodded.  “Now, if  I'd take my hat of a man who knows football, who’s been into football for a good while by now, I’d say that you have a lot of appeal as a manager!  You are driven!  You are a bit conservative when it comes to tactics.  Your main strength is your ability to create a system that makes the strengths of your teams more strong than they are.  At the same time, you mitigate your weaknesses the same way, with great intuition and undeniable results.   On the other hand, if as a matter of tactics you are a bit conservative, when it comes down to players, you are a risk taker!  You are willing to gamble and, based on what I saw so far, you are right most of the times too!  You have a real flair at bringing players who would give you what you need, the way you need it.  Just look at this low block approach you used, and the results you got with it!  So, with that, looking at the offer you have on the table, I can sure see why you got that call!  Coventry wants to get back to where they were, not such a long time ago.  You represent something that is interesting for a team like that: both a conservative and a risk taker!  Add to that what you don’t want to hear: PR opportunity!  In the end, there is only one question:  As someone who knows football, the business of football, are you a good choice?  My answer would tend to be yes, but with an important caveat.  Would you be as successful in a very short term view like you were with the Bulls?  No!  Unequivocally no.  Championship is a cutthroat division!  I, personally, think that it is the most difficult division in England, period!  Toughest than Premiere league.”  He took some time, starting to dig in his breakfast that was getting cold.  As Penny was processing all that had been said already, and all he added afterward…