Rien102 Posted May 21, 2018 Author Share Posted May 21, 2018 “The Bulls dodged a big bullet, Penny Stiles to stay with Hereford this year Today, it’s been confirmed by sources well aware of the situation, that Penny Stiles had officially turned down Nick Blofield, the Chairman of the board of Coventry City (Championship) to come in interview to become the manager of the newly promoted team. The Chairman had personally placed a phone call to Penny Stiles to try and convince her to join the Coventry team and secure their place in Championship. Penny Stiles, designated Manager of the Year of Vanarama League North, who won the promotion of the Bulls to Vanarama League and brought, among other things, the club straight to the Hawthorne in FA Cup for a rematch against West Brom, rewriting the history book in the process, apparently had turn down the offer, stating that her work in Hereford was, in her eyes, an unfinished job. When asked about the call, she refused to confirm that such offer had even been made. Sources stated that she had asked time to think about it before, last morning, turning down the opportunity to join the club. Last season, speculations were many a piece about her being in line for numerous jobs as managers of teams ranging to Conference up to Championship and also, with Scottish top teams as well. Invariably, she had stated to the press, when asked, that she was with Hereford and intended to stay. The Bulls board was so scared of losing her that, as early as last November, they had approached her for a new contract. We also know that toward the end of the season, she had had two offers to join teams that now had been relegated in League 1 and League 2. Peterborough and Chesterfield had confirmed that a call was made at the time. The question is: how long does Stiles will be able to resist those offers? Everybody who has her abilities must desire to go up the tiers, to play with the bests. She demonstrated grace under pressure, bringing to team toward the highest honors and had kept a group of youngsters focused all season long. Can Hereford do anything to keep her here? If they can, at what cost will it be? The only certain thing that is certain, for now, is that a long, deep, sigh relief was certainly drawn in the Bulls offices, when they learned she had said no, for now.” Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 22, 2018 Author Share Posted May 22, 2018 When Penny arrived at Edgar Street, after three restful weeks, she was pumped! The pre-season was 4 weeks away and she had great hopes for the coming season. The first person she met was Billy, one of the grounds keepers. “Good morning Billy! - Good morning m’am! Welcome back home!” he said with a genuine smile. “You gave us a big scare, you know that? - I’m sorry to hear that.” Billy was shuffling his feet, always as shy as usual. - “M’am, I am the first one to be happy you stayed with us. I could understand it would have been tough though… Coventry was a big deal…” Penny was feeling a bit bad now. She stopped, planted herself right in front of the man. - “Billy, I won’t lie and say it was easy to say no… - I can imagine… - Now, I, , no, WE, need to focus on the task in front of us. You ready for another season?” Billy’s face light up just to be considered… - “You bet m’am! - Good!” Penny offered a soft smile. “Have a great day Billy, I got to go through what probably are, about 500 emails!” she started to laugh, to which Billy answered in kind. As she entered her office, she saw a single lily in a beautiful elongated vase, a small note on a little card: “Thank you for another season”. She reversed the card, trying to see who had done such a thing but it was unsigned. She was wearing a smile. She than sat down and fired up her computer. As the machine was booting, she did an inspection of her desk and found a series of files, all neatly piled with a little yellow sticky on them: “To go through rapidly please” there was budgets, wages, facilities improvements update and Stockport friendly. Taking a writing pad, she started to write down the things to do, and to do fast. As she had done her list, she opened her email client… 637 emails where waiting for her… she sighed in disgust… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 23, 2018 Author Share Posted May 23, 2018 The pre-season was halfway through by now. Penny was happy about the way things were going for sure. The friendly against Wigan, the senior affiliate, was played in front of over 3500 fans in the stands and concluded with a 4-2 win at that! The two other friendlies had been confidence builders, selected for that exact purpose. As far as signings went, her first one was a CD called Ben Goodlife, an ex-Wolves who was a very good jumper that was also very accurate on headers, courageous, fairly determined, professional and pretty powerful. His main weakness was that he was on the slow side. The real big signing though, incredibly overpriced in her opinion, was Jay Richards. Straight out of Everton, all the coaches were saying he was a first grade player for top Conference teams. He was a very fast defensive forward, with a pretty good work rate, very courageous, powerful and with pretty good finishing and first touch. The only real flaw, in her eyes, was the fact he had a tendency to pile up little injuries. This meant she would need to cotton ball the player a bit. The next step in her pre-season was going to be special though: it was the Stockport friendly. What was thought of as something to “heal the wound” between the two clubs, became a gigantic multi prong affair! David (Boggins), and his Stockport counterpart, had worked hard with FA to make it a big event. It would start with two little league games, both being on half a pitch, one of boys, the other of girls. Then, FA decided that it would be a great date to have the documentary about Penny aired. A special deal had been made with BT Sport who would air it right before the friendly. At the same time the doc would be on the telly, at Edgar Street, a special match filled with ex-players from the Women English National Team, mostly ex-teammates of Penny, and a mix of ex-players from both Germany and France would take place. The friendly itself would be streamed live on BT Sport website, who are the official sponsors of the Women’s Super League and Women Championship. It would be a special Pay-per-View event, who had been heavily promoted on the channel with banners in, just about every one of their shows for weeks. All the proceeds would go straight to promotion of women football, at all level. The best thing was that all the Premiere League and all the EFL and Conference teams had chipped in, by buying viewing passes of the event. Some Premiere League teams even buying as many as 5000 of them, to distribute to their fans! The total, Mary had told her one week prior to the match was 172k viewing passes paid by teams alone! Most teams of Conference Regional and up also bought tickets for the game itself, guaranteeing that the stadium would be at capacity; 5710! It would be an exhibition match of mixed gender teams. Both Stockport and Hereford would be composed of their best players plus 12 women from both the Women’s Super League (8) and the Women’s Championship (4). In men professionnal football in England, those are the equivalent of the Premiere League and the Championship. Since the level of the Women’s Super League is about at the same level of play League 2 high teams, the eight of them would be on the starting eleven of both teams on the field. The second half would see changes where some of the first wave women would be subbed with the ones from Women’s Championship. FA had arranged that all the referees would be female, operating with general FA rules. Both managers would play a flat 4-4-2 and the only change in the rules was about the tackling, which would be pretty toned down, to say the least... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 On Saturday, July 18th, the evening before the Stockport-Hereford friendly a big dinner, with an auction, was organized with a lot of the actors of the event. All the players, women and men, were there; it was a way to make all meet beforehand. The players from the legends match were all there too. Both Boards and both managers were there. Representatives of over 60 clubs part of FA were present that night! Those who couldn’t attend sent articles for the auction. FA was, of course present too, from both male and female professional leagues. To that, all the referees of the both games, the “legends” one and the friendly itself, were invited too, all women in their prime! The center of attention was Bibiana Steinhaus, who had accepted to come and be the head referee of the main event! During the pre-dinner speech, when she was presented, David (Boggins) even said that all the expenses, related to her being here, was entirely covered by the Premiere league teams who all eagerly for it all. Over 225 peoples directly involved into the event itself were at the dinner that was attended by over 900 people’s total! A lot of peoples made little speeches, which had all one common theme: Penny... She was bright red all the time and just wanted to crawl into a hole to hide herself in! Dean Rance, the captain of the Bulls, was one of the first to give a little speech and he had set the tone by starting like this: “As one of the guinea pigs…” Everybody laughed! It needed him about one minute to just be able to add “her words, not mine!” Everybody laughed even harder! The President of Stockport’s board was next, he made a touching speech, telling all, how ashamed he was at what had happened, at how gracious and with great civility, she had acted during the event and afterward. He finished by saying that, if his shame, which was the direct result of what one of his players did, was beneficial in helping women inclusion in all level of professional football, it was a sacrifice he was ready to make and endure. He got honored by everybody who gave him a standing ovation. Some managers, who had faced Penny last year, made some speeches about how she was tactically aware and how good she was as a person and as a manager! One of them, with a big smirk, even asking to Mark, who was by Penny’s side at the main table, what it was like to be the spouse of a manager of a pro men football team, because he didn’t know what it was like! There were a lot of laughs at the quip! Mark took another mic and shot back: “Since I sleep in the same bed, I think it better not to answer to that!” All the room laughed even more! The biggest speech though, in Penny’s eyes anyway, came from Javier Aguirre, the West Brom manager who recounted to all, as a prime witness, that if a woman had a place men professional football, it couldn’t be anybody else than Penny! He made a vibrant speech about the fact that the bests should be able to play against the bests, whatever their gender, race or creed, using her as a constant reference. He ended the speech, looking at David, straight in the eyes: “You better cherish the time you have with her as the manager of your team sir, because she will be with a bigger team soon! I still don’t know how on earth you were able to keep her here by the way… is there something in the water?” All laughed! From two tables down, the Coventry City President stood up and said out loud: “Water? Is that all I needed? I can add an infinite supply of Hereford water in the deal if you want!” The quip made everybody laugh to tears! The auction was something that a lot of peoples were waiting for… The cue of the night being about 50 autographed shirts from football superstars or legends. Salah, Neymar, De Bruyne, de Gea, Seaman, Ronaldo and Messi were some of the big names who gladly contributed. Penny had accepted to give the blazer she had use against Spennymoor, her very first match as a manager. A local businessman bought it for £1200! Overall, over £450k was raised to help and promote woman football! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 25, 2018 Author Share Posted May 25, 2018 Quick note: all the games results are made-up but, in the Bulls calendar, there was a friendly organized at Edgar Street with Stockport. On Sunday, Penny’s entire house was in a little frenzy. It was the Stockport friendly today and Britanny was in a very vocal state, blabbing non-stop about her playing on the same pitch as mum's today! Her team was one of the four grassroots teams selected to play and she had been talking about it for about two weeks! Mark had worked hard to be even more helpful to Penny this last week because her patience was about as thin as it was possible to be. Not only did she still had to do the normal tasks to do into pre-season, that any managers would have to do, but she also had to do about 15 interviews and promos for the event. It wasn’t as bad as what both Presidents of both clubs had done though. She saw that they must have done about 100 interviews and promos in the last week alone! She left for Edgar Street at 9am. The little league games were starting at 11am so, Mark would come with Britanny later. She had a final run of interviews to make but she also wanted to be in the stands to watch the game of her daughter. As soon as she arrived at the club, she went to see Mary, the PR girl, who was having a blast this week, and received the line-up for the interviews which were about the friendly but also, the documentary (which she hated to do even more!). After the "milk run" was over, she went to see her friends from the legends game. There was a lot of tears shed and laughter in there. Penny was thanking them for coming but a French player said that it was giving them all a break from the kids! All the women laughed at the joke! The Germans and the French were as sweet as they could be! The football associations from both countries had chipped in a bit to bring them here! Britanny’s team won their match 2-1. Penny’s daughter only got an assist but since it was on the winning goal, she celebrated as if she had scored it herself! Penny, to take a page off her daughter’s book, had made, very late last night, a sign saying “THAT’S MY DAUGTER” and was waving it like crazy while Mark, that was sitting at her right, was saying to everybody around him that he didn’t knew that woman! The atmosphere was light and fun and the 300 peoples who were in the stands were an awesome crowd! Cheering and chanting for the kids who were having a ball out there. All the Bulls players even were in the stands to cheer for the kids! Penny was invited to present the players from both legends teams and the referees. It was a very special feeling, to say the least. At the beginning of the game, there were about 2000 peoples in the stands but for the second half, there was 4000! Both teams, even if it was an exhibition game, were pretty determined to win and the match was a good one! The Lionesses won 3-2 and the crowd was ecstatic! They had loved the show and they were saying it loud and clear! For the main event, the stadium was full by now and the crowd was in a great spirit. On a temporary giant screen, there was a nonstop roll of little “welcome videos” from big football names, ranging from big players to renowned managers to the first female commentator of professional football on English television, Jacqui Oatley. FA had worked overtime on this and had put a lot of skin in the thing for sure! Mary, the PR girl, went to the middle of the pitch to start the little gig planned for the presentation of the game. When it was time for Penny, eight managers she’d faced last year were there to escort her to the center of the pitch! The crowd, composed of Bulls fans but also with a lot of important guests, started to chant the “She’s one of us!” they had sang to her last year and they were joined by all that were on the pitch. Penny was beet red, with tears rolling down both her cheek, just wanting the darn game to start! When it started, all wanted to see how the mixed gender teams would play… and they got a great offensive fest, ! The women showed all that they were more than a match for Conference level teams too! The final score was 6-5 for the Bulls! The best goal of the game was from Ellen White, of the Birmingham City Ladies and member of the English National team, who was playing on Stockport’s side. A hard whipping cross was made inside the box and she took it with a side volley that was about a meter in the air, lodging the ball in the top corner of the goal! Everybody in the crowd was in awe in front of this great display and cheered accordingly! Josh (Barnes) couldn’t even believe his eyes! The crowd just plain loved it and gave her a standing ovation! In the end, the event was everything, everybody could hope for! When Penny left Edgar Street, if she was happy of the event, she was also happy to be able to do what she was supposed to do now: be a manager of real pro team that would fight to stay in Conference this year. She had 2 friendlies against recently relegated teams from Conference; they would be benchmarks for the coming season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 26, 2018 Author Share Posted May 26, 2018 Once Britanny was asleep, Mark convinced Penny to come watch the documentary about her; he had recorded it. Reluctantly, she accepted mainly because he was so into her watching it. He poured some wine and took her by the shoulder; he brought her as close as he could. Before he started it, he looked at her and softly kissed her forehead. The documentary started to play on the telly. Penny quickly saw that they had clearly put a lot of work into this. The part about her growing up loving football and her, too short, career as a player was punctuated with about fifteen interviews from different peoples, ranging from her parents and brother to ex-managers and ex-teammates. It was all about her skills and her potential. Then, it was probably time for the accident, because she saw Mark on the tube. The off voice, it was a woman’s, was saying: “As she was continuing her training, as hard as she always had done, she met Mark, the man who would become her husband.” - “We were dating for about three months … well, dating was a big word” and he laughed a little on the telly, “…because I was able to see her only when she decided she couldn’t train! Which wasn’t often! - Late at night, getting out of the gym, Penny was driving home when a car full of peoples, barely out of a pub, didn’t stop at a red light and smashed in the right side of her own car.” The picture of the car appeared on the telly and Penny buried her head in Mark’s shoulder. “Penny’s car was hit perpendicularly, at over 60km an hour, by the party boys, right before the driver’s door. Her right foot was crushed, her right leg and hip were broken in four more places, and several bruised ribs; two of them cleanly broken. She was lucky since the broken ribs didn’t touch any vital organs but when she was brought to the hospital, she was unconscious and in very bad shape because of the very severe internal bleeding; she was at death doorstep when she was rolled in the emergency room. - We got the call around 11a t night from the hospital” it was her dad talking now, with a picture of Penny in the hospital bed, with tubes everywhere, bruised and marked all over, were in plain sight, for all to see, “and we went straight to the hospital.”[…] - “The first operation lasted about 5 hours, she had lost a lot of blood” the first surgeon was now talking, “and we had to remove all the bone splinters, and there was a lot of them![…] - “In the first week at the hospital, I had spent about as much time with her than since I started dating with her” Mark’s turn. “She was under severe medications, didn’t probably noticed I was there but I didn’t care. […] - The doctors had to do multiple surgeries on her right leg to reconstruct what could be reconstructed.” The off-voice was back. “Her right ankle, which was smashed beyond repair, was a complex work for the surgeon, who wanted to put in an artificial one that would let her keep her right foot. The amputation was what they were trying to avoid. The efforts lasted for two months with four other surgeries.” Penny was white as a ghost, seeing the pictures shown of her leg, in cast, with the screws sticking out. - “What we were trying to do” the surgeon was on the screen, “was to make sure she would be able to walk again, even if it would need some time. - We were deeply impacted by all of this”, it now was one of Penny’s ex-teammate, “but we decided to help as much as we could. Everybody, there was at least one of us to go see her, every day, trying to cheer her up, to support her. - She was so physically broken and we couldn’t do anything about that”, another ex-teammate, “but we could help in other ways. So, we made ourselves some kind of schedule […] - Three months after the accident” the off voice again, “all Penny could do was to be patient for the injuries to heal. - She was in pain 24/7” Mark’s turn, “and she was getting angry at everybody. She knew that her dream was gone by now. - We could do nothing” her mum, in tears. “All she ever wanted, all she had ever worked for, was over now, because of… this…” Penny felt tears rolling and Mark held her tight but he didn’t stop the documentary. - “We saw her slip away, drowning in her pain and frustrations and despair”, Penny’s dad. “All we could do was being there.” He was tearful on the screen. - “The doctors started to talk about re-education” the off-voice now, “but also about psychological support. - I thought she would jump out of her bed and hit the doctor” Mark again, “when he offered her to see a psychologist. She screamed so… angrily! […] - Depression hit her hard” the off-voice was on by now. “Penny, the driven girl, with determination for two, under her broken and shattered dream, sunk deeper and deeper. For three more months, all the ones close to her could only come and witness her drowning. - I remember seeing Mark there” it was her dad again, “day in and day out. Every time someone was coming, they had to ask him to move away because he never was leaving her side... - This man was like a hawk by her bed” an ex-teammate, “he was dead tired, his eyes were telling all to see that he was wearing her pain, her burden and that if it was the only thing he could do, he’d do it to the end. - One day, after a fit of anger at everything and everybody” Mark was on again. - “She was ready to abandon all hope” her dad, “but still, that boy was there and he was fighting for her. He was fighting the fights she didn’t want to fight anymore. - There were three of us, and she was way down” an ex-teammate, “we didn’t know what to say, or do, to cheer her up. Once the doctor left the room, Mark threw his arms in the air in desperation… - He went to the bed” another ex-teammate, “took her by the shoulders and said in the same stern voice she could have… - You a wimp huh? Is that it huh?... - She was staring at him, gapping… - I’ll always be with you but you need to fight this!” Penny was holding Mark arm and she was crying at his side. - It was like he had slapped her in the face!” the ex-teammate again. “From there, we saw the old Penny crawling back from under that ton of rubbles! […] - For 14 months,” the off-voice again, “Penny did physiotherapy to relearn how to walk. The road was a long and very painful one. - She was barely using the painkillers we had prescribed her” a doctor was on. “Her dad told us she didn’t want her brain in a fuzz, he was saying that the bottle of pills was opened only when the pain was so intense, she could barely breathe...” Penny couldn’t take it anymore; she took the remote and switched off the telly. She was sobbing. Mark took her in his arm for a while but after a few minutes, he lifted her head and forced her to look at him. “Woman, you are the most beautiful thing I ever met, the strongest too.” The tears were rolling on his cheeks too but he continued, “This… this… well it shows how much you fought for your dream! I am just the luckiest of man to have had the chance to be with you, by your side, when you reclaimed it …” He started to kiss her gently. She responded in kind. The kiss tasted salty from tears of both of them now embracing each other. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 27, 2018 Author Share Posted May 27, 2018 Saturday August 8th, 2020, finally the opening of the season! Penny and all her boys were anxious to play. Not only their first match in Conference would be on the telly, it wouldn’t even be at home! They were playing Wrexham at the Glyndwr University Racecourse Stadium. The crowd seemed small in such a big place. In the 15 000 capacity stadium, only 4200 came to see the match. At least, faithful Bulls fans made the trip in good number! Penny knew the match would be difficult. Not only The Red Dragons were predicted to be in the play-offs this year, they were also probably going to use a pesky 4-1-2-3 system. The match was a tight one right at start. Penny knew it would be like this, and she didn’t like it. After a mere fifteen minutes, she even had to pull Scott (Martin) because of an abductors injury. Sam thought that they could probably leave him on the pitch for the rest of the game but she knew too well how important he was in the long run. She brought in Dean (Rance) that was now a permanent sub for the team. He was too slow to be of the starting eleven now but, after a talk with him, he’d be a tutor for this year while being a permanent sub and staying captain. He would play many times but unless serious injuries would force her hand, he would do little starts. Fifteen minutes later, Josh (Barnes) called the physio for neck pains. Now she really panicked! Despite reassurance from the physio, she brought in Nathan (Wolland), her back-up goalkeeper. Josh was too central to everything; she was prepared to waste the match just to be sure he wasn’t injured for a long period! With one staffer of Wrexham, Josh was brought straight to the hospital for x-rays of the neck and meet with a doctor, just to be sure. The players did good and held for the first half. In the dressing room, she played the “all is good but it could be better card” with them, but she was really worried. She made the team play a little wider and asked both Tareq (Shihab) and Jordan (Cranston) to bomb the flanks on both sides, leaving support roles to go on attack. She needed to stretch the games around the Dragons box. At the sixtieth minutes mark, she brought in Shaun (Penn) to replace James (Carvell) who was having problems in the midfield. Wrexham was clearly using a mid-block and he wasn’t able to cope with it. Shaun would have better chances since he was more agile and tended to move the ball by the side, to create some room in the middle. Five minutes later, the Bulls were buzzing around Wrexham’s box. At one point, Tareq crossed the ball to Jordan on the other side and he reset the play by sending it to Jack (Hunter) that was about midpoint between the box and the midfield line. Jack than passed the ball to Shaun who was tackled by Aaron (Bulger). The ball moved into the box and Reece (Miller) stole it, quickly shot the ball and scored! It wasn’t a beautiful goal but she would take it! The Red Dragons started to play a little harder now, playing catch-up football. On the 86th minute, the play was close to the Bulls box and a Wrexham player violently crashed into Jerome (Opoku)! He was very badly shaken! Tareq, that was close, heard the physio talk of commotion and he ran to Penny to tell her. There was no way she could leave Jerome on the pitch but she didn’t have any sub left. She asked Jack to go as a CD and ordered Alex (Dodd), a new signing, to go from his AMC position to DM. Shaun and Dean were both put as CM on defence duties. Reduced to ten, all they could do was resist. After five, eternally long, minutes of injury time, the referee whistled the end of the game. The Bulls had prevailed! All she wanted to do was to go get news about her injured players; she wasn’t in a celebrating mood. She still stayed there, fist bumping her players with a smile as they were walking off the pitch. They were worried too she saw… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 28, 2018 Author Share Posted May 28, 2018 The season opener at Edger Street was just in 2 hours. In the corridor leading to her office, Penny walked into David (Boggins), the President of the board. “Hey girl! Just to let you know, over 4300 peoples should be here today!” he told her. - “Wow!, that’s about 25% more than the average we had last year, right? - It’s in those waters. The real deal is the number of season passes, last year we had 1850’ish of those but I got the final number for this year yesterday: 2397!” She gapped. - “Does this mean I can ask for new training facilities?” she asked with a little wicked smile. David laughed. - “We are still improving them from last year as we speak! You are so pushy!” Both laughed whole heartedly. Darlington was the opponents and she knew the game wouldn’t be an easy one just because she suspected they’d try to only shut down the play. She made her rotation in such a way that the two big signings of pre-season, Jay Richards and Joel Kaduba would play the first game at home. The second the game started, she knew how right she had been. From the get go, Darlington started pressing like mad in the midfield. She quickly asked her players to play more fluid, based on possession. If the Quakers wanted to shut down the thing, she would make them run after the ball by passing it as much as she could! The first half was a festival of tackling and missed passes because of pressure. If Penny’s boys couldn’t get a quality opportunity, neither did Darlington. The shots were few but it showed at how good both defenses were playing. Fouls were two for a quid too, on both sides! Each teams getting caught off position many times. What she was the angriest about, was that her boys barely held the ball better than Darlington. At half-time, she said it clearly that she was expecting better from all of them. The second half started the same way the first one was. She had asked her boys to play a little wider, to try and stretch the play a little but Darlington was a speedy team and it was barely giving a little more time to her players. On the 50th minutes, on a corner, Ben (Goodlife) showed all the quality of the headers he can offer by making a long lobbed one across the box in the net! 1-0! The Quakers started to push a little more and it clearly was evident that both, Alex (Dodd), her AP in AMC position and Joel, her DM, were in trouble. She subbed them, Bringing Dean (Rance) in but as a CM on defense as she asked Matty (Dixon) to go take the DM position and Shaun (Penn), that she put at the spot Alex was. If the Bulls were controlling the middle of the pitch in an ok fashion before, now, instantly, they were king of the place, pushing the Darlington players closer to the pitch lines, on the sides. They still were coming hard though. The low block was doing well, as hoped for, but the front of her box was in difficulty. Seventy minutes in, Scott (Martin), who was having a bang-up match so far as B2B, was asked to go with Matty as DM, inverting the lower diamond. As soon as she did the change, she knew Darlington couldn’t do a thing. They couldn’t take a single shot for the rest of the game; adding a second win to her Conference record. In the dressing room after the match, she was still not happy, too many fouls, too many mistakes… She knew part of it was because of team cohesion, after all, four new signings were on the pitch, but she wanted to set the standard right at the beginning. She told her boys that this was a sub-par performance… “If we need to rely on set pieces to win, this mean we don’t play good enough!” Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 Jack’s (Collision) comment last year, about expectations management, was hammering her in hard…. real hard. The Bulls had gotten a good start, with three straight wins, just to see a loss where they were outplayed in every department. After that, they got a draw, by the skin of their teeth, by literally putting all in. She was trying to rationalize by saying that Jerome (Opoku) was out because of the commotion but Jake (Goodman) didn’t play bad at all. He didn't perform in an outstanding fashioned but her hadn't done mistakes leading to a goal either. In her office, instead of doing the paperwork she was supposed to do, she was doing something she had never had done ever, in her life, she was biting her nails… She was getting a bit muffled so, she decided to leave the paperwork behind and went to the pitch, to watch the training but also, to ask Adam (El-Abd) for a chat at lunch. After roaming around the pitch and inviting Adam to lunch with her, she went back to her office, to finish her paperwork. At lunch, Adam and she went close to the windows, far from everybody else. Penny, who wasn’t into beating around bushes a lot, said it straight to Adam, about her difficulties to cope with expectations. He gently smiled to her. “I think it’s because of your physical limitations, the limp, and the way you got it.” She gasped and had tons of question marks all over her face, and they were easy to see! Adam took his time, he always thought before speaking, which was something she particularly loved with him. After organizing the thoughts, he continued: “You may think, that what I’m gonna tell you, that it is 5 pence psychology, ok? But this is what I think when it comes down to you. I watched the doc about you the other day…” her face darkened, “and it was pretty revealing, honestly! You had tremendous potential, all your coaches and managers said so, and you were a fierce competitor, driven, perfectionist in a lot of ways and you hated losing even more than you loved winning. And you loved winning! The thing is, it was cut short and because of that, all which is left in you, is the part where all you have in front of you is potential lost! You never knew what it is to reach the peak, the point when you know that all there is, in front of you, is going downhill. As a player, I know that, I was full of potential at one point, I reached the highest I could go and then, felt the decline.” Adam was dead serious, his eyes showed something she never saw in him before, some sort of sadness… “During those years, full of potential and ambition, you drove yourself as hard as you could to reach the top of your game. All your ex-teammates said the same thing, that you were shaming everybody else who didn’t push themselves the same way you did, just by example. And when things weren’t going to way you wanted on the pitch, you were hard and cold as steel! Why you did it? I think, in part, from what I know of you by now, it’s because you knew that this game we love, cannot be won by one person alone, it’s got to be a group or none. You could be like that because you were placing yourself in a position where nobody could put any reproach on you. You were forcing yourself to work harder than anybody else and you were showing everybody that you were the nastiest, most intransigent critique, when it came down to your own performances.” He took a pause, on purpose, and then continued “All you knew was that you had a peak to reach, a goal that was set to achieve. All you could do was to work your body, and your soul, to the ground to reach it. All you could do was being the hardest of them all because you wanted to be the best of the bests. Now, let’s fast forward to today. You can’t go on the pitch and do what you could do back then, it’s physically impossible because of the accident. There is a ton of frustrations there and, honestly, I cannot know what it is directly, but I think I can understand it because I did reached that peak and went downhill on the other side. Once there, I couldn't do was I was doing before. For me though, it was a process, a long process, over many many years, but for you, it was a clean break, a cut. So, what can you do today, to help the team win? You drive yourself to the ground, trying to create a system that will give the best results. The thing is though, you can only witness the execution of the plan and, unlike before, you have no real grasp on the execution other than your communication skills. Now, how does your past, your driven nature, is translated into as a manager. First, the “Sergeant Stiles” still exists, yes, but I saw only it in one specific area: training. If a player wing things, don’t show the determination, or desire, to improve himself, you wack him! You even fired players just because of that, even if they were giving good results on the pitch! This though, leads to a second side of the “Sergeant Stiles”. You put a lot of pressure on yourself to motivate the players in games, but you are often more “Private Mum” than “sergeant Stiles” at that point.” Penny was showing some discomfort and she knew Adam knew, but he didn’t stop there. “That’s when all comes together. I think you go at the game, as a manager, with young players because I think you want to see yourself, in some way. Since you never saw your abilities and capabilities declined, you only see the potential and not the limitations due to the decline forced by aging. It is, then, when your physical limitation takes over everything else. For you, a limitation is about being cut out of something, not as being incapable of doing something anymore. Expectations are equivocal of the potential in front of you, and if you fail to achieve them, you feel you have been cut out, not that it was something you couldn’t do anymore.” Penny was speechless… “At least,” Adam added, “it’s the way I see things. This has nothing to do with you being a girl cause you believe that if your good enough for something, you should be there, period. I think, before I came in, you may have felt a bit of that “girl in a men’s world” burden. The media were all over the place with that and I don’t think anybody cannot be affected by it at some point. In the day to day things though? It’s not about the girl, it’s about the limp. You just can’t show a move, a dive or a fist deflection in the box on a cross. So, in the end, you can’t manage your expectations because for you, expectations are equivocal with potential. You can’t interpret them in any other way. Not to achieve some expectations, on execution, which you can’t control, is the accident all over again!” When she was coming home that night, she was still chewing on everything Adam had said; there was a lot to process in there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 30, 2018 Author Share Posted May 30, 2018 The day after, it was the sixth match of the season; Sutton was in town. Penny was still processing what Adam (El-Abd) had told her yesterday. She would surely take some time later, when she would have some to spare, to go deeper into the statement; but not now, she had a match to win. That loss, followed by the draw, had made Hereford slip out of the play-offs. It still was very soon in the season but she wanted to rack-up the points as fast as possible. When she received the U’s line-up, she talked about it with Sam (Walker), Jack (Collison) and Adam. “4-4-2, pushing on their right flank…. Agreed? - Definitely!” answered Sam. As the team was going on the pitch, fist bumping Sam that was standing by the door, Penny took Adam’s arm as he was passing her: “I wanted to thank you for yesterday” she said. He just smiled, putting a hand over hers. When she passed by Sam, they both shared a determined look. As she stepped on the pitch, she saw that it was a pretty good crowd for a Monday night; over 4100! The match started in a bad way! Eight minutes in, on a through ball in front of the box, Sutton opened-up the score! 0-1! The fast goal sucked the air out of the stadium instantly. Penny tried to cheer up her the boys: “Come on! What’s that? Huh?” She asked them to up the tempo a bit, seeing Sutton pressing midfield. Something happened very fast, the U’s players were being caught out of position a little more and started to foul Penny’s boys, sometime, too hard; they got booked on the 13th and on the 29th minute. On the 37th minute, the Bulls got a free kick just out of Sutton’s box. After a nice display of passing, Jay (Richards), the biggest signing Penny did so far, scored! 1-1! It was a great time to get his first goal! The sad thing was that on a counter attack, barely three minutes later, the U’s scored again! Penny was livid. The first half ended by Sutton getting booked a third time but nothing else. In the dressing room, Penny was pacing, wearing the floor, in front of her players. A heavy silence reigned in the place, disturbed only by her foot steps and her crutch's thumpings. After about two full minutes of that, she stopped and said, in a very calm voice: “Where do you think you are? Club Med?” She let some time pass and spoke a bit louder. “You have two choices: either you play or you pack your stuff! I came here to play!, you?” Looking specifically at the defense: “You guys are not in the game at all… you know that? Pff! Jerome (Opoku), you stay on the bench, Jake (Goodman) will take your place.” She turned heels and went into her office, shooing everybody out of the dressing room that wasn’t a player. When it was time to go on the pitch, she made the staff pass through the dressing room, forbidding them to say anything and to look at anyone. On the 57th minute, Jordan (Cranston) stole the ball on the left flank and hoofed it far in front to Shaun (Okojie) who ran with it. As soon as he entered the box, he kicked it in hard and scored! 2-2! Penny, who had been silent since the beginning of the second half, saw that a lot of her boys were looking at her for a reaction, a word, but she stayed like a statue on the side line, saying and showing nothing. Dean (Rance) that was starting his first game of the season started to try to rally the troops. At that moment, something changed. The passing was more effective and they were making the U’s run, tiring them. They really took control of the match. Sutton was piling up fouls and bookings too; getting 3 more in less than thirty minutes. On the 88th minute, with a solid passing display, from one end of the pitch to the other, Mitchell (Glover), playing AP in the AMC position, took a little tapped cross from Jay and scored! 3-2! Barely a minute later, on a nice through ball right in the middle, Mitchell returned the favor to Jay who ended-up alone in the U’s box, not missing his chance! 4-2! Penny, who hadn’t moved for the entire second half, just walked toward the dressing room door after the handshake with Sutton’s manager. As the players were passing her, to go in the dressing room, receiving their fist bump, they only saw a neutral face, only hearing: “Go in…” Once all were inside, she moved in, she saw that if the team was giddy after the whistle, they weren’t anymore. Penny walked to the middle of the dressing room that was as silent as after the first half. She stood there, without moving for a full minute before saying: “You can celebrate all you want… but you didn’t play for a complete game did you? So, don’t expect congratulations from me. When you will play for 90 minutes, and not 40, you’ll get some!” Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 Two days after the loss, she was getting ready to go to the Bulls radio, for the now stamped, one quarter of a season review interview, when David (Boggins) came to her door: “May I come in? - Of course!” answered Penny, without even looking. - “I was wondering if you needed anything…” She looked at him now, without knowing what it was about. - “What do you mean? - I mean, is there anything you need that I can provide you with?” Penny now understood what it was all about. Following her personal ethics about loyalty, she had told him, last week, that she had been approached for interviews by two clubs in the same week, one from Irish League One and the other was from a League 2. She stopped packing her purse and looked at him. - “David, I will go nowhere until the end of the season, period. Whatever the team that call me, I will be a Bulls till this season end.” He was acting in a way she had never seen before, he felt truly uncomfortable. - “Penny, I am here, asking you this, because the Board is worried that you will jump ship. You are doing so well…” She interrupted him. - “It will stop real soon! We’ve didn’t meet the play-offs teams yet! For the rest, I can guarantee you that at the season’s end; you will see me on the sideline of the Bulls for our last match.” She smiled at him. “David, I told you in May that I was grateful to you and it hasn’t changed. The squad I have here, right now, is the way I wanted it and I’m not about to leave the ship mid-way through, ok?” He just bobbed his head up and down. “Tell that to the Board for me.” She smiled again. “Now, I have to go. I’m due for the interview at the Bulls radio.” As she was driving to the station, she couldn’t stop having a little smile on her face. She found it so funny to see David worried about her leaving the club. At the same time, she was starting to wonder if it was the right approach, to always tell him when she gets an offer for an interview. Not the press rumors but a real phone call from a club, asking her to come talk with them, in person. She mulled over that until she arrived at the station. “Sixth place on the table is awesome! Do you think it’s possible to stay there?” asked Bruce. - “Naw.” She answered back, bluntly. “We haven’t met any of the top teams yet. The calendar gave us the opportunity to rack-up points. The good thing is that we managed to take a fair amount of those points to the bank, this should help us at the end of the season - Does that mean you expect a losing streak? - Nope!” she laughed. “What I say is that people shouldn’t be too excited, yet. I enjoy our spot in the play-offs like the next man, you know?” Another laugh, “but it is about being realistic. - Gotcha here. Why do you think we did so well so far then? - Passing completion is a good factor, our conversion rate on headers, especially the defensive ones, and possession. Our system is solid when it comes to those and it helped. We can also add to that, Josh (Barnes) who is doing the same as last year, a great job in front of the net.[…] - Jay (Richards) and Aaron (Dodd) are not playing at the level we were expecting. Wouldn’t you agree? - Yes and no. Both have a lot to offer. The thing is, we have a tightly woven group of players and they have to be integrated in that fabric. I already see signs of that with Jay. It is a bit more arduous with Aaron but he’ll get there, don’t worry!” She was trying to sound upbeat. The truth was that, for Aaron at least, she was having doubts by now, especially since Mitchell (Glover) was having such good performances lately…. Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag GD Pts 1st Ebbsfleet 10 10 0 0 25 6 19 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Notts Co 10 9 0 1 24 13 11 27 3rd Torquay 10 6 3 1 17 6 11 21 4th Eastleigh 10 6 2 2 25 12 13 20 5th Accrington 10 6 2 2 38 27 11 20 6th Hereford 10 6 2 2 16 10 6 20 7th Macclesfield 10 6 1 3 17 14 3 19 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th York 10 5 2 3 21 14 7 17 9th Gateshead 10 4 4 2 12 9 3 16 10th Newport Co 10 4 3 3 13 11 2 15 11th Wrexham 10 4 1 5 13 10 3 13 12th Southport 10 4 1 5 24 23 1 13 13th Salford 10 3 4 3 14 14 0 13 14th Sutton 10 3 2 5 16 16 0 11 15th Aldershot 10 3 2 5 11 14 3 11 16th Boreham Wood 10 3 1 6 24 28 4 10 17th Welling 10 3 1 6 10 14 4 10 18th Grimsby 10 3 1 6 9 18 9 10 19th Bromley 10 2 3 5 12 20 8 9 20th FC Halifax 10 2 3 5 16 27 11 9 21st Darlington 10 2 2 6 13 23 10 8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd Tranmere 10 1 3 6 10 18 8 6 23rd Morecambe 10 0 5 5 11 21 10 5 24th Maidstone 10 0 2 8 13 36 23 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 1, 2018 Author Share Posted June 1, 2018 Penny was looking at the next bout, in Hayes Lane with some optimism. Bromley was 19th on the table and she felt that it would be another good opportunity to pile up some more points; all the top teams would be met, but two, in the next 11 matches! Since it was a low ranking team, she decided to put Nathan (Wolland) instead of Josh (Barnes) as goalkeeper. She wanted him to have some game time but also give a little rest to Josh who had played all the games so far. Max (Melbourne), who had been badly hurt two weeks ago, wouldn’t come back for at least 10 days, so she would put one of her new signing on the left flank, Rhodi Lack. The first half was not the best but, Bromley were playing a 4-4-2 that was used in a very defensive way. Openings were sparse and creating space was difficult. On the 28th minute, on a counter attack that started by a bad play on the right flank, Kyle (McFarlane) was able to get a goal in an incredibly bad angle! 0-1. Then, six minutes later, Tareq (Shiahb) got booked, in front of the Bulls box, about 50m from where the ball was! Penny was furious at the stupid foul! The half ended and the team talk wasn’t a pleasant one… The second half was like the Armageddon! Missed passes, stupid mistakes ending by a fouls, bad waving of the ball…. and Bromley was on the fire, shooting repeatedly at the goal. Then, 80 minutes in, they finally got a goal on another counter, occurring because of a stupid missed pass, close to their box; Cameron (Lancaster) was alone in the box to score against a helpless Nathan! 0-2! At the 86th minute mark, Bromley missed a free kick and, on a great counter across the pitch, Reece (Miller) crossed the ball from inside the box to Jay (Richards) who gave PEnny a little ray of hope! 1-2! It was when everything went to hell! Penny’s defense, usually so solid, crumbled completely… Three minutes after Jay’s goal, Cameron Lancaster received a perfect cross in the box to score his second goal of the match! 1-3! Yet again, 1 minute later, on a counter, Cameron Lancaster got a nice through ball into the box to get his hat trick! 1-4! The ride home to Hereford was a silent one. Nathan, who had come to her, last week, complaining about not playing a lot, got a serious talking to and the defense in general was shunt by Penny who was fuming! She knew though that all wasn’t the players fault. She had noticed in the last two games that, 4-4-2’s were making the team struggle a bit. So far this season, it had happened 5 times out of 11 games, it was time to analyse the thing in detail and come up with a solution. As she was watching the road, lost in thoughts, Adam’s (El-Abd) comments about her way of looking at expectations suddenly popped in front of her. He had said, in essence, that she was perceiving expectations as potential and that, not responding to those expectations, or not achieving them, was like not reaching potential. She knew that, right now, the Bulls would probably be at the bottom of the play-offs spots or just under it because of the loss (she didn’t check the results of the other games tonight). She knew that, in a way, they were overachieving so far, on the table, but that it would probably change fast because they haven’t met the top five teams of the table yet… The question was: How bad will it be after that? She wanted to shake those thoughts off, they were just so... “Ugh!”. She grabbed Sam’s (Walker) arm, who was sitting across the aisle: “Sam?” He turned his head toward Penny. “Sam? I want us to make an analysis of all the games we got so far this season, but more particularly our games against 4-4-2’s. Could you muster up all the data we have and prepare them so that next Monday, we could do that? - Sure! I was wondering at about the same thing…” Penny then rested her head on the headrest and just stared at the road; she felt herself still angry at today’s result… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 Penny was doing paperwork when she got a phone call; she looked at the caller and sighed: “Yes Joey?” The reporter probably smiled at that. - “Howdy Penny. Apparently, you would be on your way out to go to Luton. Want to comment on that? - Never heard of it and I have a job to do here! - Ok, thanks Penny!” and she hung up. Penny was smiling, it was the 8th club “where she was apparently going to” since the beginning of the season and Luton was 2nd on the League 1 table, their manager jumping of the ship for a bigger team. As she came back to her paperwork, she couldn’t get herself to concentrate. Her eyes were always drawn toward the calendar for the next weeks. The game against Salford would be her last, real opportunity, to get points for a long while. Hereford was now in 5th position on the table, with 24 points. After Salford, it would be Torquay in FA Cup, tough draw for 4th qualification round of the FA Cup first match: they were 4th on the table. Afterward, it was a succession of games against all the top teams: York, 6th, then Torquay again, regular league game, Notts and Co. would then come, they were 2nd on the table. If she was knocked out of the FA Cup, the team would have a 2 weeks lull period just to go at it again. Accrington, 3rd on the table would be followed by, finally, a low ranking team, FC Halifax in 22th just to come back against tough ones: Eastleigh (8th), Macclesfield (9th) and the, so far, invincible Ebbsfleet, at Stoneridge Road (12-1-0)! Maidstone (24th!) having stumped the giant in a 0-0 draw two weeks ago! As Penny was lost in thoughts, Sam (Walker) came in her office: “Penny?” She was startled. - “Huh? Sorry, yes Sam? - I was wondering if you would give me some time. I’d like to talk about Jerome (Opoku) and his drop in performance in the last two games.” Penny knew exactly what it was going to be about. - “I know. I asked Richard, our head scout to be on the watch to see if there would be an adequate CD to come on loan or as a transfer. - Might be an option but I think the problem may only be one of confidence.” Penny was surprised by the statement. - “Really? - I think his concussion, on his first match in Conference might have shaken his confidence a bit. If you look at the way he has played after it, we agree he’s not as solid as last year but, it’s still Conference, the level is pretty different. To that, you put a solid injury right at start, it might have an impact, you know?” Penny’s mind started spinning around the comment and the possible solution… - “Hmm… Could you ask Ellis, the data wiz, to prepare a full statistical report of Jerome for last year and this year? We’ll look at it in depth once we’ll have that in our hands. I’ll also talk to Jerome.” Once Sam was out of her office, she tried to go back to the paperwork, that still needed to be done but her hearth wasn’t into it… She tried until 7pm and decided to go home. As she entered the house, Britanny came screaming at her mum, wanting a hug and talk about her day. Penny complied, she was missing her time playing with her daughter but she was so busy. Mark was as helpful as he could but: “the hero is mummy” he once told her. When all the talking of the daughter had been done, Penny had a chance to eat something before putting her to bed. Penny got treated with a hot tea and a: “Can we go listen to some music?” from Mark. Both, in combination, meant that he wanted to talk. She smiled, internally, if anything, he never was really subtle when it came to these things. Once both were in the living room, he started the music. Penny decided to let him get it off his chest faster by opening the talk: “What is it Mark?” He was looking at his tea, clearly uncomfortable. - “I think you should try to be more present for Britanny.” The comment took her aback a little. - “What do you mean? - Well, I know that Conference is bigger than last year but, honestly, it’s about what, the tenth time since the beginning of the season that you arrive home before she is in bed? I’m not talking of game days and such; I’m talking about the regular training days…” His tone was one he rarely used in all the time she has ever known him. Penny suddenly knew he was really serious. - “Mark, it’s not…” Mark cut her off. - “I don’t care about excuses. What I am talking about is your daughter. The one that clearly, and repeatedly, say how much she misses you. All the time.” He wasn’t looking at his tea anymore. - “Look Mark I’ll try…” He cut her off again. - “Have you noticed she was sick today? Have you?” there was a tone in his voice…. - “She has a runny nose, yes, I saw! What do you think I am?” She felt her temper coming to the surface. - “Look, I’m just saying that she misses you, a lot, ok? Most days, you are out the door at 7am to come back to 9, sometimes 10 at night! Do you know why she loves match days? Huh?” Penny was feeling a bit bad by now. “It’s because she can see you for close to two hours straight! - Come on! - When she talks about match days, she doesn’t say things like “We are going to the match”, she now says “We are going to see mummy”!” This is when Penny knew it wasn’t a regular “we have a bump to iron out” kind of talk. - “Mark what do you want me to say? - To say?” He got up the couch at that point. “I don’t know. But I tell you that she talks non-stop about you. Oh, she tries to make sense of all of this, your job and everything but for me, all I see is seven year old girl that misses her mummy...” Mark abruptly ended the talk by opening the telly and shutting himself up. It was his way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 3, 2018 Author Share Posted June 3, 2018 Britanny came to Mark and Penny’s room, at 5h45 that morning, waking them up for waffles! Penny got up, basically because it was about 45 minutes away from her alarm clock and, she had to admit to herself, a lot because of what she got served by her husband yesterday night. The daughter’s runny nose was as intense as her mouth couldn’t stop talking! While Penny was making the desired breakfast to the daughter, she got served an entire tirade about how it would be fun to be with her uncle today, at the game! Mark and his sister’s husband, bringing Britanny, would come to Torquay for the FA Cup 4th round qualification game. When Mark finally got up, Penny went into the bathroom to start her morning mechanics; she had to leave in less than 30 minutes. The, almost, three hours’ drive toward Torquay was pretty silent. Penny was happy to see that the players knew that, for a qualifying round, it would be a tough adversary and were acting accordingly. Yesterday’s pre-game briefing had been pretty subdued but, she saw that some of the players present last year, in their amazing run, were working to try to pass on their knowledge to the new players. Andy (Jackson) was particularly implicated with Ben (Goodlife), the new CD in the starting trio. When they arrived at Plainmoor, she saw that the weather was as it has been announced; cold with medium rain. So, not only there would be a small crowd, it would also be a miserable weather… While her boys were warming-up on the pitch, she received the Torquay line-up. “They would come with a 4-4-2, trying to bomb on both sides, like we thought.” said Sam (Walker) as he was looking at it. - “They’ll go for a target man in front also, so, structured I’d say…” added Adam (El-Abd). Jack (Collison) was bobbing his head up and down. - “I’d tend to agree. And look at the two midfielders, both are pretty defensive minded too so, they will try to bottle up around their box too I think.” said Penny and all agreed. So, all knew what to expect: a difficult job to get quality shots. When the boys were in the dressing room, after the warm-up, Penny gave the last instructions. She saw them focused but there were some doubts too. She added: “You know guys? Someone said that there is no glory in easy battles! I’ll ask you only one thing: do the best you can, stay focused and be smart!” She then let them be on their own. As she was getting in her temporary office, she was filled with some doubts too. For some reason, she started to be scared… The first half was a defensive fest! Only six shots total have been taken and all of those were under tremendous intense pressure and, except one, all were from outside the box. Penny was scratching her head. The front of the box was, as anticipated, pretty bottled up but the fact that Torquay’s side midfielders were bombing a lot, she wasn’t ready to risk all by telling her FBs to go on attack. The thing was Torquay wasn’t favoring a side over the other and since they had good players when it comes to crossing the ball, she kept her boys on support. It felt like a stalemate. Even when it went down to mistakes and fouls, they were distributed evenly. She would need to take some risks, she knew it, but the question was: where? Her team talk was straight forward: “Stay focused!” She then asked Aaron (Dodd) to take more risky passes and to roam a little from position. She wanted to make her AP in AMC position to be a bit more available, maybe also having some Torquay players make mistakes, being caught off position. Right at the beginning of the second half, her instruction to Aaron gave some result. One of Torquay’s CD was caught off position and, to stop the play, he fouled Aaron midfield, on a transition, as he was changing position to get the ball, instead of staying there. This lead to a first yellow on the 48th minute. Two minutes later, the same CD fouled Reece (Miller) who was getting away just inside the box from a pass made by Aaron. Not only had it given Penny’s team a penalty, but also a second yellow! Torquay was now short of a player! James (Carvell) didn’t miss his chance and gave the lead to the Bulls! 1-0! Penny asked her boys to play possession to the hilt, to make the Gulls run all over the place and tire them. Before five minutes had passed, they were penalised with two other yellows in front of their box. She was liking what she was seeing now, her boys were moving the ball well but, 64 minutes in, on a long ball counter, Andy (Jackson) fouled aTorquay player and got booked! She decided to bring back her boys a bit, asked them to play defensive and, at the same time, to kill the clock. Less than four minutes later, in front of the Bulls box, Andy was booked a second time on a stupid foul! Penny put her very stern face but, inside, she was going ballistic at the stupidity of the foul! She decided to do a big shuffle and park the bus. She asked Scott (Martin) and Aaron to get out. She replaced them with Jake (Goodman) and Jordan (Cranston) Rhodri (Lack) that was playing as left FB for Penny was moved as a third CD, between Jake, that took Andy’s place, and Ben (Goodlife). Jordan took his usual place as left FB. James was asked to go on the left side of Joel (Kaduba) as DM. Since Jay (Richards) and Reece (Miller) could play as defensive forward, she kept them both in front and just played the clock. The Gulls tried hard for the rest of the match but the Bulls resisted. When the referee finally whistled the end of the game, she let out a big sigh of relief! Once all boys were calm in the dressing room, she told them: “That was a toughy, huh?” The players knew it had been tougher, in part, because they had made numerous mistakes in the Gulls’ territory, with a lot of missed passes. Penny then looked straight at Andy and said: “Andy, you got a brain cramp, huh?” He was staring at the floor. “Next time you get sent out, I’ll fine you. Is that clear?” He lifted his head and looked at Penny before answering. - “I’m sorry boss. I understand.” As the bus was bringing them back home, she could only think about the fact that the next 9 league games would make her faced 7 teams being higher than mid-table, including Torquay again, in just ten days. “At least, I’ll get a big smile from the daughter because of the win” she thought… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 As it was now a tradition for Penny, the next Monday, she was doing paperwork with the FA Cup draw for the first round in the background. It took a long time but she finally heard the Bulls name. She would play here, at Edgar Street, the opponent would be Dover, a Conference South team. She quickly called Richard to make sure he put the team on his “To Do” list and then called in Sam (Walker). As she was waiting for Sam, she went on the scouting software they use to look at Dover and their roster. As Sam was walking in her office, she had had a little look at the Whites already. “Sam, we’ll play Dover. - Oh, that is good news. They are mid table I think? - Close, 13th. - At least, we don’t go straight against a League 2 team, huh?” he said with a little smile. - “Yeah. Do you think we should do something special to prepare for the game? - Well, for me, I think what we need to do is to work at keeping the players focused, not to be overconfident. - I agree. I think we should be particularly cautious about morale in the next few weeks, especially with the calendar that we have… - I know you are scare we lose a lot of positions on the table. - Well, aren’t you? - Of course but I think, less than you. We have a good crew, with a good base system…” The discussion ended on those words from Sam. Nothing was left to be said. After lunch, Penny had a meeting with David (Boggins), to make some updates about the improvements actually being under way at the club. Everything was going as planned, which was good news. The training facilities were going to be ready exactly at the planned date and the budget was going to be respected. If the youth level improvement was going well too, David told Penny that it wouldn’t be good enough to be into any competition. According to David, it was paperwork issues. Well, it wasn’t like she could have a hold on this, except to ask to bump the youth level higher. Other than the updates, David told Penny that the board was extremely happy with the way things were going; which wasn’t a surprise, as far as she was concerned. When she came back to her office, she saw she had received updates on the two players she had sent to Chorley, on loan: Josh (Mitchell) and Shelby (Johnson). For Shelby, the promises of his play time were excellent. He had played 12 games so far in League, plus four more in the FA Cup. All seemed to go well over there for him, his morale being ok too. As for Josh, the loan was recent but he was getting time on the pitch too, which was all she wanted. Finally, it was time for the report from the head Physio: Max (Melbourne) should be available next week, even against Torquay next Tuesday he said, but for half a game, max. Matty (Dixon) was still out for, at the very least, two weeks: “Not before the first round game of the FA Cup” he said. As Penny was driving back home, it barely was 7, she was mulling over Jerome (Opuku). He wasn’t cutting it in Conference. She would need to find someone to replace him. The thing was, after a little talk with Richard, the Head scout, that there wasn’t a lot of who was as good a jumper as he was… When she arrived home, she got greeted by a giant smile, a scream and the runny nose coming from Britanny. “I must find a way to be more disciplined” thought Penny as she was watching her daughter going into the fridge to get mummy’s dinner plate, all ready, to be put into the microwave. Penny got a show and tell by the seven years old, between tissues, about all she had done that day. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 5, 2018 Author Share Posted June 5, 2018 Two weeks later, Penny was happy. After a new round of trials, where only CDs were invited, she finally had some prospects in sight. She made an offer for a, potentially, excellent replacement for Jerome (Opoku): Omar Sowunmi. He was a young veteran of now 24, fairly professional who was an excellent jumper, was faster than Jerome, decent positioning and good tackling abilities. His weakness was mainly marking but since she wanted him to be the jumper in the box to intercept the crosses, that aspect could be overlooked, a little. He was asking for a lot of money and Key player status. She was willing for the money, not for the status; first squad was the final status she would accept. The negotiations were tough, real tough. She thought there was a very good chance he would accept the offer in the end. After all, Hereford was in 4th place on the table, was going to the 1st round of the FA Cup and, well, it was Hereford! She was also happy because she, or rather Jay (Richards), had just crushed Torquay at Edgar Street two days ago! In a fantastic display, he offered the fans a beautiful hat trick and had put Hereford in 4th place, breathing down Torquay’s neck on the table, which was nice! The next opponent though, would be the real deal; Notts County at Meadow Lane! If the week before, she was able, with a lot of effort, to arrive home around 7h30 at night, this past week was proving difficult, with two games to play, two sets of training and briefing who had to be prepared, plus the evaluations of the trials, etc. Mark’s mood had improved a bit last week but he was back to a little sulky demeanor. The fact that the daughter was now under antibiotics because of that runny nose and that coughing was still present, probably didn’t help improve his mood. What Penny was trying to do was to not bring work at home, to make sure that the family would be the center of her thoughts when she was there but, it was difficult. She was able, after a cringy talk with Mark, to make Britanny’s bedtime changed to 8h30 instead of 8. That way, it would offer her some room to manoeuver. The bottom line was, Penny was having difficulty to balance everything. When she left home to go to the club that Saturday, to leave for Meadow Lane, Britanny wasn’t in a good mood or even in good shape; she had been told she was too sick to go with daddy to the game. She was sulking real bad when Penny was going out the door… The trip to Meadow Lane was quite short, a little over two hours each way and, she was pensive the whole time. The match would be tough, real tough. After all, they were in 2nd place, pretty much fighting for the top spot against Ebbsfleet, and it was a fight to the death between the two teams! All she was hoping for was to get a draw. All the strategy had been thought around that result. The first half wasn’t going the way she wanted… at all! Barely three minutes in, on a cross she still couldn’t believe was missed by her defense, Notts Co scored! 0-1! Then, exactly half an hour later, on a through ball right in the box, the Maggies doubled their lead! 0-2! At half time, Penny’s team talk wasn’t a pleasant one: “Only one shot?!” That was all her players had to show! It was from the penalty area but still…. She instructed her players to now play possession, to be patient but, to push more nonetheless. Jordan (Cranston) and Owen (Gamble), on both sides, were also instructed to move forward more. She needed to take risks somewhere… Five minutes into the second half, Shaun (Okojie) stole a ball, at the edge of the box and put it in! 1-2! Giving some hope back. She then decided to make a sub, she chose to pull Mitchell (Glover), her AP in AMC position, that was having an ok game but she needed to play differently, and she brought in Cameron (Walker) in, as a third forward. She also asked Shaun, who was a DLF, to play more in support and to feed both Cameron and Jay (Richards). Finally, she told her players to play more direct passing. On the 70th minute, Jay was able to move the ball up on the left side and as he entered the Maggies box, he crossed the ball to Cameron that was on the other side of it. Goal! 2-2! Penny screamed to her boys to follow through, to continue to play the way they were playing! It payed again, big time! Barely two minutes later, Jerome (Opuku), got a free kick, deep into the Bulls territory and made a long pass over the Maggies defenders, to Jay, on the left side of the box. He crossed the ball to the penalty area to Cameron who scored again! 3-2! Penny just told her boys to stay focused and change nothing…. They were relentlessly attacking Notts Co now, who couldn’t believe what was happening. Shaun gave the opportunity to Cameron to get his first hat trick in his career at the 90 minutes mark with a great through ball between the Maggies CDs. Cameron didn’t miss his chance with an absolutely crazy shot on the right side of the goal, hitting the inside of the post! 4-2! The 800 Bulls fans who had made the trip were absolutely nuts! When the referee ended the match after four minutes of injury time, the Maggies were shaking their head in disbelief! As Cameron was getting out of the pitch, she told him: “Young man, you made my day!” as she was giving him the traditional fist bump; he beamed at her! As they were riding back home, everybody had a smile on their face! Penny got a long talk with her staffs about the game. “I think Jay’s adaptation period is over by now” was saying Jack (Collison). - ‘I think so too” added Sam (Walker). Adam (El-Abd) was agreeing in silence. - “What else than? What did we learned from this game?” asked Penny. - “I think there is not much to add Penny” said Adam. “The key here is that we played the second half in a way we never played so far this year. We played direct passing. I think it worked because Notts Co was playing pretty fluid and we were able to get a few balls over the defensive line. It is because of the unusual passing, that we got that result.” Both Jack and Sam acquiesced Adam’s analysis. Penny didn’t like it one bit. The fact that it was because she answered the situation with a way of passing that wasn’t the usual way didn’t give her anything for the next games. She just couldn’t change everything at every game, just to try to throw off the opponents… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 The week leading to the FA Cup 1st round match went pretty smoothly. We were Friday by now and all the players who didn’t play a lot, and that were fit, knew that they would be on the pitch, including Nathan (Wolland), the back-up goalkeeper. Penny had taken some special time with him, personally, for training him but also, to make sure he understood that his presence at the club was to be a back-up to Josh (Barnes); that when he would go on the pitch, he had to play to a certain level, otherwise, other solutions might be found. The roster, planned since the first day, was referred to as the “roster of the subs”. Since Dean (Rance) would be out because of his twisted ankle he got during training last week, Matty (Dixon) would play the game as a recuperating one, planned to be on the pitch just for a half, since he would be coming back from his injury. Jack (Hunter) would take the other half. Reece (Miller) would be another regular on the pitch. It was just because it would be his turn on the roster and, to reward him of the good work he was doing. The last regular would be Omars’s (Sowuni) first game. He needed to get his game shape fast and, to play against a lower tier team, it would the ideal situation. She got a long budget meeting with David (Boggins) and Jeff, from accounting. What she was wanting was to find a way to keep her cake and eat it too on the youth level side of things. Since David had told her that the improvements actually under way wouldn’t have the U18 team into any competition, she had been a bit angry, to put it mildly. So, she asked for a full budgets meeting just to find a way to make it happen. At the end of the afternoon, all she had accomplished was to get more frustrated than when she came in! After reviewing everything, every rule, there just wasn’t any way to do it, and it all came down to money. As she was going to her office after the meeting, her personal cell phone rang: “Hello? - Hi Mrs. Stiles, this is Bridget, Britanny’s teacher.” Penny tensed up instantly. - “Yes Bridget, how are you? - Doing ok, thank you. I tried to reach your husband but I wasn’t able to; I know you are extremely busy with your job, but since I couldn’t reach him… - You don’t have to apologize about anything Bridget. - I wanted to talk with one of you because Britanny, well, she seemed to be out of depth a little lately, having less energy than usual and seeming to fight an urge to sleep a lot, especially on the afternoon.” Penny’s mind was racing. - “We did change her bed time, by half an hour, from 8 to 8h30, so I could have a little more time to see her… “ she said, sheepishly. “She’s been taking medicine for this never ending flu too, maybe it is because of those?” she added, tentatively. - “Well…” the teacher seemed to walk on eggs at the other end, “I wanted to keep you attune to what was happening. - Starting tonight, Bridget, Britanny will go back to her 8pm bed time, which is the first thing we’ll do. Have you noticed anything else? - Other than that, she seemed to be a little moodier than usual but I think it might be related to her sleepiness. - Bridget, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that you took the time to call. In the future, if you may, never hesitate at calling me, ok?” Penny had reverted, from the sheepish voice to the “sergeant” tone without noticing. - “Mrs. Stiles I… - Call me Penny Bridget, ok? - Ok, Penny. If there is anything you think I should know, please, pass it along. - Other than the bed time and the medications she is taking, there is nothing I can think of. Thank you very very much, again, Bridget. My husband and I will act on this, starting tonight, I promise! Would call me next Friday, to tell me if there is any change? - I’ll do. Have a good weed-end Penny. - You too Bridget.” Penny hung-up. She was a bit troubled by the call and went straight to the office of Mark (Findley), her head physio. She knocked and entered the office without letting him the time to say enter. When he saw her though, he smiled: “Howdy Penny. - Hi Mark. Sorry to bother you, I have a medical question…. - If I can answer, I’ll do!” he said, with his usual matter of fact tone. - “I just got a call from my daughter’s teacher. She said that Britanny is less energetic than usual, even getting sleepy in the afternoon. I know she’s been nursing a flu for some time by now, she is taking antibiotics for that. - Which one?” Penny told the names she could remember. She saw him open up his computer and doing a research. All the while, Penny took a chair and sat down in front of him. “Ok, got it!” He was reading his computer screen. “Well, the ones you tell me could induce drowsiness, so, it’s possible the medications are responsible for it.” Penny was a bit more uncomfortable when she asked the next question. - “Do you think that changing her bed time could have an impact?” Mark smiled at her. - “If you tell me your kid, she’s what, seven by now?” Penny bobbed her head up and down. “If you tell me she runs the pubs now, I’d tell you for sure!” he said with a smile. - “Well, because of the time I arrive home, since we got into Conference, I make her go to bed at 8h30 instead of 8, so I could have some time with her…” Penny’s eyes went to the floor, clearly a bit ashamed… Mark couldn’t help it and let out a little laugh. - “Hey, it’s ok. My sister did the same with her kids. For your question, I think it might just be a concomitance of both at the same time. - I told her teacher the daughter would go back to her 8pm bed time. - That’s a good thing, if only because of the flu you talked about.” Penny made sure she would be home early that night; spending time with Britanny, trying to get her to talk about feeling tired. As the daughter was eating her dessert, Penny had a hushed talk with Mark about the phone call. Mark, being who he is, didn’t say anything; he clearly saw Penny ashamed. When bed time came, Britanny got treated to a story by mummy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 The next day, Penny let Britanny sleep. It was, somewhat, unusual for her daughter to not wake her up but, she thought about the medications and all and let it go. Instead, she used the time to make her favorite breakfast: waffles. When the daughter finally got up, it was past 7h30 by now; waiting for her on the dinner table was an order of waffles, homemade chocolate sauce to put on top and orange juice. Penny got treated with a wide smile and a bear hug… between two sniffling’s. Britanny went through her breakfast, yes, but with some little encouragement from mummy. Penny was a bit surprised because usually, her daughter could never have enough of those When Mark finally woke up, way past 9, he got treated with breakfast made by the wife too. While the daughter went outside “to practice!” she told them, Penny sat in front of Mark, refilling his coffee at the same time. “Mark, I just wanted to tell you I am sorry…” Mark looked at his wife who, clearly, didn’t like to admit she may have been on the wrong side of things. - “Honey, I… - No!” she interrupted him. “I know I need to refocus my priorities. You and Britanny should be at the very top, but I got carried by… by… Well, I’ll work harder then.” Guilt was present in every word she had said. - “Penny, I know you have a big job, ok? That there is a lot of pressure on you, to perform. Not because of the expectations of others, like the fans, but because of you. You always put so much pressure on yourself. But, I think” he was being very careful with the words by now, “you just have to realize what you have here, too. I’m not talking about me…” Penny was going to argue but he put a finger in her lips, to stop her from talking. “I know you, I know who and what you are and I know I am always there, somewhere. Britanny, well, for her, it’s different. Everything is so present for her; she can’t fully understand what is at stake.” Penny was looking at her husband and he knew everything. “Don’t feel guilty, ok? Just do like you always do, act on it.” He got up to kiss her forehead. A long time past before there was any more talking at the dinner able. Penny spent a lot of time watching Britanny outside, in the back yard, “practicing”, which was kicking the football in the net and running around like she had won the World Cup by herself! Once Mark had finished with his plate, she took it and got up to go put it in the dishwasher. As she was getting away from the dinner table, Mark stopped her. She felt his gaze from behind. She felt tears creeping… He got up and wrapped his arms around her, kissed the back of her neck, ever so gently, and he murmured: “I love you Mrs. Stiles.” He then took the plate and put it back on the table, made her turn around so he could see her eyes. She was teary by now. He took her head in his hands and kissed her slowly and gave her one of those hugs that always made her feel so special. Once she got her composure back, she went to the bathroom. She still had to prepare herself, the Dover match was today. Before she left, she got a big hug from Britanny that said: “See you later at the game mummy!” - I hope so!” She got a nice smile in return. When she arrived at Edgar Street, Penny was wearing her game face now. She was confident they would pass to the next round but, she had to admit, it still was a little risk to put, pretty much, all the non-regulars. It wasn’t that big a risk though; she had a system that was made with the team and the players in mind. While the boys were on the pitch for the warm-up, she went to her office to change. As she was getting ready, someone knocked on the door. “Just a minute!” she said out loud as she was putting her trousers. Once everything was buttoned up, she went to open the door. It was Sam (Walker). “Sorry, was dressing up!” she said, a little embarrassed. - “No problem!” he said with a smile. “I just wanted to tell you that Matty (Dixon) wanted to know if it was still planned to make him play only the first half? - Of course it is, why? - Well, he told me he feels well, but a little out of shape. - Well, Mark, the head physio, told me he could play more but I don’t want to. As anchor, he’ll move around too much.” The Bulls were in the dressing room before the beginning of the game. All were calm, pretty focused and they were wearing their game face too she saw. “Ok, so… Be smart; take the time you can take to make sure you take the best decision you can. Today, you will do what you did since the beginning of the season so; play as you are used to! Matty?” she looked at him directly.” You will be on the pitch for the first half only.” He bobbed his head up and down. “If you feel tired, I want you to tell me right away, ok?” He made a thump up sign. “I don’t care about you going out because you are tired. Don’t forget to plug the holes on both sides since Owen (Gamble) and Rhodri (Lack) will try and bomb from both sides.” She clapped three times in her hands while saying “Come on Bulls! GO! GO! GO!” The players went to the pitch pumped and, she felt it, ready to give everything they had in them! The game went exactly as planned, the boys played good! Even drawing a penalty that her recent signing, Omar Sowunmi took. Scoring his first goal as a Bull in the process! When she was leaving Edgar Street that day, she was wearing a big smile. Going to the second round of the FA Cup was so easy this year! 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Rien102 Posted June 8, 2018 Author Share Posted June 8, 2018 Traditions are just made out of habits some times. Penny was doing paperwork with the FA Cup draw in the background. As she was about to start looking at the training rotation for next month, Hereford was drew. The Bulls would play at home for the second round and they would play Plymouth Argyle! As she was calling for Sam (Walker), she placed a call to Richard. He didn’t pick up. “Must be busy” she thought. She told him, on his voicemail, about the Pilgrims. Waiting for Sam, she went on the EFL website, they were League 2, to see how Plymouth was doing this year; 10th place. When Sam was entering her office, she had already made a little survey of the team they would meet. “Plymouth, here, at Edgar Street” she told him. - “They are doing ok this season I think.” Sam trying to remember. - “10th place, so mid-table. You know what kind of system they use? - I think it’s a 4-4-2 flat… or maybe a 4-1-4-1? - Could you coordinate with Richard? - Sure.” As Sam was leaving, Penny’s phone rang, it was Richard: “Hello Richard! - Hi Penny, I was driving” he told her. - “No problem. Plymouth Argyle is the next one for the FA Cup. - Oh! They are struggling this year! - Really? - Yeah. They were called for promotion, at the very top of League 2 this year but they are mid table so far! - Can you make me a team report, like, this week? - Sure. I’ll call Ellis too for a statistical analysis too. - Thanks!” She hung up. She came back to team calendar. With the FA Cup match, she saw that the winter crunch would, officially, starts in less than two weeks. Accrington this Saturday would be the last game with a six free training days afterward. Saturday 21st of November would be the crunch opening, two games a week until December 12th, so far. She made a note to start thinking about the rotation of the players for extra rests. She was getting some small injuries lately and she was a bit scared about getting a big one that would put her in trouble when she would need her best players the most. Toward the end of the afternoon, she got a phone call from Bruce, from the Bulls radio: “Hello Penny, how do you? - Pretty good Bruce and yourself? - Doing good, thanks for asking! I was wondering if it could be possible to change our format for the next weekly interview. - Maybe, what do you have in mind? - I was thinking that we could concentrate only on the way the new players you signed this year are doing so far. - Oh! So you want me to only comment on individual performances? - If it could be possible…” Penny felt he was very careful; she didn’t particularly like to talk about the individual performances and he knew it. - “I need to think about that, ok? - No problem, when will you come back to me on this? - Tomorrow morning. - Ok. Thank you Penny!” She hung up. Those weekly interviews were about the team as a whole: what had happened in the week before and what was ahead of them. She had told Bruce, pretty much right at start that she didn’t like to talk, specifically, about the players, individually. She was accepting to make some comments for the reviews, once every ten games but otherwise; she always preferred to concentrate on the group as a whole. In her first managing career, she once was asked by a local paper about a player who wasn’t playing well. She had commented on it. It created a bad feeling between the player and herself. So, she decided not to make comments on individual performance in the media anymore. The comments, she was making them only in private now. During those review interviews though, it was about talking about an aggregate of performances and she was very careful when answering. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 9, 2018 Author Share Posted June 9, 2018 Penny and Sam (Walker) were talking with Mark (Findley), the Head Physio about the injuries and the risk level that was present in the senior squad. Dean (Rance) should be able to play the next match, against FC Halifax but James (Carvell) would still be out for about two weeks, due to his concussion. “It think it should be best to lower the training a little for the next few weeks. Those 7 games in 21 days will be taxing” Mark was saying. - “Penny, with all the special trainings, it is even more taxing” added Sam. - “Well, we will give two days instead of one after each game, this should help. - I think it would be good. I’ll send you a weekly report instead of doing it once a month” said Mark to Penny. - “Perfect.” As Penny was making a note about that, her personal cell phone rang in her purse. She fumbled a bit, trying to find it but just as she was pulling the cell out, it stopped ringing. She looked at the caller and she saw it was from Britanny’s school. “Can we continue a little later? It’s my daughter’s school.” Both Mark and Sam stood-up and left her office; Sam taking the time to close the door behind him. As she was preparing to select the number, she saw a voicemail appear on her phone: “Hello Mrs. Stiles, this is Maggie Wilton. I am the nurse at your daughter’s school. Is it possible for you to call me back, please?” leaving a number. Penny called back right away. It didn’t even ring once that the phone was picked up.” Maggie Wilton!” - Hi, this Penny Stiles, Britanny’s mother. You just left me a message on my voicemail. - Oh, yes. I’m just calling you because Brtianny, while playing on the swings, at recess, she scraped her shoulder. It’s not a big scratch but it bled a little. While I was doing the cleaning, I noticed that the bleeding wouldn’t stop. I wanted to know if your daughter had a blood disorder, like Hemophilia for example, and that it wouldn’t be in her file?” Penny was getting a bit worried. - “No, not that we know of... Other than that constant runny nose lately, but the doctor gave her medications for that, antibiotics. - I know of those. But, for blood disorder, you don’t know? - No. - Well, I think it would be prudent to go see a doctor, so that he could conduct some tests. - Is she alright?” Panic was starting to get a hold. - “Yes, yes. It is only a precaution, ok? - Ok. I’ll take a rendezvous with her doctor right away. Thank you for the call. - You are welcome Mrs. Stiles. Have a good day.” Penny was feeling the panic coming in, faster and faster. She started looking in her contact list for the doctor’s number. After a quick chat with the secretary, she got an appointment in two days, Wednesday November 18th, at 10 am, for Britanny. She then called Britanny’ school, to tell she wouldn’t be there that morning. Penny got up after that, and went to David’s (Boggins) office. She saw the door opened, she popped her head in: “David? - Hi Penny! How you doing today? - Good, good. Just to tell you I’ll take a leave of absence Wednesday morning. Britanny have an appointment with the doctor.” David’s face changed, he knew the kid since when she was two! - “Is she ok? - The school nurse called, she said she got a little scratch but the bleeding takes too long to stop, she think it would be better to take her to a doc so he could make some tests, to check if all is ok. - You’ll keep me informed, right? - Of course! She won’t let me keep ‘D’id’ out of the loop, wouldn’t I?” Penny smiled as she was leaving. When she arrived in her office, she started to do some work but she couldn’t let her mind at ease so, at 4, she closed everything and left for home. On her way out, she crossed path with Adam (El-Abd): “Hey! Adam! - Hey Penny! Leaving so soon? - Yeah, couldn’t make my mind on the work and I decided that it was as good a time as any to arrive home before 6 at least once this season! - I know the feeling. - Could you include Josh (Barnes) and Nathan (Wolland) in the defense crew Wednesday for training? - Sure! Why? - I have to go the doctor in the morning, with my daughter. - Something serious? - We don’t know. - You want me to work something specific with the goalkeepers? - Follow your schedule, just include the keepers. - No problem! See you tomorrow! - See you tomorrow!” As she was driving home, she could only think of Britanny. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 10, 2018 Author Share Posted June 10, 2018 Dr. Bracknell was Britanny’s pediatrician since she was born. When she saw the little girl, she smiled: “Hey little player! How are you doing today?” Penny started explaining to the woman about the scrape and the bleeding, that didn’t stop before a long time. Dr. Bracknell was reading Brtianny’s file at the same time. - “Are the coughing and the runny nose gone?” she asked Penny. - Yes, it stopped around Friday, last week. After her antibiotics ran out. - Is she sleeping well? - Well, I, we tried to get her bedtime pushed by half an hour but, she was getting sleepy and tired in the afternoon so, we brought it back at 8. - Is she eating well?” Penny was surprised at the question. - “Sometimes she leaves some vegetables in her plate but, well, she never was into greens a lot, you know… - Hmm.” She was taking notes. “Well” looking at Britanny and smiling at her, “let’s go to my special bed and see how you’re doing shall we?” She took Britanny’s hand and went to the other room and did the auscultation. Penny stayed in the office part, waiting. After about ten minutes, she heard Dr. Bracknell asking for her to come. Penny stood and went. When she entered, she saw that Britanny didn’t wear her shirt; the little plaster over the scrape was removed too. “I’ll need to take some blood, for testing, would you mind help me?” Dr. Bracknell said. Britanny went to her daughter and took her in her arm while the pediatrician was preparing her syringe. Once she was ready, she made a little gesture with the head. Penny started to talk to her daughter so that she would look at her. When the needle was inserted, the little seven years old, started to cry. Penny was comforting her, the best she could. The doctor had to take two little vials of blood. Once all was over, she Penny held Brtianny close to her, hugging her: “It’s over now my dear, it’s over.” She then took her little shirt and started to put it back on her daughter, while drying her tears. Penny kept her, now sulking, daughter in her arms while sitting back in front of the doctor’s desk. Dr. Bracknell was writing notes and, at some point, lifted her head: “I will send those for testing. I heard some wheezing in her lungs and she seemed to be a little short when she breaths. Might be remnants of that bad cold she got, I don’t know. I also noticed she lost some weight, not much, but there is a lost compared to the last figures I have in my notes. As for the blood that doesn’t coagulate, it may be something like Hemophilia or Anemia but there are a lot of blood disorders that produce the same symptoms. I was wondering if you noticed the little fever she’s having? - Fever?” asked Penny, as she was touching her daughter’s forehead. “You say she have a fever? - A little one, but yes, she has one.” Penny was getting really worried by now and the doctor noticed it. “Look Penny, there is no cause for alarm just yet, ok? What I’ll ask is to put those blood samples tested by tomorrow. Once we get the results, we’ll advise, ok? - Is there… is there anything I have to do? Can she go to school today? - Sure. There is no problem. For tomorrow, is the same time ok for you? - Su..sure.” Dr. Bracknell smiled at Penny and Britanny. She stood up and went to sit in the other chair. “Look Penny, we’ll know more tomorrow, ok?” Penny tried to make a convincing yes with her head. “Britanny?” The little girl looked at her, still sulking and rubbing her arm, where the pediatrician took the blood sample “Do you still like me?” she asked with a smile. Britanny buried her face in her mother’s chest, not saying anything. As she was driving her daughter back to school, she was trying to make her smile, at least a little but the sulking face was still upfront. At one point, Britanny asked: “Why you let Dr. Bracknell hurt me?” Penny’s hearth broke in two. - “I didn’t let Dr. Bracknell hurt you sweetheart! She needed to take some blood, so that she can make you feel better. - But it hurt!” Tears appeared. Penny was having a hard time of her own. Half way to the school, she decided to go home instead. When she was home, she spent the rest of the morning with her, talking and playing. As she started to prepare lunch, she called Mark, explaining what had happened; he promised to be there tomorrow morning. Afterward, she called David (Boggins) and said she wouldn’t be coming to the office for the rest of the day and that she would call back this afternoon, when Britanny would make a nap. When lunch was ready, both women of the house spent time eating and talking, about anything, really. After lunch, Britanny asked if she could go sleep a little. Penny took her in her arms and brought her in her room, put the daughter in her pj and put her to bed. As she arrived in the kitchen, she took her phone and called David again. She explained, in a nutshell how the appointment went and that she wouldn’t be there tomorrow morning either. David was clearly worried, at the other end of the line. He told her not to worry about the job, to take care of the little number one fan. As Penny was hanging up, she felt tears coming. She took a few deep breaths, to get her composure back. Once done, she called Sam (Walker). She explained, cryptically, why she wasn’t there and why she wouldn’t be there tomorrow morning either. Sam knew that Penny was a pretty discreet person, so he didn’t pry, took her instructions about training and hung up. That night, once Brtianny was fast asleep, Mark asked Penny to come and sit at his side, he’d made a cup of tea. Penny did so. She was silent, taking tiny little sips when Mark passed an arm around her shoulders. She was looking into nothingness… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 11, 2018 Author Share Posted June 11, 2018 The next day, at about 7h30, the phone rang. Mark, who was closest, took the phone. Penny, who was with Britanny at the dinner table, saw him take a pencil and scribbling notes. When repeating the notes he took, he stammered. She knew something was wrong; she never heard him stammer before… ever! Once he hung up, he turned to Penny, the notepad in his hand. He was pale. He came to the dinner table, sat down and gave the notepad to Penny. She read the page: “Dr. Crawford, Hereford County Hospital, more tests, today, not Dr. Bracknell”. She became ghost white. When Britanny went to the bathroom, before leaving home, Mark told Penny that it was Dr. Bracknell herself that had called, that with the results, she had asked a specialist to see Britanny right away. He was a cancer specialist. Something broke inside Penny at the words... Mark saw her flinch and went to comfort her but Penny, stiff as a bar, said a stern: “No!... Don’t! Touch! Me!” he knew better and didn’t push, said he was going to prepare Britanny for the ride but Penny said she’d take care of it while getting up. When Britanny was in her car seat, Penny sat beside her, in the back. Britanny asked why and mummy said she just wanted to be with her, that’s all! As they rode toward the hospital, Penny played the signs game with Britanny which consisted of reading all the signs, out loud. In the parking, Mark took a look behind him and saw that Penny was behaving like a lioness protecting her cub kind of manner so, he took some distance. She took her daughter in her arm and walked toward the main entrance. Once at the reception desk, Mark asked for directions. She followed him. In the waiting room, she sat down with Britanny on her lap and never left her eyes wander away from her. Britanny’s name was called after about ten minutes. Inside the doctor’s office, she saw that everything was painted in bright colors, with flowers and animals and a big yellow sun. He came in, from another door. He smiled at them and especially at Britanny: “You must be the big girl I need to see today, huh? Your name is Britanny, right?” The kid, unsure, grabbed her mum’s sleeve and didn’t answer. “It’s ok. Is that a Bulls jersey you are wearing today?” She, as usual when she was with her mum, was wearing her official Bulls shirt with the “Stiles” written in the back. She bobbed her head a little, up and down. “I am a big Bulls fan, do you know that?” He made a “I know who you are” type of blink to Penny. “I have a bull plushie in the other room; do you want to go play a little with the nurse while she makes you change into another shirt? That way, you won’t make it dirty…” Britanny looked at her mother. Penny made a smile. At that moment, a young woman, in her twenties, entered the room. She smiled at Britanny. The doctor told her: “I think she don’t believe that we have a bull in the other room...” The nurse feigned shock. - “We do have a bull! Do you want to come see it?” she told the little girl. Britanny started to wiggle a little on her mum’s lap. Penny let her go and she went out with, clearly, seemed to be the nurse the doctor talked about. As soon as the door was closed, the doctor started to speak. “Hi to both of you, you are Penny, right? - Yes.” She said. - I’m Mark, the dad.” said Mark, extending a hand. The doctor answered in kind. - “Dr. Bracknell sent me Britanny’s results and we talked together. Let me just confirmed some things, alright?” Both Penny and Mark said yes. Dr. Crawford was going through Britanny’s file, confirming what was in it, asking some more questions for about two minutes. Once all was done, he put the file a little on the side and looked at both of them. “We saw some things in the results that make us think that Britanny might, I say again, might, be in early stage of Leukemia.” Penny became white, her hearth started to race and, by reflex, grabbed Mark’s hand. He wasn’t doing well either. “What we want to do, today, is some further tests, to get confirmations of some things and to rule out others. What is a bit problematic right now is that Britanny is showing symptoms of two different types of Leukemia, not uncommon at the very early stage they can be difficult to differentiate. What we want to assess is, exactly, what type she have, so we could work properly in trying to make her a healthy little girl again.” Penny’s respiration was shallow. The doctor pulled a chart from his desk. Showing things on it, he continued to explain: “The good news are numerous though. Yes it seems like Leukemia but, first, for what I saw in the results, it is in early stage. Two, she is seven, in an age group where the surviving rate is good. Three, depending on her type and sub-type of Leukemia, she have good chances of being cured. So, for now, all that could be good for us, in curing her sickness, are on our side. - You say she could survive… cancer?” asked Mark. “Because Leukemia is cancer, right? - Yes, it is a type of cancer but, today, we have good chances of curing i. There will be some work down the line and there is a period we call remission, which last about five years after all the treatments have been administered, but Britanny could live.” Penny’s face was a stone slab; no emotions at all were showing. - “What are the trea… treatments?” asked Mark. - “Before talking about that in details, let’s first, find out exactly, the kind Britanny have, ok? - Where is my daughter?” Penny asked. - With the nurse, she is just playing with her for the moment. She would have put a paper shirt and… - I want to see her now. - Mrs. Stiles, you will, very soon. It’s just that we don’t talk about diagnostics and prognosis in front of or little patients.” Mark was putting his hand gently over Penny’s but she aggressively withdrew her hand. - “I want to be with her, for all the tests.” Her voice was similar to her manager voice, stern, determined and without room for discussion. The entire family left the hospital after the tests were done. Britanny wasn’t in a smiling mood, just like her mother. They had another appointment Friday morning, at 9am; two days away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 12, 2018 Author Share Posted June 12, 2018 Penny had spent the rest of day playing with Britanny, doing finger painting, mainly. She prepared dinner with her, hot dogs like she liked them, and read her a story to put her to bed that night. The little girl was just happy to be with her mum, seemed to have forgotten about the other blood tests. Mark could barely be close to her since Penny was like a hawk perched on the daughter’s shoulder. Once Britanny was asleep, she went in the kitchen, put the kettle on to make herself some tea. When Mark tried to go close to her, she pushed him away. He didn’t force the issue. At work, the next day, Penny started by going to see David (Boggins), the President of the Board: “David?” she asked, entering his office. - Hey! How is she?” Penny’s eyes went to the floor for a split second. When she looked at David, he couldn’t see any emotion, like they were lifeless. - “We will get the results tomorrow morning; we have another appointment with the doctor.” David stood up and started to walk toward her. - “Oh, Penny… Take the time you need.” He was coming closer to her but she took two steps back, signaling him not to come any closer. He stopped walking. “Is there anything I can… - It’s ok. I’ll deal with it.” And she just turned heels and left. David gapped at the reaction but didn’t do anything else. Penny went straight to her office and opened her computer, while it was booting, she just fixed a corner of the wall, eyes vacant. Once the machine was up and running, she started to go through her emails. There was the usual stuff like scout reports and media reviews from Mary, there was also health reports from the injured players. She went through all of them, robotically. When it was finished, she checked her agenda. Next item on the list was the staffs meeting for the game against FC Halifax on Saturday. They would play at home and they were 22nd on the table; they would park the bus. As she was sitting at the meeting, Sam (Walker), Jack (Collison) and Adam (El-Abd) were talking about the coming game, the strategy that should be advisable but for Penny, it was more like background noise and it showed. They all asked news about Britanny when they saw Penny being absent minded, they were concerned, truly. Penny told them about the tests, that she would know the next morning but didn’t talk about what Dr. Crawford had said. All the staffs noticed that, if she was physically there, her mind wasn’t but, since she didn’t seem to be open to any type of comment about that, they all said nothing. The meeting lasted until lunch. Adam just said: “Penny, why don’t you take the afternoon off, huh?” She just looked at him, her eyes empty of… anything. - “We can do this you know?” added Sam, calmly and softly. - “We are well trained, by you now” said Jack, trying to make her smile a little. It didn’t work. After long seconds of deep, uncomfortable silence, she finally said something. - “Yeah…” and she got up and left the room. After going to her office to pick up her purse and coat, she went outside to her car. Inside of it, she called David but he wasn’t there. She left a message on his voicemail: “I’m taking the rest of the day” and hung up. She started the car and went. On St Martin’s Street, close to the bridge, there was a little Chinese restaurant with a take out. She decided to go there, picked up some food and then walked on the bridge over the Wye River. She spent the afternoon standing up on the bridge stone wall and looked at the water. The wind was cold and the humidity made her chill often but since it wasn’t raining, she stayed there, looking at the water, and time, go bye. When she left, she went straight at her daughter’s school, to pick her up. Britanny was surprised to see her mum but was clearly happy. Once home, Penny asked Britanny what dessert she would like tonight: “Chocolate cake!” So, together, they made a big chocolate cake. After that, it was time to prepare dinner, together. The daughter wanting to do something special for daddy, she made a nice drawing of her, mum and dad playing football under a big, giant, yellow sun. When Mark arrived home, he saw, not even surprised, that Penny was there with the daughter; she wasn’t there when he went to pick her up. What was surprising to him was to have the evening meal all ready, with a homemade dessert, on a week day! He tried, multiple times, to get Penny’s attention but she wasn’t giving him any, she was all about Britanny. Once the little one was in her bed, asleep, Mark came toward Penny, trying to pry her open, just a little. He was served an icy stare. He didn’t push. He knew his wife; to try more than that would make herself shut even more tightly. Penny spent the entire evening looking at the backyard, the goal and the football close to it, in silence. Mark decided to call both their families, to keep them up to date about the situation. At ten that night, Penny went to the bathroom, to change in her night clothes and, instead of going to her bed, went to Britanny’s bedroom. When Mark went to see her about half an hour later, he saw her curled against her daughter, sleeping. He slowly and delicately closed the door. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 13, 2018 Author Share Posted June 13, 2018 Britanny was at school; she didn’t know her parents had to go to the hospital. Dr. Crawford was talking to Mark and Penny. “Your daughter has Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, ALL, for short. There is much good news about her specific condition though. First, she is pretty young, this helps a lot!, trust me. Second, her white blood cell count is not that high, this means that we have her, indeed, early in the cancer, this helps a lot too! Third, she is at, what we call, early pre-B-cell, it’s a part of the subtype of Leukemia she have, this is good too. Overall, your little girl is considered to be of normal risk, this is the best we could hope for.” Mark was squishing tears, trying to hold Penny’s hand but she didn’t let him. She kept pushing her husband’s hand. She was showing no emotions at all, listening to the doctor who started to explain what would happen next: “For a starter, we will bring Britanny in Tuesday morning for what we call Induction Therapy. She will be here, with us, for four to five weeks. During her time here, we will give her treatments, mainly chemotherapy but also some targeted therapy medications too. There will be side effects, of course; extreme fatigue, nausea, mood swings, as you can guess. The most visible one will be hair loss. - I can be with her all the time right?” Penny interrupted the doctor with a stern voice. - “Sure. For the parents, there is no real visiting hours… - I want to be with her. All the time. - There is no problem Penny.” Mark tried to take her hand, again, trying to comfort Penny, but she pushed it back, again. - “Don’t! Mark… - Look, honey. The…” tried to say Mark, through his own tears, but he got interrupted. - “Don’t! - Honey I…” She got up in a swift move, taking a step back to lean on the wall. - “Don’t! Can’t you see it’s my fault! MY… FAULT!” Tears started to gush out now. Penny’s body was shaking all over and her voice tone and pitch was going higher at each letter. “It is because of ME! OF… ME! I… I…” but she couldn’t continue… She chocked on her own words, on what she saw as her own failing. Mark got up and went to her, took her in her arms. “It’s… it’s… I got too… I abandoned her for…for…! Don’t you see!!!” She started crying, uncontrollably in his arms… Mark did nothing but stroke her hair, sobbing himself. - “Penny?” Dr. Crawford talked again after letting the husband and wife bear the brunt of news. “Penny, it’s no one’s fault, I assure you. It’s cancer we are talking about here. Remember what I told you, Britanny have good chances of going through this…” He slowly got up and went to the parents with a box of tissues. He let them take back some composure, looked at her, and followed through. “Penny, listen to me, please, look at me…please” She did what she was told. He gave her a gentle smile and continued. “You remember, last year, when you came here with your team? - Y… yes…” she was able to say through tears and sobs. - “Well, most of the kids you’ve met with your players, they had lesser chances to go through their sickness than Britanny has right now! Don’t misinterpret me though; she is a really, really, sick little girl, ok? But just about everything we could have on our side, to help her fight this, well, we have them! She has them. We have a good team here, at Wye, and I promise you, everything that could be done, to make your daughter healthy again, will be done, ok?” Dr. Crawford gave them both, time to recuperate a bit and to ask all the questions they wanted. He offered them counselling, if they wanted it, and gave them a booklet about the cancer Britanny had and the treatments she would receive. Afterward, he left and a woman came in the office, to make all the arrangements for Britanny’s stay at the hospital. She was a nice, auburn haired woman in her fifties, called Carol. She was empathic and patient. After all that needed to be done was completed at the hospital, they left for home. Penny was teary, with a little sob here and there but she was mainly silent. Once home, she went straight to Britanny’s bedroom to lie on her bed. Curled up, in a foetal position, she started crying, again, in a very forceful manner. Mark went to her and stayed with her for long time… In the afternoon, after all her tears were finally dried up, both Mark and she started to make the necessary phone calls. She started by David (Boggins), telling him she would need a leave of absence. He didn’t ask anything and said he would pass the message along to her staffs. Mark called at work, to tell them he’d need some time too then, the school. Afterward, came the family round of calls. Penny couldn’t… she was choking, every time… Mark did it. About twenty minutes after she had called her boss, the doorbell rang. Since Mark was on the phone, she went to open up, she found David standing there, looking teary: “I… I… I’m …” she said to him as she started crying again… David could do nothing but take her in his arms… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 14, 2018 Author Share Posted June 14, 2018 Notice – the way this part of the story was played, in game, was by holidaying between games, doing nothing but to go the next match after making sure the player rotation was done. The matches themselves were done on holiday and with the default 4-4-2 diamond structured tactic was used, each times. No game plans were set beforehand. Only instruction was that the ass. man. was to play the formation. When Britanny entered her room at the hospital, she was splashed by a full array of Bulls items and gifts coming from the team and the players. The bed was full of stuffed animals: Paddington bears, lions, giraffes and a giant bull, wearing the Hereford FC shirt that was about a full meter in length and 70cm high! Britanny screamed when she saw the bull and ran to the bed to take it! On a little table by the bed, there was a pile of envelopes and, behind it, a single white lily. Penny and Mark had spent the week-end talking to her, telling her she would need to come here because she was sick. Penny didn’t go to the game against FC Halifax; she stayed home. The entire family was there too; both sets of grand-parents and all the uncles and aunts and cousins too. Penny’s mum stayed at her house, sleeping in Britanny’s room, while her dad needed to go back to London for work, promising he’d come back every week-end and call every day. Marks parents didn’t live very far away so, they vowed to be there daily. Bridget, Britanny’s teacher, had given her a little book yesterday, telling her that she would see her soon. The first day was dedicated to get everything in motion; lots of tests were made. The daughter wasn’t happy and was showing it. Penny was always there, by her side. Dr. Crawford came with some kind of board, full of colored dots and sketches, and he explained to Britanny what she had, how sick she was and what they all would do, with her, to make her feel better. He never once talked about the possibility of dying. A nurse, called Jamie, barely thirty Penny thought, took some extra care of the daughter, sticking the catheter, linked to the cannula, in her little arm. She explained her that, this way, they wouldn’t need to put needles in her all the time now; they would just use the cannula. Britanny started to whine when the needle was inserted, catheter all Jamie’s efforts. They started some treatments before the end of the day; some pills and shots. Britanny’s mood was a roller coaster all day. She didn’t feel well and the unfamiliar surroundings and peoples made her insecure. All the hospital personnel were caring and nice to her. Penny never let her daughter out of her sight. Mark was there too but , he clearly saw that, to be closer to his daughter, he’d have to fight with her wife, physically, so, he stayed close but just not as closed as Penny was. When it was time for lunch, Penny made Britanny eat herself. The daughter wasn’t hungry but listened to her mum, kind of. Afterward, she read her a story, having her sitting on her lap, on the reclining chair. When her little eyes started to close themselves, Penny gently put her in her bed so that she could take a well-deserved nap. She got out of the room and bumped into Mark. He gently smiled at her and said: “Could we go and talk somewhere?” Her entire body was saying no but, she felt trapped. - “Sure, ok. I want a coffee though,” They walked together, toward the cafeteria. Penny stayed silent. When at the counter, she asked for a coffee. Once she had it, they went to sit, a little out of the way. - “I just talked with your mum; she wants to know how you are doing. - Hmpf. - Penny, look, you need to talk a little. I know you are convinced all of this is your fault but…” She gave a deathly stare to him. - “You better not tell me what I am supposed to do or think, Mark!” A heavy silence took took hold between them; it lasted for a while. - “Alright then. Tell me what I should do then? - I’m not your mother, Mark.” The comment was ice cold. - “I am as affected as you by all this. I just want to help too!” His voice had gone up a little. - “You’re not the one…” she stopped talking. - “Penny, the doctor told you, it’s not your fault. It’s nobody’s fault!” She got that deathly stare again. “Dr. Bracknell and Dr. Crawford told you, told us, that it is because we were vigilant that the diagnosis was done so early! Dr. Bracknell even said that Dr. Crawford is a good doctor to fight Leukemia.” Penny put, rather forcefully her paper cup on the table, which spilled a lot of coffee in the process. She pointed her index at Mark, her voice was menacing. - “Stop talking to me about that.” If her eyes could kill, Mark would have be dead a hundred times by now. “You say you want to help too? Than leave that psychobabble bullcrap out!” She took her crutch, stood-up and started to walk toward Britanny’s room, leaving Mark at the table, as speechless as he felt helpless… Shen she arrived, she went straight to the reclining chair, moved it close to her daughter’s bed and sat down. She started to caress her sleeping little girl, humming a lullaby. Sometime later, Britanny woke up, throwing-up all her lunch. Penny scrambled to clean her up and console the now crying little girl. She took her in her arms and started to rock, gently, back and forth. The nurse came in, saw the mess and just smiled, gently. She came toward the child. She looked at Penny and said, so delicately: “It’s ok m’am. She has an upset tummy because of the meds. - Will that happen often? - At the beginning, yes, we just need to adjust the dosage a little. Don’t worry. She’ll do it a lot with chemo though…” She smiled again, tenderly, to the mum/daughter pair in the chair. An attendant came in a few minutes later, bringing new bed sheets. As he was getting out, after changing the sheets, he said good bye with a warm smile. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 Sunday, December 7th, about two weeks into her treatments, Britanny had lost some weight and just about all her hair. Chemotherapy wasn’t pleasant, at all. Frequently, the little girl was throwing up and she often was in pain. Dr. Crawford was proving to be reassuring and, he clearly had a gift with kids because, despite all the meds and the pain and the fighting, he always was able to have Britanny smile at him, at least a little. There were some good signs he had told the parents. The girl’s body was reacting well, so far, to the treatments. She wasn’t out of the woods, yet, but all was going according to plans. The personnel had been more than kind. They had accepted that Penny slept in the reclining chair, so that she could stay. She was never than 2 meters away from her daughter. She was becoming a mess though. Washing with a cloth, Mark was bringing her new clothes every day. She was showing signs of fatigue; her mood was prompt to change easily with anybody but Britanny. Mark still came in daily, was there as much as he could. He took care of everything outside the hospital and “gave the pitch” to his wife, mainly, because he knew there was no way to fight this. Both Mark and Penny’s family all came, daily, to see Britanny. Mark, clearly, had warned them about Penny and the way she felt because nobody talked about it. They all knew that if they wanted to be killed on the spot? That was the subject to bring on the floor. Penny’s dad tried to talk a little about it last Sunday, he backed up pretty fast. He saw a woman he had never seen before; ready to jump on him, all claws and fangs out, ready to fight and kill! The local news had spread the info, early into the process, that Penny’s child was in for treatments for Leukemia. A ton of cards, messages and gifts had been sent to Britanny but also, to Penny and Mark. Penny took time to show everything to the daughter and read her all the cards and wishes but didn’t bother to even look at the ones sent to her, personally. Mark did his best, to convey thanks to everyone who had taken the time. The giant bull plushy and the rest of the stuffed animals were now accompanied by drawings made by Britanny’s school friends, get well cards coming from all the clubs Penny had ever played with or against. David (Boggins) had come four times by now, always saying to Penny that football was an off limit subject, that all that mattered for now was her daughter. He had brought gifts for the girl, but also cards and words form all her staffs and players and everybody at the club. Right after lunch, Penny was cleaning Britanny’s face when Mark came in, a smile on his face. “Britanny, I have some peoples who would like to say hello to you.” Britanny, who was in a good mood today, smiled at her dad. Mark made a head sign to Penny, to which she responded with an interrogating stare. At the door, appeared Dean (Rance), Andy (Jackson) and Shaun (Okojie), all wearing their Bulls jerseys and wool hats. Penny felt the tears come up. Dean gave a giant smile at Britanny and said: “We heard our number one fan is here!” Britanny recognized them, despite the caps and made a big smile. The three went straight to the bed and smiled at the little girl. - “We thought we should be a little like you!” said Shaun. On cue, they got their hat off and showed their bald, shaved, heads! - “Where is your hair?” said Britanny, laughing! - “My hair?” Andy started touching his head, mocking panic. “Oh no! They disappeared!” Britanny got a fit of laughter. - “Since you don’t come see me at the games now, I had to come and see you!” said Shaun, bending at the waist to give a hug to an overjoyed little girl by now. - “I am sick!” she told him. - “I thought you didn’t like me anymore!” he answered back. - “You are too good to not like you! - “And me? Do you like me?” asked Andy. The kid looked at him, clearly looking for her words. - “Yes but you don’t score goals like Shaun!” All laughed in the room. - “Do you like the bull?” asked Dean, seeing that the bull was in plain sight. - “Yes! It is the best!” As Shaun and Andy sat on the sides of the bed, Dean went to see Penny. ‘How you holding up boss? - How things are going at the club? Did you …” she tried to ask, to evade the question but Dean interrupted her. - “Boss, there is no football here. Today it’s your daughter, you and your husband.” She saw a stare she knew well; the determined man she had made captain was wearing it for her to see. “By the way boss, if I may be bold, you really look like hell. You know that?” She was taken aback by the comment. - “It’s my daughter!” she just said, sternly. - “Boss, if you run yourself to the ground, your daughter won’t have you anymore...” He just turned heels and went to bed, to talk with Britanny. The three players spent about thirthy minutes with the sick little girl. Making her laugh, telling jokes and faces, asking questions about her sickness. Just before they had to leave, Shaun said: “Oh, I almost forgot!” He went at the door, where his bag was and took something out of it. Andy took Britanny in his arms, delicately, and made her sit on her mother’s lap. Shaun went to the pair and gave, what clearly was a wrapped picture in a frame, to Britanny. “The team wants you to have this! We are all thinking about the number one Bulls fan, you know that?” The little girl started to tear up the wrapping of the picture. Mark went on the side of the chair, to see what it was. It was a photograph, taken yesterday before the FA Cup match, of everybody, players, staffs, physio, scouts, office staffs and grounds caretaker alike, men and women, all on the pitch with a banner saying “You are not alone!”…. With shaved heads! Britanny found the picture funny and got a fit of high pitched laughter! Penny’s eyes filled with tears … A little envelope accompanied the picture. In it, a press clipping that Dean said it could wait for later tonight. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 «The Bulls clearly missing their manager; tried their best to make her proud against Plymouth in an emotional FA Cup game! Yesterday, December 5th, at Edgar Street, the 4,234 Hereford Bulls fans that came to the match were subdued despite the fact it was a game in the second round of the FA Cup. The manager, Penny Stiles, caring for her daughter that is receiving treatments against Leukemia at the moment, was still absent. Clearly missing her touch, the club barely managed to stay in the play- offs race, in Conference, with a 1-2-1 record so far. The late draw for Ebbsfleet at Stonebridge Road being a tough one for all. Before the match, in a press scrum, Sam Walker, assistant manager of the Bulls stated that the team and he could only try to emulate the touch she brings to the club. “She has a way to motivate the players that we all miss at the moment. Not to mention her particular ability to come up with a solid tactical game plan.” Plymouth Argyle’s manager, Gary Caldwell, told the press, prior to the match, that he was saddened by the fact she wouldn’t be there. “Life is difficult but you have to set your priorities. It’s normal that her daughter matters more than us. I hope all is going well for the family.” Before the game started, the players and staff of both teams went to the middle of the pitch. Invited by the announcer, a minute of silence was held by all in the stadium, hoping it would bring some comfort to Penny Stiles, her family and, most of all, to her daughter that is fighting for her life. In honor of the sick little girl, all the Hereford staffs and players alike came on the pitch with a freshly shaved head. Some Hereford players were clearly teary in the middle of the pitch. At the end of the allotted time, some of them started to chant the daughter’s name, which all in the stadium chanted for two full minutes. Emotions were high. The game was a tough one between the Conference team and the one from League 2. Both teams needing to fight for each pass, for each opportunity to score a goal. At the end of the first half, Reece Miller opened up the score. The goal was the conclusion of a great counter attack that started deep in Hereford’s territory. Jay Richards, from the left side making a perfect low cross to the penalty area that Miller just had to tap it in! Three minutes into the second half, from a corner, Miller scored his second goal, intercepting a header made by Joel Ekstrand, a Plymouth defender. The powerful shot was sent straight into the top left corner of the goal. On a throw in, at the 60th minute, Danny Rowe was able to give some hope to the Pilgrims by scoring with a power shot from the front of the box. Josh Barnes couldn’t do anything to stop it. The rest of the match was a great demonstration of Penny Stiles philosophy at defending; the players performing a flawless low block and keeping the score at 2-1. At the end of the match, the Bulls gathered with the staffs, a lot of them crying in each other’s arms. The win was welcomed for sure, but the emotions around their manager were clearly present. In an interview at the end of the game, Reece Miller, the Bulls forward that gave them victory couldn’t hold back his tears when he said those goals were for his manager. “You are not alone boss!” Tareq Shihab, right back for Hereford, was barely holding his sob in, saying he just wanted to make her proud. “We just play the way she showed how to. She is the best manager out there. You are not alone Britanny,! We are all with you!” he was able to say before bursting into tears.» Hereford Plymouth 9 shots 12 5 shots on goal 3 51% possession 49% 6 corners 3 7 fouls 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 17, 2018 Author Share Posted June 17, 2018 It was Mark’s idea, he wanted Penny to get out a bit; she wasn’t looking her best. The lack of sleep, the stress, the fight she was sharing with the daughter… She didn’t want to but Mark almost made her a scene. It was the first time he had the courage, and the patience, to fight her. The coming of her players had given a new sense of hope to him; he wanted to pass it to her. He had called David (Boggins), which he knew too, to arrange all of it. After some talks with Dr. Crawford and his team, they accepted to let Britanny go to Edgar Street for one hour. He asked for specific rules that, naturally, Penny and Mark complied with. When she arrived at the stadium, she took a well-covered daughter in her arms. Snow was covering the ground and Penny was scared she could slip. Mark was there too, watching them both. At the main door at Edgar Street, David was waiting, with Sam (Walker). Both were wearing surgical masks, just like the family were. They both smiled at Penny, Mark and Britanny. “Welcome Miss. Stiles! Welcome to our number one fan!” said Sam, offering her a bright yellow flower to the little girl. - “Thank you!” said Britanny. She loved the flower that was as yellow as the suns she likes to draw. David made a little sign to Penny, telling her that all was ok, just like it has been discussed. Penny put her daughter on the ground. The giant Bulls official logo on the wall struck Britanny who said: “The Bulls!” and turning toward her mum, she added: “The Bulls are no Ferdinand! - You said it!” answered Penny, her smile visible under the mask. - “You might want to go to the dressing room through your office…” said David to Penny. He made a little smile under his mask. The group turned in the corridor leading to Penny’s office. All lined-up, in little tiny vases, many types of bright yellow flowers! Britanny let out a squeal: “Suns!” She started running toward the first one and said: “Look mummy! It’s like it’s full of suns in your place!” Mark brought Penny close to him, holding her, touched by the gesture. For the first time since the diagnosis, she let him touch her. When they arrived in her office, Penny took the clothes off Britanny, adjusting her mask. She was hearing noises. When she was certain the mask was well held in place, she took her daughter’s hand and entered the dressing room together. Everybody in the club, players, staffs of all kind, they were all there (wearing masks)! Their shaved head reflecting brightly the neon light! Britanny screamed when she saw all those people there! She bolted straight for Shaun (Okojie) to hug him! Penny felt the tears come but worked real hard to repress the best she could. She could recognize everyone. Even Josh (Mitchell) and Shelby (Jonhson), both on loan at Chorley, came for the meet, their head shaved as well! “Must have been Shaun who called Josh” she thought. The girl was surrounded by everybody, surrounded by pure love… and she radiated joy in the middle of it all! David, who stayed a bit behind, came to Penny and Mark: “You are both missed here at Edgar Street.” The couple looked at him, eyes wet. “But what we miss of you is not all about football. It’s your way to connect with peoples. You know, I still remember, vividly, a little girl waving a sign that said “That’s my mum!” and a dad wearing a shirt that said “that’s my daughter!”. A lot of peoples here, at the club, remembers that you know?” He gave them a big smile, he had tears too. Penny was watching all those peoples around Britanny. She got a bit of a shock when she noticed Mary with her head shaved. Not because she had shaved her head but because of the result! She, who had long wavy brown hair, was now as bald as billiard ball! Britanny clearly remembered the woman with her long hair, now gone, because she was rubbing her bald head at the same time as hers, telling her they were the same. Tareq (Shihab) and Owen (Gamble) came to Penny and Mark. Penny couldn’t help it and said to Tareq: “It suits you well, the shaved head look. - I like it too boss! Easy in the morning at that!” He let out a little laugh, to which the small group reacted to with a laugh of their own. The hour went by like a flash. Britanny had soaked into laughter, smiles and love. She was leaving with the promise to come to the game as soon as she could. Penny couldn’t help but to take a look at the calendar, and the results, which was on the dressing room wall, but Sam and Adam (El-Abd), another one that was looking good without hair, intercepted her to talk about Britanny. Adam then made a comment: “I didn’t realize it in the stands, but she’s looking a lot like you Penny! - More than you know!” answered Mark letting out a little laugh. - “She has that determined look… intense, when she talks about her sickness.” added Mark. - “Yeah, that’s the thing, the look, the stare!” laughed Adam! Turning to Mark, he then added “Must be tough to win in that place huh? - My lawyer always told me to shut up on those subjects!” said Mark. All of them laughed. - “You know what Penny? If anybody can survive that thing? It’s your daughter! She’s a lot like you.” Adam put a hand, delicately, on Penny’s shoulder. “She is a fighter, just like you are… “ Penny wasn’t able to hold the tears anymore. - “If only…” she wasn’t able to continue. Adam and Sam took the couple in their arms and took them in a warm and tight group hug. When the family left, they had been hugged by everybody at the club. Britanny, all pumped, was making wide smiles under her mask. Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag GD Pts 1st Ebbsfleet 23 17 5 1 48 18 30 56 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Notts Co 23 18 2 3 54 34 20 56 3rd Accrington 23 14 5 4 70 44 26 47 4th Hereford 23 12 6 5 44 30 14 42 WDLDD 5th Bromley 23 11 5 7 38 34 4 38 6th Sutton 23 11 3 9 37 33 4 36 7th Southport 23 11 2 10 51 46 5 35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th Wrexham 23 10 4 9 36 27 9 34 9th Tranmere 23 10 4 9 39 32 7 34 10th Torquay 23 9 7 7 35 31 4 34 11th Newport Co 23 9 7 7 40 40 0 34 12th Macclesfield 23 9 6 8 33 36 3 33 13th Eastleigh 23 8 8 7 39 34 5 32 14th York 23 9 4 10 38 36 2 31 15th Boreham Wood 23 8 5 10 40 47 7 29 16th Aldershot 23 8 4 11 31 31 0 28 17th Gateshead 23 7 6 10 24 31 7 27 18th Grimsby 23 8 3 12 28 41 13 27 19th Salford 23 6 8 9 36 42 6 26 20th Darlington 23 6 6 11 37 48 11 24 21st Welling 23 6 3 14 34 42 8 21 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd FC Halifax 23 4 6 13 36 54 18 18 23rd Maidstone 23 3 6 14 29 55 26 15 24th Morecambe 23 1 7 15 25 56 31 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 Three days later, Britanny encountered her first big bump on the road to recovery. Coming back from a tough chemotherapy session, she was throwing up, repeatedly and she clearly was in bad shape. Penny was trying to stay strong at her side. Taking her on her lap, telling her she was there but the little seven years old fainted; Penny quickly pushed the call-up button. Nurses and doctors entered the room. They were in a mode Penny hasn’t seen yet. She started to panic. An attendant was keeping her out of the way. Some frantic minutes after, Dr. Crawford came to see Penny. “It’s ok now. We will monitor her more closely today. - What happened? - She had a bad reaction to a new medication, not the chemo. This medication is a targeted therapy and, usually, creates some disturbance at first. It’s alright now.” Penny was shaking, tears were coming. - “Is she… is… - It’s alright now Penny. I tell you, Britanny is ok now.” Penny couldn’t stay up, she was shaking too badly, and she crumbled on the chair. The doctor squatted in front of Penny, who was trying to squish her tears. He continued talking. “Penny, you should go home.” Penny’s reaction was instantaneous, eyes wide! - No! My place is… - Your place is here, with Britanny to help her go through this” he interrupted her. “But you won’t be able to help if you continue like this! You need to take a night sleep, a real one. Sleeping on that chair, three or four hours a night, it’s not enough. It’s been what, more than two weeks since you took a shower? - But... but….” She tried to fight back. - Penny, you must take a real night sleep. You have your parents here, in Hereford, right? - Just my mum” Penny was sobbing by now. “Mark’s are both here though, they live close by. - You should ask them to come here, just for one night. Britanny needs you and your husband to fight, but she need parents who are able to fight. You are at your strength’s end. I promise you, we’ll call you if anything important happens.” Penny surrendered. She was looking at her, now sedated, daughter. Dr Crawford offered a warm smile before standing up to leave. The thing was, she was scared to leave. Scared to be alone with Mark, with her thoughts… She took her phone and went into the corridor, to call her mother. In a heartbeat, she said she’d be there! She than called her mother-in-law. She naturally said yes. Penny went to Britanny, sat on the chair and caressed her daughter’s bald head slowly, tenderly. She felt herself slip away; the tears were coming back… About 20 minutes later, her mother passed the room’s door. When Penny saw her, she couldn’t bare it, the tears were flowing and she couldn’t let them stop… About ten minutes later, her in-laws came in, accompanied by a nurse. Penny tried to say something but she couldn’t… all the parents were grouped around her, comforting her. Penny’s father in-law said that they would arrange the schedule to watch over Britanny: “The elders will keep her safe…” he said with a gentle smile. The nurse, after checking the drip, came to Penny and gave her a little plastic bag with pills in it. “Dr Crawford wants you to take these tonight, Penny. They will help you sleep… There is enough for both you and Mark.” She said to Penny, with a gentle smile. “And don’t worry; your little girl is safe.” Penny’s father-in-law insisted to drive her home. All the way, she was looking away, without seeing anything; she had an empty stare… Mark’s dad helped her out of the car. Once inside the house, he went straight to the kitchen to make her some camomile tea. Penny went to her room but changed her mind and went to Britanny’s instead. She sat on her, empty, bed, and she couldn’t help it. She started crying. Her father-in-law came to her and took her in his arms. Mark arrived about an hour later. Penny was soaking, and silently sobbing, in the bath while Mark’s dad was preparing a decent meal for them. When she got out of the bathroom, she found a big bouquet of white lilies in the center of the dinner table. “They’re from work” said Mark to Penny. “They wanted to tell you they were thinking of you, of Britanny, of all of us…” Penny’s eyes, all reddened by the tears already, got moist instantly. Mark took her in his arms… Mark’s father tip-toed out of the house, feeling the couple needed to be alone… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 At Christmas, Penny’s forced day off was far behind by now. She noticed that the hospital personnel were a little overwhelmed; it was a holiday after all, so, the roster was a bit bare. Dr Crawford was not in today but told Penny it was a swap with another doctor. Mark and she had gotten a long talk with him the day before. He had told them that Britanny was reacting well to the treatments and chemo, according the tests done the week before. “Next Sunday, we’ll make another series of tests to see where we stand but, so far, despite the hick-ups we got, the treatment is doing well and the induction period is closer to the end.” Both sets of grand-parents were present at the hospital with Penny and Mark. At the end of the morning, Britanny got another round of medications and wasn’t in the best of mood; she had had a bad night, with a lot of throwing up. A hospital attendant popped his head into the room: “Hi Penny, can I have a little word please? - Sure.” Penny got up and gave Britanny to her mother in law who took Penny’s place on the chair. She walked to the corridor. She saw that there were a lot of people and, there was some kind of atmosphere. - “Penny, your players just arrived for a little visit to the children…” Penny gapped. - “I didn’t know they were coming…” The attendant was shuffling his fleet, a bit ashamed. - “We don’t tell anyone, just in case it doesn’t happen, you know? - Oh, ok. - Your players all asked to come and see Britanny and you, but we are kind of scared of some traffic jam around your door…” Penny sensed what the attendant was feeling. She wanted to see her boys, she still saw them as “her boys”, but she knew the logistics. The year before, only two to three players were going into individual rooms. - “Can we take Britanny into the common room?” The attendant was uncomfortable. - “Well…. We … we huh.. “Penny understood instantly; the personal was scared that some may feel her daughter would get a preferential treatment, - “Here’s how we’ll do it, if you want. Let two or three come in our room, like regular visits, ok? Then, when the players will be close to leave; they should go in the common room, right? - Yes. - We’ll bring Britanny in the common room just then. How about that? - Do huh… Do you think the players…” Penny interrupted him. - “Don’t worry about that. I promise you, they will understand.” And, for the first time in days, she smiled. When she entered the room, she was feeling happy, which was a feat in itself. Her mother in-law offered her to take Britanny back, which she did. The little girl was plugged to her IV and sulking. Penny seemed to be the only one that could comfort her in any meaningful way. After a few minutes, a nurse came in, checked that the IV dosage was ok and made a little “they’re coming to see you” wink to Penny. As soon as she got out, a head popped at the door. “Is there a little one who needs a hug in here?” Shaun (Okojie) said as he entered the room. Britanny saw him and, instantly, her face radiated with a smile! She started to wiggle on Penny’s lap so; the mother gently put her down so that she could go see him, making sure the IV line would stay plugged in the process. Shaun quickly came closer to Britanny and kneeled so she could hug him correctly. Mitchell (Glover) and Josh (Barnes) were coming in too. All the family were squishing tears as the little girl was all giddy, just to see them. Josh got a hug then, it was Mitchell’s turn, who took her off the floor so she could sit on her bed. All were wearing their Bulls jerseys. Josh, with his child like face pointed at the stuffed bull, with the Bulls jersey, and asked: “Is this Ferdinand? - We are no Ferdinand!” loudly said the happy little girl! - “Yeah, it’s fun to fight huh?” asked Josh, smiling too. - “I fight!” she answered. They spent ten full minutes with the little girl, offering smiles, hugs, human warmth to the sick kid and also, to her family. Penny was working hard to keep her composure. She was seeing her child and the rest of the family touched by what was happening. Josh came to Penny, with a football that was signed by every player of the team and said: “Can I have an autograph on this? It’s for the little fighter!” Penny couldn’t hold the tears by now. She got up and took her goalkeeper in her arms, hugging him like she never did before to one of her players. He responded in kind, murmuring in her ear: “You are not alone, boss!” Once they had left, to offer the same warmth and happiness to another kid, she took Britanny back. The little girl was holding her football and showing it to the family. Penny had gotten her composure back, a little, by then and the family was beaming at the little girl, and crying at the same time. After a long moment, the attendant came at the door, saying it would be time to go. Mark took the Britanny in his arms for the little trek to the common room; it was easier for him since he had to roll the IV holder at the same time. Her father and her father-in-law were on both sides of Penny when the entire family left the room. In the common room, there was about sixty peoples plus the players and Sam (Walker). The atmosphere was loaded with pure, untainted, joy and optimism. All the Bulls came to say hi to Britanny, and get a hug in the process, just like they did with all the other kids. Penny was getting smiles too. All the players were making the rounds, they barely stayed longer with her and her family that they did with everybody else. As they were leaving, Sam came to Penny. He was teary, just like her. He couldn’t do anything else. He took her boss in his arms and hugged her. Both of them were crying. No words were exchanged. 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Rien102 Posted June 20, 2018 Author Share Posted June 20, 2018 «To my beautiful team, Your mere presence, your warmth and your humanity had an immense impact when you came to visit the hospital on Christmas, on all of us. Your genuine care, your smiles and your openness touched many of us, kids and parents alike. You cannot imagine what it was, for us, to see you come in, into our worried lives, into our pain and sometimes, our despair. Us, who sees our own children fighting for their lives, are feeling so helpless and so inadequate but, your kindness, you mere presence gave us, each of us, families and relatives alike, a new energy to continue this fight against death! You came in, and offered us comfort, and most of all, hope. Hope that life is worth fighting for! Britanny was having a really bad day; her medications had given her a real bad night. Yet, when she saw you, she smiled as if she wasn’t sick anymore! She was just living what, we, the parents, think she should live: joy and happiness and an unworried kid life! Edward, from room 307, is in for another type of Leukemia, a type for which he has lesser chance to survive than Britanny. His treatments are making him irritable, sad and in constant pain. His parents are like us, despaired and helpless at their kid’s pain. Your smiles and hugs and kind words gave them a ray of sunshine in a very gloomy day. Philip, a little 3 years old, fighting a bone cancer, had been in pain for days. Their parents, completely at a lost, couldn’t find any word, any touch, to make him smile, if only a little, on that day that should be a happy one for a kid of that age. Yet, you came in, and just by saying hello, you made him forget, if only for a few moments, how sick he was. Emily, from room 314, was preparing herself to get a bone marrow transplant; her Leukemia is attacking deep inside her bones. She had been through so much pain and there still is so much of it in front of her. Her parents on watch, for weeks now, are exhausted and feel so outclassed by the cancer. Again, you came in, offered a glimpse of hope to both Emily and her parents, just by making her laugh a little. All day, she held that autographed football like it was a ticket to recovery! So many children, so many parents and so many devoted hospital personnel were touched by your kindness. In many ways, you gave an influx of energy to all of us, which is sorely needed, to continue our own fights. To all of you, we want to say thank you. Enclosed with this letter, drawings of the 17 kids you came to see and to whom, you gave them a great Christmas present.» The letter was signed by 84 parents and 27 hospital personnel. Penny’s father went to the club to give it in person to someone of the staff, during the Boxing Day match. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 21, 2018 Author Share Posted June 21, 2018 Thursday, December 31st, 2020 would be a date long remembered by Penny’s family. It was the day the induction phase of Britanny’s Leukemia treatment ended and when the consolidation phase started. Three days prior, Dr. Crawford had met with Penny and Mark to discuss Britanny’s situation. “Your daughter will be able to leave the hospital on New Year’s Eve!” Both parents couldn’t hold back their emotions and started to cry. The doctor continued “The consolidation, as we discussed, will still require treatments, including chemotherapy but, Britanny will do it on an outpatient status, no more overnights, except if there are complications, would be required. As we said, it should last for three months, maybe even four and regular exams will be done but, the first part of her perilous journey is over now and the prognosis is encouraging. I want to stress again that she is not healed yet but, the risks of her dying are now lower than when we started the induction phase.” As Mark was packing her stuffed animals, there was about forty of them, he turned to Britanny, that was undergoing a last check-up by a nurse and asked her: “My dear, would you accept that we leave some for the other children? You know, not everybody got as much as you.” The little one didn’t even hesitate! She pointed the gigantic bull! - “No Ferdinand one! To help fight!” Penny gasped, putting a hand in front of her mouth. Tears came fast. - “You… you’re sure?” Penny asked the little girl. - “Yes! He helped me fight!” the kid told her, smiling. The nurse smiled too. When she had finished her duty, she looked at the girl, gave her a gentle caress on her neck. As she was going out the door, she mouthed in silence “Thank you” to Mark and Penny. A few minutes later, Dr. Crawford entered the room with, what Penny thought, was a student of medicine; the woman looked very young. “Hello Britanny! You ready to leave us?” he said. - “Yes!” she said with a smiley tone! - “Good. I want to present Mary to you; she is the doctor that will help me now. - Hello Britanny!” said the woman. - “Hello! You are a doctor?” asked Britanny. - “Yes, I am. I will go to your house, sometimes, and we will see each other every time you will come here too. - You are in charge now?” Mark asked her. - “No” answered Dr. Crawford. “Mary is specializing in cancer consolidation phase; she is one of my students. She will always have a way to reach me, at any time, when she’ll go see you. When Britanny will come here, for her treatments, I will always be there too.” He then turned his attention to Britanny. “Now, my beautiful little girl, you remember what I told you? - Yes!” answered the girl. - “Ok. So, tell me, what should you do at home? - Listen to mummy and daddy. Take the medicine. Do the sleeping. Huh.. huh… - When you feel pain… - When I hurt, I must say to mummy and daddy where!” Dr Crawford smiled at her. - “Good!” He then turned to Penny and Mark. “As we talked yesterday, a nurse will come twice a week, to give you a hand and also make some tests, take blood samples, etc. Mary will come once a week, to collect Britanny’s diary of the treatments. Don’t’ forget to note everything; don’t leave anything out, ok? - What if there is stuff we shouldn’t write in it?” asked Penny, worried. - “Better too much than not enough Penny. The diary will give us important clues on how to plan things. Also, I want you to take some time for yourself. You have a good family circle I saw; use it. I mean it, ok?” Dr. Crawford went to Mark and Penny and shook their hands. They both thanked him. Mary did the same and gave them a full schedule for the treatments, chemo and visits. At 11 that morning, after Britanny had personally brought the giant bull into the common room and had said good bye to her friends, all the family came out of the hospital… to find all the Bulls team and staffs, making a long gauntlet of Bulls jerseys and banners saying “You are not alone!”, in which a beaming Britanny had to go through, and collect hugs in the process! All of them were cheering for her. Mark and Penny’s couldn’t believe it! She caught Adam’s (El-Abd) eye who just winked at her. When they entered Mark’s dad vehicle, all the team was still cheering. Not a single adult eye was dry in that vehicle… Only Britanny’s were dry because she was laughing like a happy child, like she should be… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 22, 2018 Author Share Posted June 22, 2018 Tuesday, January 5th was Britanny’s first chemo session as an outpatient. Ever since she had gotten out of the hospital, Penny and Mark had slept better. They had bought a baby monitor, which was at maxed volume. This has been Penny’s concession to not sleep in the daughter’s room. The girl still didn’t have her hair but, starting next week, she would go back to school. A lot of her little friends had come to say hi and, a little neighbourhood boy and a girl, in support, had shaved their heads too! Both had come at the hospital, to see Britanny but, once they knew she would come to school next week, they went to a specialized wig shop, to have their hair shaved so that wigs could be done for children in situations like Britanny’s. The daughter didn’t mind for her hair though, she liked to wear a pirate hat! It had been a shock to Penny, to see both her daughter’s friend, arrived in the same attire, saying, and showing, their hair were” gone like hers!” The parents of her daughter’s friends had been real sweethearts. Making sure Britanny was getting regular news from them, via internet video phones, at the hospital. Since Britanny was back, they were bringing, on a regular basis, sweats and smiles and helping hands to all the family. The chemotherapy had gone ok but the coming back home was a bit tough. Britanny got fits of anger, for no real reasons. She was just in that kind of a mood. Once home, Penny made sure she had taken everything and then, settled her in her bed for a story and a nap. When the little girl was finally asleep, Penny went in the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea, before going back to her daughter’s room. They had put the rocking chair they had bought to feed the little girl years before in the room so that they could stay there, close to the daughter. When her tea was ready, Penny started to walk toward Britanny’s room when she heard knocking at the front door. She went as fast as she could. Once at the door, she saw it was David (Boggins). She opened and said, softly, that Britanny just fell asleep. David made a little gesture, saying he understood. He came inside as Penny went to Britanny’s room door to close it then, to go get the baby monitor in the master bedroom. David went to the dinner table and sat down. Penny asked, in a hushed voice: “Want some tea? Water is already hot.” - “Sure!” he answered back, in a hushed voice too. As she was coming to the dinner table, he asked “How you doing? - Ok. Less tired since I can sleep in a real bed, and taking a shower daily helps too!” she said, with a thin smile. “By the way, I didn’t get the chance to thank all of you for the day when Britanny left the hospital. - You don’t have to! - Who… - We have our sources!” David interrupted her, adding a little wink. - I have taken a look at the table and I see, the world kept spinning without me.” David became real serious before talking. - “Things are not the same. Sam (Walker) is doing his best but, like he says, many times a week, he doesn’t have your strategic and tactical abilities to react in game. - You still won in FA Cup and in FA Trophy. - I don’t know if you read anything about that FA Cup match against Plymouth but they played, only thinking of you.” Penny felt a bit embarrassed. - “Dean (Rance) came to visit the day after and he refused to speak of the game but gave me a press clipping about it. - Well, they had went through, what they called a rough patch, finding it difficult to concentrate once it was announced that you got Britanny in the hospital for Leukemia. Sam told me that at warm-up, before the Plymouth match, all were heavy hearted. Sam (El-Abd) apparently talked to the guys a little and some players started to say they should play for you. It snowballed from there.” Penny was looking, at her tea cup, with an empty stare. - “David, I just… - No! I didn’t come here for that.” He interrupted her, again. “I’m here because I care about you. Besides, the team is on a row of away games anyway and I couldn’t ask you to go on trips like that, not with Britanny here. I came here to see you, see Britanny, and see how the family is doing. The only thing I could say is that the team got a high boost of morale when they saw you at the hospital and, two days later, when you came to the club. I think your daughter is their lucky charm!” David tried to cheer her up a little. - We are doing ok, I guess. Britanny got regular visits from her best friends. They shaved their heads! Can you imagine!? - When will she go back to school? - Next week. Dr. Crawford wants her to have a full week of treatments before going back. - Do you have help here? - Yes, nurse comes twice a week and a student doctor comes in once a week. Plus, Mark’s parents come every night, to help with dinner and, well, to keep us company. - Your parents are back in London? - They come every week-end, just like when she was at the hospital. We don’t have the room to keep mum here.. - Well, if you want to come to the Brighton game with them next Sunday, we’ll give them great tickets you know. - Saturday you mean! - Nope, Sunday, the game will be on the telly. - David, I just can’t …. - I don’t want you to come on the sideline and manage, I offer you to come to the game with your entire family, as fans! As for coming back, as a manager, I can tell you this, you come when you are ready to come back and, I will take the restrictions you’ll have. - At best, I’ll be able to come to the club sometime next week but only when Britanny will be at school and I will leave if she needs me... - No problem there. - As for the Brighton game, I’ll need to talk with Mark. - You are the boss!” David said, with a smile, lifting his tea cup for a clink. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 23, 2018 Author Share Posted June 23, 2018 Révélation Hereford - Brighton.pkm “Are you sure about this?” Penny had doubts but Sam (Walker), Jack (Collison) and Adam (El-Abd), her staffs, were adamant! - “You bet we are!” said Adam with a big smile. “Besides, I already talked to my “ex-friends” and they’re all ok with it! - Alright, if you say so…” Penny walked to the stands, from the pitch and went to get Britanny and her two friends. She wanted them to come with her at the game, they just didn’t know what treat they would be offered, and neither did Penny until a few minutes ago! The capacity stadium was very enthusiastic already; the game was minutes away and they were already chanting! As she arrived at her seat, first row, right behind the Bulls bench, she made a sign to Mark. After a few whispered words, He brought Britanny and her two little friends. Adam had called some peoples at Brighton and, after a few explanations, they agreed without hesitations! Mary had joined Penny and she took the hands of the two friends while Penny took her daughter’s. They all walked toward the Bulls dressing room. As soon as they entered, all the players gathered around Britanny, and her two friends. The kids were all giddy, laughing and smiling and getting hugs from all the players. "Her boys" all came to Penny, hand extended with big smiles and, oh so kind words… She felt the emotions get to her; she fought hard to keep them down as much as she could… The kids got given brand new Bulls jerseys, with their names on it and a number 1 in the back. After a few minutes of this, Sam called for the attention of the players. They all calmed down. Sam, who was at the center of the dressing room, made a sign to Penny, to come join him. She didn’t want to but Adam, who was behind her, was, gently, pushing her. She looked and quickly saw that the kids were handled by Mary, Jack and Mark (Findley), the Head physio. Penny, very emotional and having trouble to control herself, went slowly to the middle of the dressing room. As soon as she arrived there, Sam walked back to let her be the center of attention. She was looking at her beautiful boys, eyes moist and hearth pounding. She saw that she wasn’t alone having trouble keeping their emotions in check; a lot of players were squishing tears. After taking a deep breath, looking at her daughter who was in Jack’s arms now, Penny started to talk: “Life could be so cruel… but it could also be so beautiful! “ she turned her gaze toward the players and followed. “Today, you show the world that last year, it had nothing to do with luck! It was talent, and effort and, most of all, resilience!” Tears were starting to roll and she couldn’t control them by now. “Today, do like you always did, give all that you have, like you just gave..” she had to retake control but couldn’t. “... like you just gave my daughter and me… and her courageous little friends! Do as good as you can, and the results will come!” She had to mop her tears now… “Whatever happen, whatever the outcome, know that I am, and always will, be proud to have you as my boys!” All the players and the staffs, with the three kids, congregated around her. An emotional silence took hold for a long time until Andy (Jackson) shouted their moto: “WHAT ARE WE NOT? - WE ARE NO FERDINAND!” everybody screamed! The dressing room door opened and the kids, who would escorts the players, came in. Andy looked at the little boy that came with Britanny and asked: “Will you escort me?” The kid smiled up to his ears! Josh (Barnes) came forward, looked at the little girl and asked her to accompany him to the pitch; she was beaming! Jack handed Britanny to Penny. “You want to come with me?” Penny asked her. She got a bear hug for answer. The players started to get out to the pitch as the announcer was presenting the teams. Penny was looking at them go out there and felt pride fill her up. Once all were out, Penny stayed behind, mopping tears again. Britanny asked: “Why are we not going? - We are going in a moment my love.” Penny smiled at her. After taking a few deep breaths, to try and regain control of herself, she slowly started to walk for the door. When she put her first foot on the pitch, the crowd exploded! The announcer was saying: “And now, our guest of honor, Britanny Stiles, our own manager’s daughter! As you probably know, her daughter is fighting Leukemia…” Penny was walking toward the row of players. “She is an example of courage, just like her friends, who shaved their heads in support!” The crowd was wild! “Please, for them, MAKE! SOME! NOISE!!!!!” The crowd, accompanied by all who were on the pitch, were absolutely nuts! Chanting and cheering and clapping and chanting for her daughter who was waving at them as Penny was walking to the row of players! Once there, Britanny started to wiggle so Penny let her go down. She instantly ran to her friends and gave them hugs! Penny was crying like she never thought possible in front of a crowd, for all to see… After many minutes of this ovation, it was time for the match to start. Penny took Brtianny’s hand and all the players, their respective escorts, and guided them outside off the pitch, except for Penny, Britanny and her two little friends. All four went straight to the Bulls bench, where they would watch the game from there. The three kids couldn’t believe their eyes! They had gigantic smiles plastered on their faces! The match started just as a little rain began to fall. Penny quickly saw that Sam used the usual low block but also, had asked his forward to press hard too. Brighton, playing with a 4-4-1-1, came on the sides and were crossing the ball fast but the defenders held good. What she was amazed to see was that her players were counter attacking in a very effective way, bringing the ball high in the Seagulls zone every time. Britanny and her friends were standing on the bench, cheering non-stop! On the 24th minute, the Bulls were given a free-kick on the right side of Brighton’s box. After hard play inside the wall, Reece (Miller) received a pass and he opened the score with a well-placed kick in the left corner! 1-0! The stadium almost exploded! The chanting was probably heard on the other side of town! The half ended on the Bulls lead! At half-time, the subs took the kids and brought them inside the dressing room. Sam came to Penny, all smiles. She had noticed a little something and asked Sam, as they were going to dressing room: “Did you realize they tend to play long ball from the right but short on the left?” He looked at her, thinking. After a few seconds, he smiled. As they arrived in the dressing room, she saw the kids were with Adam, in the corner. Sam went to the center of the dressing room and did his little pitch. He relayed Penny’s comment to the boys and asked Jordan (Crangston) and Tareq (Shihab) to play accordingly: Jordan on a defense set and Tareq on support to be more aggressive on one side. After, all the staffs and the kids went to Penny’s office. The kids went to the bathroom, and then got sweets while the staffs talked of the game. When the time to go back on the pitch came, Adam took Britanny in his arms and asked: “The players wants to see you before going out, do you want to see them too?” She smiled and let herself be picked up from the ground. Adam went at the door, just in front of Sam (rituals are a bit like superstitions). As the players were going out, they all rubbed Brtianny’s head, got a smile then got fist bumps from Adam first, then Sam. Mary, now wearing a silk scarf on her bald head, came in to escort the two little friends to the Bulls bench and Adam brought Britanny. Penny quickly noticed that the Seagulls were playing longer ball. Sam saw it too and made tweaks. On the 49th minute, the Bulls got a corner. The kick went straight into the box and, after some fight, Ben (Goodlife) was able to get a chance to shoot and he didn’t miss it! 2-0! As the stadium was in full party mode, Sam quickly turned to Joel (Kaduba) and Max (Melbourne) on the bench. She saw he was weary of Jordan on the left, he was a little in trouble, but also a bit scared: “He’d want to have a second DM” she thought. Four minutes later, he made the switch, pulling Mitchell (Glover), their AMC for Joel and also pulling Jordan for Max. Brighton wasn’t dead yet and were playing hard. On a corner, Jordan (Ayew) put one in for Brighton! 2-1! Brighton changed their formation to a 4-3-3 Narrow and made subs to have three strikers up front. The crowd, who had been chanting since the last Bulls goal, became even louder. They believed and wanted their team to know it! Sam made some changes, asking the players to play a bit more defensively and the Bulls were able to survive that intense storm! Then, on the 83rd minute, the Bulls got another corner. Jack (Hunter) kicked the ball straight into the box to Ben who headed the ball in! 3-1! Nobody could believe it! The crowd was very rowdy by now! Sam called the boys back. The pressure racked up against them. The referee called four minutes of injury time and the Bulls were pushed against the wall. Two minutes into injury time, Brighton pushed harder and, on a great cross inside the box, Jordan Ayew scored a second time! 3-2! Andy (Jackson) was angry and was screaming to all to wake up and defend! “The match is not over! Stop celebrating and defend!” It still was too little too late and the referee called the game off! The Bulls had beaten a Premiere League team! Had slain a giant! The stands emptied themselves in a hearth beat! The pitch was invaded by all 5710 peoples! Penny made sure to keep Britanny and her little friends at the Bulls bench. They would celebrate from there! The kids were ecstatic for sure! Being hugged repeatedly, they didn’t even know who hugged them so, they hugged anybody close by!!! Penny was joined by Mary, David (Boggins), Mark and her father, who, after hugging her, helped her with the kids. All the adults had tears in their eyes but the kids; it was just a big, unquenchable, desire to smile and being hug by all! The invaded pitch was very rowdy and Penny decided to bring the three kids in the dressing room, where it would be safer. David, Mary and Mark all took one kid and her father, with a bow, escorted her! She couldn’t help it and hugged him for a long time before accepting it! When they entered the dressing, the kids were already nursing sodas and talking together, all happy and excited! It took about ten minutes for the team to start coming in. The kids, at the end of the room stayed there, as told, but it clearly was difficult. Dean (Rance) who was the first in funneled the players toward the kids. The little friends got the first hugs, than it was Britanny’s time. She was beaming when they were rubbing her bald head and saying she was a lucky charm! Penny, who was a few centimetres away from her, offered a fist bump to each of them but none took it…. They all hugged her instead! There were tears on everybody’s face! Hereford - Brighton.pkm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 24, 2018 Author Share Posted June 24, 2018 On Wednesday the 13th of January, right after Mary, the student doctor left the house, Penny went to the club for a meeting with the staffs and David (Boggins); he wanted to talk about a progressive come-back. Britanny was at school for the second day, she had skipped yesterday because of her chemo and, since she didn’t have too rough a night, she went with her friends instead of Penny driving her. Everyone at school was extremely helpful and all of them had her cell number with one clear instruction: “If anything dubious or bad with Britanny, call me no matter what!” When she arrived at the club, she got greeted by everybody! Everyone that was in wanted to see her and talk a little. She felt, a bit overwhelmed. Clearly everyone was still glowing form the giant slaying match of last Sunday, all thinking she had everything to do with it, which she had more than doubts… When she finally had a chance, she went to her office, where a little bouquet of white lilies had been placed close to the computer monitor. She felt out of her depth. She was looking around and felt like an impostor… She didn’t have long to feel that way because Sam (Walker) and Adam (El-Abd) entered the office: “Hey Penny!” said Sam, with a smile. - “I think I forgot to congratulate you last Saturday for your giant slaying Sam!” she said, with a smile of her own. - “You already did you sweet talker… many times!” said Adam, laughing! “And stop saying it! He’s becoming unbearable!” All laughed! - “You didn’t bow while congratulating me though!” Hilarity in the office! They went toward the meeting room all together. Jack (Collison), Mark (Findlay) the Head physio and David were already there, waiting for them. Mark looked at her in the eyes, with some intensity. She was wondering why, only for half a second because he said: “She doesn’t have red eyes! She must have slept!” All laughed in the room. All took place around the table. Penny put her cell on the table, right at start and said, with a very serious tone: “Britanny is at school and if anything… I’ll get a phone call. Just to tell all here that she have a top priority, whatever the subject. - No problem Penny” answered David. “The only thing that I, we, want today, is to see how we could plan a progressive return, ok?” She bobbed her head up and down. - “Penny, this is your team, we are caretakers only “ said Sam. - “I want to come back, it’s just that my schedule must be different” she said. “And I also understand that the team needs stability. If need be,” she looked at David, “I’m ready to resign, no problem there.” - “I don’t want that Penny!” said David. “This club, as it is right now, it’s tainted with your touch, your philosophy and, as President of the board, I am instructed, by said Board, to say that what we want is to keep you here. To that effect, I think we should start by getting a schedule of Britanny’s treatments and obligations, ok? - Ok. Well, right now, and for at least three months, the schedule is as follow: Mondays and Thursdays, the nurse comes in for about two hours a day to make tests and help with treatments’ planning and execution. Tuesdays and Fridays, Britanny goes to the hospital to get chemo. It last about three hours than goes back home. She usually is under the weather those days. Last, on Wednesdays, a doctor comes home to gather a diary that we keep up to date about Britanny. How she feels, reactions to medications, etc… - When does the nurse come exactly? Isn’t your daughter goes to school now?” asked Mark. - “She comes after school. - So, If I get it correctly, two days a week, Britanny is either at the hospital or at home because of the treatments, the three other days, she goes to school. Is that it?” It was David talking. - “In a nutshell, yes. But I don’t know if that will hold because some days, she might have a lot of side effects of the treatments so, those days, she stays home. - Does the diary thing usually take a long time? - For now, it’s about an hour. My guess is, if Britanny have a good week, it might be about the same but, if she got a bad week, it would be longer, I guess. - Does it absolutely have to be at your house?” Penny started to think a little. - “It’s only the second week. I can call the doctor and ask the question and, we could make the talking here, I guess... I just forgot to ask this morning when she was home… there’s so many… - Stop!” Interrupted Sam. “We, the staffs anyway, we want you to think of your daughter first, ok? I won’t talk about the big honchos” he looked at David while saying that. “The only thing that we want is to get you back, if only part time. We know your routine enough, and the philosophy of play of the team you have built. Nonetheless, if we were able to go a bit on auto pilot …” he was getting uncomfortable as he was talking, “we need you, at some point. The training plan was followed but it was set for three months and it is coming to an end by now…” Penny looked at all who were around the table, she felt they basically needed to know where the line was set. - “Look, I talked with Mark yesterday; here is what I can offer you. I want you to feel free to say no. I won’t ask question and won’t hold any grudge. The team is a pro team and it deserves a full time staff.” David was going to say something but she stopped him. “No David! I don’t want any comment on that. My priorities have changed with Britanny’s sickness. I have put the team before my family and…” she was looking ashamed at that moment, “well, anyway... Here is what I can offer you. One, when I come in, during weekdays, I should be home before and after Britanny’s school times. I can do some paperwork home once Mark is home, and often his mum and dad are there too. The days that she goes to the hospital for chemo, there is no way that I’m anywhere but by her side all day. The weekly meet with the doc, I guess it could happen here, most times. Besides, the drive is shorter from the hospital to come at Edgar Street than to go at my house. So, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, during school time, I can be here. Keep in mind that if she is sick at school, I leave the moment I am called for it. - For games?” Asked David. - “During the week, if here, I could come. Mark and his family would cover, but I can’t go out. School time is going to be covered by me. During the week-ends, Mark, his mum and his dad, would be “on watch”. My mum and dad would be there too. Our families are all ok with this by the way. - I can live with that with one condition!” said Adam, with a smirk. “Britanny must come here every single game at Edgar Street!” The mood changed; Penny even smiled. - “If she is fit to come, she would kill me if I would forbid her to come! Seriously though, just keep in mind, Tuesdays are chemo days.” The rest of the meeting was mainly to set up a way to funnel the infos to Penny. The whole thing would start next week. There was no way she would make a seven hours round trip for the FA Trophy game at Tonbridge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 25, 2018 Author Share Posted June 25, 2018 Penny was getting back into shape. All week, the staff and herself were making new routines and there clearly was some issues to be ironed out. Luckily, Britanny had a good week and Mary, the doctor assigned to following the treatments, had been most generous by changing part of the routine by coming to the club instead. Penny found that she had two big injuries at the club First, Omar Sowunmi her big signing to replace Jerome Opuku had twisted an ankle two weeks ago. He wouldn’t come back for about two weeks. The second one was Shaun (Okojie) and it happened during the FA Trophy match at Tonbridge, which had been a doddle. He had teared knee ligaments and Mark (Findlay) told Penny he was out for, at least, 5 to 7 weeks! For the training, she saw that, effectively, the staff had done nothing to modify her plans. Most players were improving steadily. Some had gotten some surprising spurts of improvement. Mitchell Glover, her young winger that she was using as an AP in AM position had exploded! It was to the point that the player she had signed specifically to replace Cyan Kavanagh, Alex Dodd, was getting real hard competition by the young 19 years old. As far as performance of the club goes, she saw that the Bulls were overachieving in a big way! On the Conference table, they were in third (!) place. They had won their last five games! She noticed that the winning streak had started right after Britanny’s visit to the club. “You can’t even imagine what it did to the boys!” had said Adam (El-Abd). Since that visit, the team had also destroyed Welling in the FA Trophy first round game (3-0) and a convincing 2-1 win against Plymouth Argyle in the second round. Then it was the “miracle win” against Brighton, a Premiere League team, officially giving the Bulls the title: giant slayer! All the coaches told Penny that the only reason of the win had a name: Britanny Stiles! She had troubles believing that but she didn’t want to argue. What was a big treat was the fourth round game in the FA Cup though. The Bulls, a mere Conference team was going at Old Trafford and face none other than Manchester United and José Mourinho himself! This meant that the FA Cup record book was rewritten, once again, by the Bulls! The next game was against Boreham Wood, this Saturday, at Edgar Street. Everyone was anxious. The players were working hard and it was good news. During the pre-game briefing, she found them way more focused than she remembered them. When the roster was presented, they showed no reaction at all. After the briefing, while the players were going out to the pitch, she stopped Sam (Walker): “Sam, am I missing something here?” He smiled. - “Nope. They never were focused like that before. They never were out of line either but today; I think there is something… - Is that your doing? If so, tell me! I’ll use it!” He laughed. - “I have nothing to do with it! I think they are just happy to see you here!” Penny was thinking about all that and finally added something. - “Could you send me Dean (Rance) and Andy (Jackson)? - Sure!” He trotted out to the pitch. It barely took a minute when the two captains entered the dressing room. They were wearing a satisfied face, she was intrigued. “You want to see us boss?” asked Dean. - “Yes…” she had a pensive face. “Sam tells me that the focused mood I saw at the briefing… - It’s just you!” interrupted Andy. She did gap at the comment, but at the fact that Andy talked over Dean! She was going to talk but Dean chimed in. - “Boss, I want you to believe Andy and me, ok? We are just really happy to see you back, with us. - You don’t know what you are for us boss!” added Andy. - It’s not that Sam and the rest of the staff are not good, they are your team and they are like you but, they are not you.” Penny had trouble processing the comments. It must have shown because Andy said something else. - “Boss, do you know why we just wanted to hug you after the match against Brighton? You have inspired us to play like, a lot of us at least, we never thought possible! - You’re an ass when it comes to training!” added Dean, with a big smirk, “but you found us and made us play with a group of players that completes us. - We just feel bigger and better when you are here.” Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 26, 2018 Author Share Posted June 26, 2018 Britanny was beaming as she was carried out of the dressing room to go to her seat, just behind the Bulls bench. The players had asked to rub the head of the kid before the match “for luck!” they said. Edgar Street, despite the fact it was a game against the 19th team on the table, was almost full! There was electricity in the air. Before going to the pitch, Penny had just stood in the middle of the dressing room. She didn’t know what to say. The players were smiling at her, with a demeanor so determined, she was intimidated! Sam (Walker) was at the dressing room door, ready to fist bump them, one by one but they all made a little hook toward Penny first, putting a hand on her shoulder, all in silence. Adam (El-Abd) came behind her and murmured: “I think I would be worried if I was your husband…” and let out a little laugh! She turned toward him with an interrogative stare.. “You ever thought you’d have 27 boys in line asking you for a dance?” he added! Both laughed. He then went to the pitch. She started to walk toward the door. As she was getting her fist bump from Sam, he just winked, smiled and got out to the pitch. As she came out the door, the stadium exploded with cheers! Neil Danns, the Boreham Wood manager came to Penny straight at her and offered a hand: “Welcome back Penny!” All his players came to her and offered their hand too! She was starting to get red a little; she couldn’t wait for the game to begin if only to get this over with! When it started, the Wood opened up the score on a free kick only three minutes in! It put everybody back on hearth pretty quickly! It took 31 minutes for the Bulls to respond. Mitchell (Glover), who was on the right side of the pitch, crossed the ball hard to Reece (Miller) that was just under the penalty area who headed the ball in the net! 1-1! The players were doing everything the right way but when it was time to finish the job, nervousness was kicking in. They got seven shots in the first half, four inside the box and on target while letting Boreham Wood shoot only once. The thing was; they had scored on that shot! At half-time, she told her players to calm down a little. The second half, the same phenomenon but it was even worse! On a throw in, on the 56th minute, they did scored when Matty (Dixon), from the penalty area made a powerful shot that bounced on two players before going in the net! 2-1! They also got a penalty chance on the 80th minute but Jay (Richards) missed the goal by a whisker! The match ended on a 2-1 score. It was a win painted with nervousness. An offensive fest for sure but, the emotional state of the players translated it into a 23 shots, thirteen of which were on targets while letting the Wood shoot only three times total! The thing was that they wanted to impress her so much; they had tried a little too hard. They had created about six or seven clear cut chances in the game but they hadn’t converted them. The crowd though, didn’t really care! For them, the win was locked in and, for what she saw, they were just happy to see her back! Once all the end game routine was done, she went into the dressing room; she saw that her boys seemed a bit disappointed by all that. “You know that we won just because we didn’t have a big team in front of us today, right?” she asked them in a very calm manner. A lot of gaze went straight to the floor. Jay then talked. - “I’m sorry to have missed boss. - Me too!” said Mitchell. Penny let out a sigh. They were pathetic, lovely and cute in a way, but pathetic. She made a sign to Adam to bring her a chair, which she placed in the middle of room and sat. - “Ok. Let’s get it out ok? First, the sorry thing? It’s nice, but it doesn’t change anything. I know that you were like me, excited and a bit nervous. Well, for some, maybe more than a little!” She smiled and some players had a tiny laugh. “Honestly, what I want you to know is how proud I am of you. Seriously, what you accomplished is amazing!” - It’s because…” started Matty but she interrupted him. - “Nope! I wasn’t there, you were! I can only hope you didn’t do this good because it was Sam’s work!” she smiled again. “What you need to do, as of right now, is to be able to let some of the emotions out of the way. It’s hard! I know it is! Do you think it wasn’t emotionally difficult to be here today, on the pitch? With you? Now, the stakes are even higher than before because of what you accomplished! I gave a way of playing out there but the execution is in your hands! Since the stakes are higher, it means the emotions will have even more impact. Today was a good example of what I’m talking about...” She stood up and, with her crutch, she pushed the chair away. “Now, I want you to come here, if you want! But to do so, will be for achieving one goal only: To leave all your emotions here, at me. After that, you will have to let them out of the pitch. All the players started to move toward her. They made a solid wall around her. She started to look each of them in the eyes. She saw that there were a lot of wet eyes. Hers were starting to water too but she didn’t fight them, she let them flow, for all to see what they, her boys, meant to her. When her boys finally went to the showers, Penny went to her office. Jack (Collison), Sam and Adam were there. She saw they had shed some tears of their own; she smiled at them and touched their face gently as she passed to go to her chair. Once she had sat, she started talking: “Adam, I would like you to prepare some mental exercises for them to do, ok? Something along the lines of “emotions management”. Can you do that? ”He bobbed his head up and down. “Sam, I’d like you to call Richard ahead of time to get the Man Utd report earlier if he can, that way, we’ll be able to work on it faster.” He nodded too. When she was going back home, with her little girl in the back seat, she noticed that she had some teary eyes. Mark confirmed that she had some stomach pain during the game. It would have to be noted in the diary. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 27, 2018 Author Share Posted June 27, 2018 Old Trafford was something no players of their stature ever thought possible to walk in as anything else but spectators! The place was so vast… and it was sold out too! José Mourinho had come to say hello, like a real gentleman. He didn’t have a lot to fear, really. Nonetheless, Penny had prepared her players the best she could! She had decided to change her set-up though. She would play a 4-2-2-2DMs. The low block was still in order but she wanted the biggest number of players to defend against his 4-2-3-1 who had the most goals scored in the Premiere league! When she saw the line-up, she noticed there were only two young prospects in there; the nine other players were regulars! He clearly didn’t make the same mistakes West Brom did last year and Brighton 3 weeks ago! As a team talk, she just told her boys to have fun, that there was no real pressure on them today. Her hopes were to lose by no more than two goals. This would be honorable against Mourinho and his team! It took 24 minutes for Manchester United to get their first goal Marcus Rashford, on a counter attack was able to place the ball between Josh (Barnes) and the post. On the 40th minute, the Red Devils scored again. Domenico Berardi headed a cross in after a two minutes long possession that lead to the cross. 0-2! At half time, Penny just told her boys to relax. They were clearly outmatched but, since most of their shots were from outside the box, they were playing good! The second half was very different because the Bulls literally shut the box to Mourinho’s players! They fired a lot but, all their shots were from outside the box and, most of the time, on bad angles. The few they were able to get from inside the Hereford box, there was at least two players pressuring the receiver. She felt sad for Jack (Hunter), who had played a decent game, to deviate a ball in the Bulls net on a defensive corner. When the referee ended the match, she saw a lot of tears on the pitch. Surprisingly, she saw some Manchester United players going to her boys and tries to comfort them! The 3500+ Hereford fans who were there gave their team a great cheer! They were proud of their team and if any Red Devils fan ever doubted it before the match, they weren’t anymore because among the sea of red jerseys in the stands, those fans, all dressed in white and black, most with painted faces, chanted for their team the “We are no Ferdinand” gig! In the dressing room, Penny made no fuss about the whole thing: “You gave ALL you could and for that, I am proud of you!” All the players gathered around her and a full blown group hug happened! Just before they went to the showers, Sam (Walker) arrived with a little cart with little wrapped boxes on it. “You are winners for me!” she said! The players came and took one box each. In it, was a miniature version of the traditional sweets basket! A lot of the players smiled, some got more tears but all understood. At the press conference, she made it clear that she was extremely proud of her boys! The FA should be used to rewrite the record book of their Cup because the Bulls would rewrite part of it again next year! When the team left to go to the bus taking them home, they saw rows and rows of Bulls fans waiting for them and cheering! Penny told her players to go soak in that sea of gratitude! The ride home was good! Penny even telling David (Boggins) that with all that money that would be coming from that sold out game, she wanted the board to upgrade the training facilities and the youth level again... He said yes! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 28, 2018 Author Share Posted June 28, 2018 The next Wednesday, Penny was on her way to Worcester to meet with Javier Aguirre, the West Bromwich Albion. Last Sunday, after the game against Manchester United, she had received a call from him; asking if could be possible to meet for lunch. He suggested meeting halfway, in Worcester. She was curious; he told her he would make it worth her while. When he saw her come in the restaurant, he got up, wearing a big smile. “Hello Penny! I am very happy to see you! Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. - I’m happy to see you Javier. I never had the chance to thank you last year, for your comment after the bi** incident. - Don’t! It’s useless! I believe you belong, period! To go against idiots is just a waste of time! - Well, I saw that a lot of pundits and journalists took your words in example, it’s not nothing! So, thank you! - If you take it like this, than, you are very welcome! But, it’s not why I wanted to meet you. - I was curious about that. - I was saddened by what happened to your daughter. I am happy to know she went through it. - She is still working on it, still receiving treatments. - Oh? Big ones? - Chemo and targeted therapy are still underway. She did go through the first part but now, she is an outpatient. She will stay overnight only if there are complications. - Did she have any of those so far? - No. Sometimes, it was more difficult but no overnight stays so far. - I heard that you changed your work schedule, is that true?” Penny was a bit uncomfortable. - “Yes. The President of the board of the club, and all the staffs and players are most generous with me. - Well, I won’t beat around the bush. I think you have great talent. I mean it! I think you have a way to analyse things, tactically and team wise, and you are then able to transfer that into specifics that could be used with success on the pitch. You know, the two games you had against us, I asked my scouts, sorry about that btw, to include you in the usual tactical footage because I wanted to be able to see what you were saying to your players.” Penny gapped at that! “Look I wanted to try and understand how you had been able to reach 3rd round and come against us. Not to mention to put us at the limit! What I learned, to know you, learn your way to say things and to analyse things. Now, with what is happening with your daughter, I think you may need to have time to be closer to her, for a while at least. Hence, I want to make a proposition to you! At the end of this season, I want you to come on my team of coaches!” Penny was shell shock! He saw it and smiled gently. “What I want you to be, specifically, is to be my tactical analyst and coach. What you will do is straight forward: you watch games, make tactical analysis then, you prepare pre-game briefings and the pre-game trainings. You will not be an analyst, sending me reports. You will translate the analysis into real exercises and you will supervise them as well and do part of the pre-games briefings. The key here will also be this. You will work on a schedule that is based on school hours of your daughter. You will never have to come to games if you don’t want to. We will funnel you the videos of the games, you will have the opportunity to ask for specific vids too. I am ready to offer you two years, here and now, at £100k per annum, starting at the end of the Bulls season. My board have already agreed that, if you want to join us, they will welcome you with open arms. This way, you won’t have to put your career on hold or abandon it completely. You take what you want, but I think you have tremendous potential!” Penny was under the shock. She never thought someone could think so highly of her capabilities! She always believed she had them but, to find someone who would say it, and like that! During the drive back to the club, she thought a lot about the proposition. She’d have to talk about it with Mark too since they’d have to move... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 29, 2018 Author Share Posted June 29, 2018 A few hours before the FA Trophy 3rd round game against St Albans, Penny asked David (Boggins) to talk with her. “Sure. - Can we go in my office, or yours? Your pick.” David’s face changed. - “Let’s take yours, it’s closer.” None talked during the little trek to her office. Once both were in, she closed the door. - “I want to tell you how grateful I am for the great opportunity you offered me. “ He was going to talk but she stopped him. “Please. Look, with Britanny’s treatments and everything around it, I feel it’s not appropriate for me to be a part time manager like that. The Bulls deserve someone who will be there, available and alert, all the time. With Britanny, I can’t do that anymore. So I’m telling you I will resign at the end of the season. If you want, I am even willing to leave right now if this is what you wish.” David was stunned. - “I am very saddened by that Penny. Is it to go to a bigger team? - It’s not about a bigger team it’s about work schedule. I can’t travel anymore; I did the Manchester United game because, well, it was Old Trafford, you know? But I felt like I cheated Sam (Walker) of something. He did such a good job but, on the big day, I got the gift of managing the team at Old Trafford in front of a full stadium!” David’s face was showing his disappointment. “David, we’ve always been honest with one another, right? It’s what I want to do still. It really is about the schedule. I’ve been offered something where I would have a regular schedule, built around school hours. I need to do this for Britanny.” David made a face. - “Is it Conference team? - Not at all! Javier Aguirre, the West Brom manager? He offered me to be tactical coach, doing game analysis and preparing pre-games briefing and exercises. I will not travel to any game; will not have to be on site on evenings either. Just a day job in Premiere League. - I can’t say I am happy but, given the circumstances, I can understand. - Thank you. I still want us to get that FA Trophy and to stay in the play-offs by the way!” She was trying to give an upbeat tone to the rest of the talk. “I won’t do anything about any contracts. That way, the one who will replace me will be able to decide who he wants to keep or not. - Just a question, when were you offered the job? - Last Wednesday, after I asked for the improvements. Anyway, you had the money and they are good things for the club to have, and you know that. In the end though, you can always wait for the next manager to do anything about it. - Ok. Don’t tell it to anyone, please. - Oki doki boss!” David got up and left. Penny felt a little bad but, she thought she had done the right thing. The FA Trophy match was a good one. The Bulls, literally destroyed St Albans 6-1! The worst was, the Saints goal wasn’t even their doing! A crossed got onto Ben’s (Goodlife) back and the ball went into the net! He, who had scored on a corner at the end of the first half, was teased by the boys: “You absolutely wanted a second one, huh?” Jay (Richards) had opened the score after…. 21 seconds! Getting a second on a penalty 64 minutes in and, barely four minutes later got his hat trick! Britanny got his head rubbed like mad by the boys! She was delighted! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted June 30, 2018 Author Share Posted June 30, 2018 Penny was sitting at the Bulls radio’s mic, talking to Bruce for the review; only ten games to go before the season’s end. Despite the fact she didn’t like it, as usual, she was in a good mood. Bruce had been a very nice chap with her, and Britanny. The little girl had gotten a real one-on-one interview the day of the Boreham Wood match with “Britanny the best goals scorer!” , not broadcasted of course, but to Penny as a souvenir. The daughter was still talking about it, and when she was having a rough patch with the meds, Penny would play the interview to her; it was always bringing a smile on her face. They were in the commercials and Bruce was prepping his intervention, he asked Penny if she was ready; oh yes she was! “Welcome back to the Bulls radio! Now, we have our manager, Penny Stiles, with us, to do a little review. We are ten games away from the end of the season and, we will soon go into quarter finals of the FA Trophy against Spennymoor! So Penny, what do you think of going back to Brewery Field, where you’ve played your first official match? - It’s going to be a little special for sure! - I’m sure you hope to not repeat last year’s quarter finals experience? - If there is something I want to forget, it’s that dreadful match!” she said, letting out a little laugh.[…] - The ten games winning streak against league teams, how long do you think it will last? - Should it need to end?” Both laughed. “More seriously, it will come to an end, sooner or later. For now, we still have a, somewhat, not too difficult of a calendar so, this mean that there is some chance to rack-up some points. - To get a hold on the 2nd place of the table, this must very satisfying, especially since the team was marked as being in relegation zone, or close to, no? - That’s for sure. The thing is, we are not the only one having a winning streak, Accrington is having one too so, both of us are moving up while Notts County is slipping. - Do you think we have a chance to pass Ebbsfleet and grab the top spot? - Ebbsfleet is far ahead. They slowed down a bit, which is good news but still… - Are you confident about being in the play-offs at least? - I’d say that we have very good chances to be in the play-offs, having 19 points over the fifth place is a more than decent cushion! - It would be something awesome to be head to toe with Ebbsfleet on our last game of the season, no? - It would be exciting for sure! I think we should be presented with an exciting closing of the season at Edgar Street, don’t you think? - You don’t think it would be possible to win against them? After all, the draw we got against them was a late draw, no? - I think, honestly, that you are projecting a little too far ahead. So many things can occur since then. What we prefer to do is to play the games as they come, scenarios, for ten games ahead, they are just conjectures. […] - How is Shaun’s (Okojie) injury? Will he be able to play soon? - Torn knee ligaments are tough injuries. We think he could come back in training in about a week to ten days but we will have to cotton ball him for a while. - Are you scared to use him when he will be ready? - Absolutely not, but what I won’t do is rush things and put us into more trouble. The calendar is too difficult and we need to have him ready. […]” Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag GD Pts 1st Ebbsfleet 33 23 8 2 64 23 41 77 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Hereford 33 22 6 5 69 42 27 72 3rd Accrington 33 21 6 6 93 58 35 69 4th Notts Co 33 21 6 6 64 46 18 69 5th Wrexham 33 15 6 12 56 42 14 51 6th Sutton 33 16 3 14 55 52 3 51 7th Southport 33 15 4 14 73 64 9 49 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th Tranmere 33 14 7 12 53 45 8 49 9th Bromley 33 14 7 12 47 47 0 49 10th Gateshead 33 14 7 12 39 40 1 49 11th Torquay 33 13 9 11 48 47 1 48 12th Newport Co 33 12 11 10 53 56 3 47 13th York 33 14 4 15 60 52 8 46 14th Salford 33 12 9 12 56 51 5 45 15th Eastleigh 33 12 9 12 49 49 0 45 16th Macclesfield 33 12 8 13 43 48 5 44 17th Grimsby 33 12 6 15 38 51 13 42 18th Aldershot 33 10 8 15 36 41 5 38 19th Welling 33 9 7 17 54 58 4 34 20th Darlington 33 9 7 17 48 64 16 34 21st Boreham Wood 33 8 9 16 52 68 16 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22nd FC Halifax 33 7 8 18 48 70 22 29 23rd Maidstone 33 3 8 22 39 80 41 17 24th Morecambe 33 3 7 23 37 80 43 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 1, 2018 Author Share Posted July 1, 2018 The week following the win in the FA Trophy quarter finals (3-1) was a bit hectic, to say the least. First, she had gotten her official confirmation from West Brom for becoming tactical coach of the club. She should then be part of Premiere league next year since, unless utter catastrophe, the Baggies would stay there. Mark already was having talks with a company who would hire him too. His dad, who had some friends in Birmingham, had found them a house already. Britanny would have a backyard and a big park close by! On Tuesday, during Britanny’s chemo, she learned her treatments were having good results and that the doc thought that her prognosis was very encouraging! The tears came instantly and she couldn’t help it… she hugged Dr. Crawford! He laughed but made sure to state that Britanny was not out of the wood yet. Penny got a reminder of that right after the chemo because Britanny had an awful day; throwing up, with acute stomach pains and a mood in sync with those! The pain was so intense that Penny had to bring Britanny back to the hospital where she spent the night, under observation. On Wednesday night, she finally knew the Bulls opponents for the FA Trophy semis: Sutton. The first leg would be at Gander Green Lane and the second leg would be at Edgar Street. The good news was, the club had won both games this season against them! The downside of reaching the semis was that she had another crunch to deal with. Considering the number of injuries she had gotten in the last two months, her staff and she had spent a long time to revise the player rotation and training workload. On Friday, she had gotten a talk with David (Boggins) who confirmed the rumors that were floating around: Hereford FC was being sold. A local businessman had an eye on the club and the Board were seriously listening. He also stated that he was looking at retirement more and more. “It would be nice to give me another promotion and a FA Trophy for my departure!” he had said, half-joking. On Saturday, before the game at Moor Lane, against Salford, she had a look at the new kids for the U18 team. There was a great prospect: Francis Joseph, a midfielder that had a great personality, excellent determination and good leadership. He was a little on the slow side for Conference but, he still had a lot of room to grow. Sam (Walker) had done a great job at Moor Lane, bringing a 3-0 result! Cameron (Walker) had scored two goals and Shaun (Penn), the young CM that she liked so much scored too! Shaun (Okojie) had done his first match, playing 45 minutes. He was out of shape but he had a good start. The defensive line had been absolutely ruthless with 93% of their tackles being successful! That win gave Hereford a place into the Conference record book too! 13 straight wins became the longest streak! Since December 12th, Hereford had beaten absolutely every team they had met! Finally, on Sunday, she went to Edgar Street to see the new kids play their friendly against the regular U18 team. The young Joseph did a great match, with one goal and two assists! She offered him a contract right after the game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 2, 2018 Author Share Posted July 2, 2018 The first leg against Sutton was this afternoon. On the road, she was a bit worried. Yes, the pundits were saying they were favorites. Since the last FA Trophy win, The Bulls had won all their games, yes, but the last two needed to come-back, after trailing by one. So worried was she, her promised schedule with Britanny went out the window. The daughter said she understood but almost all the extra time spent at the club came with a, somewhat, broken hearth… Penny had slept in her daughter’s bed last night but the daughter had a bad one so, the sleeping period had been interrupted multiple times. The game started in a bad way. Sutton won first touch on the coin toss and, on the first thrust; Shawn McCoulsky scored on a cross at the penalty spot! Only 26 seconds of play and it already was 0-1! At least, her boys scored on a rebound eleven minutes later. James (Carvell) was able to take a free ball at the edge of the box. 1-1! Then, on the 37th minute, because of a sloppy play inside the box by Ben (Goodlife), Sutton scored again. 1-2! At half-time, Penny was in a very, very bad mood. The players were being outplayed pretty much everywhere on the pitch! Disgusted, she stood in the middle of the dressing room, not saying anything. The players didn’t dare try to look at her; the stare was too intense! When she left the room, she told Sam (Walker) the tweaks for the second half and he delivered them. When the time to go to the pitch came, she stood by the door, still saying nothing. The players did a little better but, yet again, the passing was ineffective, multiple passes were off target, causing counter attacks. At least, Josh (Barnes) was doing his job in the net! Tired, she decided to do a big shake up on the 72nd minute; she changed three players! Dean (Rance), Shaun (Penn) and Cameron (Walker) came in and Liam (Jenkins), Mitchell (Glover) and Shaun (Okojie) went out. Shaun was just tired, he had played ok. She asked her boys to play long ball; she had no choice, something had to give! Rod McDonald, inside the Sutton box, got a yellow, which led to a penalty. Dean took it and didn’t miss the chance! 2-2! Then, on a great counter, into injury time, Shaun Penn made a great pass to Jay (Richards) who just had to tap the ball in the net for the win! 3-2! She stood, close to the door, to give the players their traditional fist bump but there was no smile in her face. Once all were inside, she went to them and, very very calmly, she said: “You know you didn’t play well today, right?” and she left. While the boys went to the showers, Jack (Collison), Adam (El-Abd) and Sam came in the temporary office with the preliminary stats of the game. “We weren’t bad at all in the second half” said Jack. - We got lucky!” said Adam. - “I concur. The boys made too many mistakes. They got intercepted at least ten times just because the passing was beyond awful!” added Sam. The ride back to Hereford was pretty silent. David (Boggins), who was looking at the Conference results showed something to Penny: Ebbsfleet had gotten a 1-1 draw against Welling this afternoon. This meant that the Bulls were only three points behind first place… with seven games to play and, the last one being against Ebbsfleet! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 “What I want for us, tomorrow, is one thing. One thing only: preserve you for the last stretch!” Yesterday, Penny started the pre-game briefing this way, and continued. “We are leading by one so, I want to preserve it. We will play defensively; we will play for nothing else but the draw. Alright?” All the players bobbed their head up and down. “Good. How will we do that? First, we will play possession for the sake of possession. If they don’t have the ball, they can’t score! Second, we will play in a way to make as certain as possible, to avoid injuries of any kind! In the last weeks, we got injuries cropping up, here and there, because of a March crunch! So, the players who will start the game will, for the most part, be subbed at the first sign of fatigue. Is that clear?” They all nodded again. The roster was full of subs on the starting line-up. She had talked, at length, with Sam (Walker), Jack (Collison) and Adam (El-Abd) so that they could play a tight game, based on possession. The starting eleven was reflecting that. For Penny, the key was the promotion that was in grasping reach! The Bulls were guaranteed a place in the play-offs for a month by now but, Ebbsfleet was the target. There were six league games yet to play and they were trailing Ebbsfleet by one point! They had an easier calendar too, other than the Fleet, which was the last match of the season and who would be played at home, she was meeting only one other team that was higher than mid table. For the Fleet though, they would mainly meet top table’s team all the way to the end. There was no way for the Bulls to win on goal difference so, there was only one way in: winning as much games as possible and hope they get slowed down just a little! The stadium was almost at maximum capacity and the atmosphere was really great! As usual by now, other than the baskets of sweets, Britanny came to the dressing room, for good luck! She loved that! Penny had agreed but it was out of the question to bring her on the Bulls bench now. Once was more than enough! The first half went well for the Bulls. Letting Sutton shoot only four times total and two of them inside the box but at bad angles. The funny thing though, was that her boys were getting good chances so, they took them! They had fired eight times, three of them on target and at least three clear cut chances but the U’s goalkeeper had made the saves. The final was there, she could almost touch it! At half time, she just told her boys to stay focus and that all was going well! She saw them enter the pitch with high focus and determination. Adam even made a comment, with a big smile, to Penny after they had all gone out the dressing room: “I think the game is already over Penny!” He was right! The players did a flawless second half! Letting the U’s fire only twice, from very far outside the box at that! The Bulls?, they added nine shots, six of them inside the box, including two under the penalty area! At the 75th minute, Jay (Richards), on a perfect cross from Reece (Miller) tapped the ball inside the Sutton goal, sealing the fate of the semis! The Bulls fans gave their team what they deserved! For ten minutes, non-stop, the Bulls players were treated with a standing ovation, with the chants and everything that comes with it! The next stop was Wembley, at the end of May! In the dressing room, she told them: “You played a great game tonight! You didn’t over reach; you stayed focus and respected the game plan! Now, it’s time for the real grind!” Penny’s tone changed, it became a bit solemn. “Now, I don’t know about you but the Fleet? I want to end the season above them! We know that our defense had problems sometimes, made us win by short margins, which gives the edge to Ebbsfleet. So, there is only one way to pass them: To win everything, including against them! Here! At Edgar Street! On the last game of the season! So, enjoy your off time because when you’ll come back, in two days, I’ll work you like bulls!” All laughed and cheered! When she went into her office, she saw Matty Talbut, the new Bulls President. “Congratulations!” he said to her. She smiled. - “Thank you sir! - You are very good with your players!” She brushed it aside fast. - “Sir, I don’t do anything that I’m not supposed to do. My job is to keep the boys focused and happy….” He interrupted her mid-sentence. - “Penny, I know you already said you were leaving at the end of the season but, I was wondering if it could be possible to convince you to stay, here, at Hereford.” She was going to speak but he stopped her, again. “I know you already have an arrangement with West Brom but I would be willing to compensate them, handsomely, and to offer you a contract offer that would be very generous.” David (Boggins) had already warned her that it would very well be possible the new President would come at her so that she could stay. She already knew the man a little, he was an avid Bulls fan and, in events, had told Penny numerous times how much he appreciated her and the way she had transformed the team. - “Sir, my reason for leaving as nothing to do with money. I cannot, in good conscience, be a part time manager with a club that I plan to send to League 2 at the end of this season!” The man’s demeanor told her he didn’t like to be said no… For his reputation as a businessman, he probably was not accustomed to be said no... - “Just know that, until you officially sign your contract with the Baggies, I have an offer ready for you, ok? - Alright sir but I don’t want to make you wait uselessly. My daughter must come first.” When she was ready to leave Edgar Street, her thoughts drifted back to the meet with the new owner. He loved the Bulls but, to her, there something that was nagging at her senses. She usually was good at reading peoples, the non-verbal part. Him though, she couldn’t read if he was sincere in anything or not. One thing she knew though, his familiarity with her was a big turn-off. Coming like she they’d raised sheep together, always too close, always coming inside her bubble… When she put a foot outside Edgar Street, her number one fan ran to her, all smiles and wanting a hug. When Penny leaned to pick her up, she hugged her in a way that was saying the world she was the happiest woman on earth at that moment and that any other thoughts had been evacuated from her mind as well! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 Penny had negotiated, a little, with her daughter. She felt guilty about that but she had to. After the Sutton semis in the FA Trophy, Penny had to go on the road with the team. The stakes were too high. Britanny had said she understood but Penny promised that she would talk lot on the phone with her while going and coming back from games. Penny was still convinced her daughter had gotten sick because of her not being sufficiently home. Mark knew she was feeling that way but had better sense than to argue with her. Today, as she was rolling toward Moss Rose, Macclesfield’s stadium, Penny’s mind was spilt in three; talking with her daughter, worrying about the stakes of the game's aftermath and try and stay focused on the game itself! Fifteen days ago, against FC Halifax, her team had tripped, getting a draw, instead of a win. Since Ebbsfleet was winning everything, it meant that her lone point transformed into a full three points behind the Fleet on the table, again. The Bulls were still firmly in the second spot, but still... There were three games left and, despite her promise, mainly to hereself, Penny couldn’t not go. And, finally, feeling very uncomfortable with the new owner on her right side, that was constantly talking on his saying his team was good, his staffs was good, his, his, his… So far, in her life, she never interacted, for a long period of time, with peoples who think that other peoples could be owned. With David (Boggins), the master of the “No worries mate! We’ll think of something!”, it always was easy going, frank, with no games. With Matty Talbut, the new owner, it felt always like “No worries! Nothing can happen because I am here!” This, she didn't like... The weather was as sad as the crowd was small; barely 1600 in the stands; the Bulls fans alone, making over 40% of it! After the warm-up, the players came into the dressing room, Penny felt them very nervous. They knew the stakes too. “Boys, listen up!” Penny started. “Today, I only have one thing to say to you: YOU! ARE! NO FERDINAND! You heard that many times, right? Live it once more! GO! GO! GO!” She thought her boys were pumped! The minute the game started, she saw they weren’t! Barely four minutes in, on a stupid pass, they offered the Silkmen a golden opportunity; on an easy interception, they were able to bring the ball straight to the penalty spot and Koby Arthur only had to tap the ball in! 0-1! Then, on the 45th minute flat! Jordan (Cranston) lost the ball right at the mouth of the Macclesfield box. They counter attacked like bats coming out of hell! Three missed tackles and two more mistakes close to the Bulls box gave Jordan Thompson an opportunity that he didn’t miss! 0-2! Penny was disgusted but, got an idea. She called Sam (Walker) and talked to him for about twenty seconds. Sam ran into the dressing room to do what she had asked. When the referee called the first half off, she saw her players hunched, like they already had given up on the match. When they passed her, to enter the dressing, she didn’t let show what she had in mind; she wore her stone face. When she entered, she saw Sam making her a thumb up sign, she signaled him to stay put for a second. Penny walked to the center of the dressing room; she was seeing her boys like she had never seen them before! She stood up, in front of them and said nothing for about a minute. When she saw that they were all looking at her, she talked: “Come here!” None moved… “Come. Here!” Andy (Jackson) and Tareq (Shihab) got up, temptively; the rest followed. She made a quick sign to Sam to bring the laptop. All the players were at the center of the room now. Penny got the laptop and showed them the screen. On it, was Britanny, with her Bulls shirt! “Honey, you are hearing me?” Penny asked her. - “Yes!” answered Britanny, all giddy! - “Ok! Do you like what you heard on the radio? About the match? - NO!” she screamed! “You STINK!” A heavy silence was filling the room. Penny was seeing that some players had felt a pang at the answer. Britanny was waiting for something but it wasn’t coming. She added “Mummy, did you lose?” Penny let some time go by, wanting one player to say something but none was saying anything, but she saw the demeanor change. - “Maybe honey.” She turned the screen toward herself and made a smile to the camera for Britanny to see her. “I love you my little fighter! I gotta go now! - I love you mummy!” and the daughter made a flying kiss to the camera. Penny closed the laptop, said nothing, and went to the temporary office, bringing anyone who wasn’t a player with her, including the new owner; he didn’t seem to like it at all. When it was time to go out to the pitch, she just passed by everybody, saying nothing, followed by all the staffs. When she saw the boys enter the pitch, they weren’t the same as when they went out at the end of the first half. Four minutes into the second half, after a 12 passes counter that started with Josh (Barnes) holding a cross he intercepted, Reece (Miller) received a perfect through ball right in the middle of the box and he scored! 1-2! The players were making fewer mistakes. They still had trouble going through the, now, very defensive 5-3-2 formation the Silkmen had put on the field but, they were pushing! On the 70th minute, on a corner, Andy (Jackson) made a great header at the first post and scored! 2-2! Seventeen minutes later, buzzing around Macclesfield’s box, the ball went on the right side to Tareq who made a cross to the second post where Reece fought hard to get the header against the Silkmen’s right back but won it and scored! 3-2! The Bulls fans exploded with joy in the stands! Them, who were chanting since the first Reece goal, were absolutely ecstatic at the come-back! When the referee called the game off after four minutes of injury times, she heard her players screaming to the sky! Josh ran from his goal straight to Penny and hugged her! “Boss! If you weren’t married already, I’d ask you here and now!” and he gave her a second hug, a real bear of a hug! He was crying like he had won the FA Cup! In the dressing room, the players were teary! The stress and the final outcome created an absolutely crazy atmosphere! Scott (Martin) came to see Penny, he was flanked by Tareq, Reece and Jay (Richards). “Where is our fighter from the wake-up call?” he asked her. She laughed. - “We’re serious boss, we want to see her!” said Reece. - “Yeah!” added Tareq! Penny saw that it was, indeed, serious, so she asked Sam to bring her her cell and her laptop. She called Mark, who picked the call after half a ring! He laughed at the demand and said it would take a few seconds. Adam (El-Abd) brought a little table and Penny put the laptop on it, opened and awaited the call, on it. By this time, all the players had congregated around the table. The videophone app started to flash, Penny answered. Britanny’s face appeared! She was beaming! Shaun (Okojie), who had been a sub today, was the one who spoke first: “Hey little fighter!” She smiled even more, recognizing his voice! - “You didn’t even play today!” All laughed at the candid comment! - “You still think we stink?” asked Tareq. - “Naw, not now but you were stinking before!” All laughed again! - “We wanted to tell you that we won because of you!” said Scott. “We were able to win just because we saw you! - It’s because of you, little girl, that we knew that we could win!” added Reece. - “Boss, you think we could see her when we get back at Edgar Street?” asked Mitchell (Glover). She couldn’t say no. - “Honey, put dad on the video!” Britanny screamed in front of the screen. - “DAD! MUM WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!” All the players laughed. Mark appeared on the screen, smiling. - “Why don’t you make sure to be at Edgar Street when we’ll arrive later today, ok? - Sure babe. - I’ll call you about thirty minutes before our arrival. - Alright. See you later!” and he shut the app. All the players were looking at Penny, all wearing a big, fat, smirk. It wasn’t every day that your boss was getting called “babe” in front of the subordinates, huh? As the players were in the showers, Adam showed his cell to Penny. On it, the result of the Ebbsfleet – Accrington match. The Fleet had lost 2-3! This meant that they were tie on points on the table, both teams being at 103! There was an explosion in the temporary office! When the bus arrived at the club, Mark and Britanny were there, in the parking lot. The daughter still was wearing her Bulls shirt. When the bus stopped, Penny went to the door and said to Britanny to come in the bus. When she entered, she was literally glowing! Everybody cheered! With spring in her steps, she ran toward the end of the bus, where Shaun was, having her head rubbed by every single player and staff! When she made the return trip, she was beaming at her mum! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 5, 2018 Author Share Posted July 5, 2018 “If we would have told you that, the very last game of the season would have such high stakes, would you have believed it?” was asking Bruce, the Bulls radio announcer, to Penny, just before the match. - “Nope! - You always said you liked those types of games though? - I thrive for those! - Well, Penny, there is only one thing to say that would be fitting huh? - You bet Bruce! WE are NO Ferdinand… again!” They both laughed! Penny was going back to the dressing room. The warm-up was almost over. As she was going into her office, she saw that Mark was already there with Britanny, both talking with Sam (Walker). The daughter was all ready, wearing her jersey and her face paints! She was eating some carrots, sitting at Penny’s desk. She was smiling up to her ears! “You ready my love?” Penny asked her. She nodded; too busy chewing at her carrot and smiling at the same time to talk. Not only she was being the lucky charm today but yesterday, Dr. Crawford had told her she was almost healthy again! Only five weeks of treatments left, after that, it would only be follow ups. Penny and Mark had fallen asleep, crying of joy yesterday night! During the week, preparing for the match, she realized how, for some reason that she didn’t really understand, everything had fallen into place for the team. Adam (El-Abd) even made a comment, during a lunch last week, that she really had a knack for signing players that would be working well together. In the end, it really was the year of the highest and the lowest at the same time! The lowest for sure, was Britanny’s fight with Leukemia! It was the lowest she could go, especially since she had absolutely no control on it! The two high points, on which she had some control of, were in front of her now: the FA Trophy, in about a month and today’s game for the title in Conference! The players were entering the dressing room, the warm-up period over. She took a little look inside, to see how the players were; she smiled internally. She then turned to Britanny and made a little sign. The daughter rapidly came toward her mum. “What you are not to say?” asked Penny to her daughter, as she was taking her in her arms. - “Mummy!” she answered, while sticking her tongue’s out… then smiling! - “Mark? “ Penny said to her husband who looked at her. She mouthed in silence “I love you” and left for the dressing room. As Penny entered the room with Britanny, she saw that the new owner was in there too but, she dismissed the fact, she had a team to prepare and a game to win! When she arrived at the center of the dressing room, all the players quickly gathered around their lucky charm! Penny put her on the floor and the daughter went to each player who welcomed her, often got hugs from the little girl and, of course, gave a little rub on her, stil bald, head. Shaun (Okojie) took her in his arms and he offered a (little) bear hug to the daughter who reciprocated, with gusto! When all had gotten their share, Penny picked her daughter and gave her a hug and kissed her head. “I love you my dear” murmured Penny. She received a kiss and another hug. “Go see daddy now, I’ll see you after the game.” Penny put the little girl on the floor that ran to Mark who was in Penny’s office. Penny stayed in the middle of the dressing room, silent. She was merely looking at her boys; they were now over the show of “little miss sunshine” and were putting their game faces. Letting some time go by, she finally spoke: “Boys?” All looked at her in a heartbeat. “You don’t need me to tell you what is at stake here, right?” She was hearing the player’s silence. She felt they were there, where they should be. “Be focus, be aggressive, be smart!” After some seconds, she finally added “and have fun!” Sam was at the door and was fist bumping them as the players were going to the pitch when Adam and Jack (Collison) joined Penny. Adam passed an arm over her shoulders and gave her a side hug. “You know boss?” he said to her, while wearing a smirk. “When I see and hear you like that, I always think back when I was a young player like they are. I would have felt so big and so tall and so good!” Penny became a tad red. He still was a man who spent most of its life in Championship! - “Shut up you young buck! You’re making me blush!” she answered. The three laughed and started to walk for the door. When she got her own fist bump, Sam gave her a little wink and a smile before going out the door. Penny stopped and took a deep breath before going out. She was ready! When she stepped outside, the rowdy fans became wild! The stadium was full and the atmosphere was all it should be! She worked hard not to smile; she wanted, by her demeanor, to state high and clear that she was ready for this! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 All the players were ready to play and when the whistle called the game on, the fans in the stands said they were ready too; the chanting began right at start! Conference couldn’t have wanted a better scenario: the two best teams of the year against each other, on the very last game and the stakes was clear: direct promotion for one of them! The first half was a test in composure for both sides. Early in the game, everyone saw that the pressing was intense on the pitch. The players were playing splendidly! Penny had modified her approach significantly. She was still using her 4-4-2 diamond, on a low block, but added tweaks. First, instead of asking her midfielders and the DM to systematically press only the two strikers, as she usually did against 4-4-2s, she asked the midfielders AND her AM, Mitchell (Glover), to press like mad on all the middle line. Ebbsfleet had the two best midfielders in the league and she wanted to neutralize them. She asked her boys to restrain themselves from tackling, just to force the Fleet players to make mistakes because of the heighten pressure. Second, she asked her two strikers to prevent short distribution from the goalkeeper by pressing him too. The end result she wanted was a cut out midfield/forward positions from the back line and, since the goalkeeper wasn’t the best at hoofing the ball with precision, it should give many opportunities. It was on one of those opportunities that Jay (Richards) opened up the score on the 29th minute. Pressed, and with his defensive line covered, the goalkeeper only had options far in front. Tareq (Shihab) intercepted the ball and countered quickly with a long ball on the right flank to Shaun (Okojie) who, as soon as he crossed the box line on the right side, tried to pass it to Jay who was entering the box. Unfortunately, the ball was deflected to the midfield by a CD. Mitchell (Glover) went straight to the free ball and, without hesitation, made a quick through pass to Jay who made an unstoppable shot in the top left corner of the goal! 1-0! In the dressing room, at half time, Penny was calm, in the middle of the dressing room, she felt nervousness creeping in everybody, including herself but she couldn’t let it show. “Boys! You are playing a hell of a game! BUT! The game is not over yet! Continue to maintain the pressure on them! They only got three shots so far but they were all good chances! Stay focused! Press! Be aggressive and continue to use your head!” She then proceeded to her office. Wanting the boys to be alone, she shooed everybody out. The new President, who was already inside when she entered the dressing room, wanted to stay but she gave him a deadly stare! He caved and when he entered her office, he was the last one to do so; she closed the door with her crutch, behind him. He wanted to say something but she didn’t let him speak first! “Sir, this dressing room belongs to me!” He was clearly shocked by the tone, and the words! He obviously was looking for a retort but her face, and the mood in the office that became ice cold instantly, made him reconsider. He lifted a hand and just said: “Ok!” and he walk straight to the corridor door without saying anything else. When the time to go on the pitch came, Adam (El-Abd) went to Penny, put gently his hand on her right shoulder and smiled at her. The result was instantaneous; she relaxed and was focus for the second part of the match. When the game restarted, she saw that the Fleet had changed their approach. They had decided to play with the two wingers going way higher on the pitch, which made their 4-4-2 become a 4-2-4. She quickly shouted to Jordan (Cranston) and Tareq, who were on attack roles, to play more of a support role, not to push too much! She also asked Matty (Dickson), who was in a BWM role to go down as a DM on support. She then said to Joel (Kaduba), who was playing anchor, to play DM on support too. To both, she asked to press hard, to barely tackle but also, to mark tighter. Scott (Martin), who was playing a B2B role, stayed there but she asked him to play as a basic CM on support. It was close to parking the bus, especially with Mitchell (Glover), her AP in AMC position that had the habit of going lower to recuperate balls. On the 67th minute, the Fleet goalkeeper, on a goal kick, tried to reach his right winger, far in front but Jordan saw the play quickly. He intercepted the ball and, seeing Jay already sprinting to the big, fat, empty space down the left side of the pitch, he hoofed the ball way long, over the head of everybody! The Ebbsfleet left back was quickly lost in Jay’s dust who ran to the ball and carried it to the goal line where he made a long floating cross at the second post where Shaun, with his 1,9m height, was able to beat the CD and take the header. The ball went into the top left corner of the goal! 2-0! The crowd went wild; starting to chant “League 2! League 2!” Penny was ambiguous, she wanted to start playing a more defensive set up but, this season, she had been bitten in the butt by 4-4-2s when she did it so, she didn’t say anything to her boys. She quickly saw nervousness creeping in her boys, just by the way they were playing and, for some, they went into a defensive mode by themselves! She screamed at them not to! To continue to work and to control the match but mistakes were starting to pile up. On the 80th minute, Andy (Jackson) made a stupid mistake, right outside the Bulls box and got yellow! She had already asked her two defenders subs, Ben (Goodlife), CD and Max (Melbourne), left back, to warm-up right after the second goal. She didn’t hesitate one second and she called Andy to the bench. She looked at Ben and sent him at Andy’s place, has the right CD. Five minutes later, the Fleet came oh! so close to score on a corner! With the ball hitting the framework! She felt all her players have a heart attack! She tried to cheer them up but the pressure was there and the mistakes were piling more and more! Just before the start of injury time (three minutes more), on a throw in on the left side, the Fleet left winger ran with the ball to the goal line and made a perfect cross to Curtis Randall that was all alone at the penalty spot! 2-1! She heard Scott scream from the top of the box: “Don’t stop playing guys! COME ON!” The fans chanted the “We are no Ferdinand” gig louder and louder, trying to cheer up their team. When the referee, finally!, called the end of the match, the pitch was instantly flooded by the Bulls fans! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 “I thought so…” Sam (Walker) told Penny with a bit of sadness in his voice. She had asked her boys to come to the club the next Friday, for a little team meeting before the FA Trophy game in two weeks. She had planned two easy friendlies until then, just to keep her boys in shape. She wanted to tell all, a long time before the game, that she had already given her resignation and had accepted an offer to go to West Brom as tactical coach and analyst, just working on regular day time schedule, for Britanny. She wanted to tell her staffs before the meeting though. - “I think it’s a good middle ground solution for you” added Adam (El-Abd). “I, we, saw that you found it hard not to travel with the team. It will also keep you on the radar of everybody for the time you will want to come back, as a manager! - Yeah! I find it a bit sad though…” said Jack (Collison). - “Haven’t you had contracts renewals with the new President?” asked Penny. - “We all got one after the Ebbsfleet game” said Sam. - “You’ll do ok in League 2, I think. - It depends on the one they’ll hire I imagine.” said Adam. - “At least, we have a good group of players that are already at League 2 level or, extremely close to!” added Jack. - “I think so too! Jay, Tareq, Jordan, Josh, Mitchell and Joel are already there. Andy is very very close, at worst!” They talked, lightly, while sipping their tea in her office. They already had a good game plan for the Salford game at Wembley. They would barely do any training and just keep the boys in shape for it. The boys started to arrive, most still wearing the glow of the last win! Once all the players were there, she went to the briefing room. All were smiling, and clearly, still under the spell of going to League 2! “I hope you have feasted enough and are now ready to come back to work!” she said. All laughed! “Ok, first, the FA Trophy game. Until the match, we will play two very easy friendlies, just to keep you in shape and, to minimize the injuries; you will all play only 45 minutes per game. In between them, the training will be kept light but, always centered on the match itself. Ok with that?” All the players nodded. “Now….” Her voice changed. “I want to tell you, well in advance, that the game at Wembley will be my last one with you.” All the players gapped! She lifted her left hand fast! “Wait, listen to me, ok?” She started walking around the room, slowly. “You all know what happened to my daughter this year. Just so you know, you were a lifeline to all my family by the way. The thing is, the time away from the team, to be with Britanny and not to travel with you, it made me think, a lot! I cannot, in good conscience, be a part time manager of a pro football team!” She saw that some players had teary eyes. “I have put a lot of pressure on the staffs by not being present, and I have put a lot of pressure on you as well. A few weeks back, I got a phone call for a meet, with an offer that was exactly corresponding with what I was able to do.” Heavy silence reigned in the room. She was seeing more tears too. Andy (Jackson) then talked. - “What will you do boss? - The West Brom manager, Javier Aguirre, he offered me to be a tactical coach and analyst for the team. Working only on day time schedule, without the obligation to go to any game. That way, I’ll basically do a football job, but on an office hour’s schedule.” The players were trying to recuperate from, what they perceived, as a thunder blaster in the face! Most of them were squishing tears from the corners of their eyes. Penny was smiling at them. She found them so endearing! The boys then went to training with a heavy heart she saw. Mitchell (Glover) came to her. His eyes reddened by tears. “Boss?” he told her. “I wanted huh…. to thank you…. For everything you did for me. For letting me play against the Fleet last week….” He was staring at his feet, like a little kid! She felt like hugging the boy! - “Mitchell, you played because you did what you needed to do to be in that game! You played because you worked hard! I have nothing to do with it, you made me do it!” He didn’t answer but hugged her instead. She felt tears falling down her neck… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 Wembley was a beautiful stadium; there was no doubt about that! She had already been on the pitch of the old Wembley, for a friendly when she was with the Lionesses. Her players had gotten some stories from the staff and herself about the old stadium. Adam (El-Abd) had played three times at Wembley, once in the old and twice in the actual stadium. The team was ready for their big game! Since the end of the regular season, they had trained a lot and were only eager for the match to be played. In the dressing room, before going to the warm-up, Sam (Walker) and Jack (Collison) had walked in the place with a giant basket of sweets! There must have been enough for 100 peoples in it! The players gathered around the basket and were joking. The basket had become a staple of their pre-game routine and, especially before the big games; it had become a moment of levity where pressure could be evacuated a little. Penny was looking at her boys. She felt a little pang, thinking about the fact it would be her last game with them… When the players headed to the pitch for the warm-up, she went to her temporary office, as usual, to change. She took some extra time to make a solid bun with her hair; she wanted them to stay in place. Just as she was finishing, her personal cell phone rang; it was David (Boggins): “Hello David!” she said - I know the boys are on the pitch at the moment, I wanted to take some time to tell you how much I am happy of what you have done! - What do you mean; you know the boys are on pitch? - I’m in the stands, in the non-committed crowd!” Penny gapped… “You didn’t think I would miss the game you were talking about since last year, did you?” She felt her eyes moisten. - “Oh David, I… - Don’t! Do like you always do, give everything you have! Have a good game Ms. Stiles!” and he hung up. Penny had to take a few moments to get her composure back. A knock on the door took care of it. “Come in!” she said loudly. Sam and Adam came in with the official line-up. The three of them huddled together, looking at the list of players. - “They will park the bus on both sides I think!” said Sam. - “Yeah, I agree.” Added Adam. “Those two side backs aren’t able to bomb and their midfield is composed of their two most defensive minded players… - Ok!” said Penny. “We ask both Jordan (Cranston) and Tareq (Shihab) to bomb the flanks and we tell the team to play a little wider… - I’d ask the defensive line to play normal, not a notch higher” answered Sam. “My guess is that they will play highly structured and try to only put balls over the defenders. Their two strikers are super fast…” All concured. Once the players were all back, she let them prepare themselves a little. As she was ready to go in the middle of the dressing room, Matty Talbut, the Bulls President barged in the dressing room with some guests! She instantly got mad! She couldn’t throw him out, vocally, in front of the players. Sam, who read her body language, rapidly went to man and his group, trying to make him leave as politely as he could. The President shot a dark stare at Penny, stayed there and talked to his guests for ten full minutes, just to make a show! Boasting about his team, his players! Penny just turned around and went to her office. She stayed there, in silence, immobile, while all she wanted to do was destroy everything in there! When he finally left, there was no time left to try and gather her boys together… She barely had time to tell them the system tweaks when they got the signal to go to the corridor and meet the kids that would escort them to the pitch. Sam was at the door, fist bumping the players; she stayed behind, trying to not let her emotional state show… It was wasted energy; all the players knew her well… When it was time for her to leave, Sam looked at her and smiled… It was the first time he had to cheer her up! In the corridor, she quickly met Anthony Johnson, the Salford manager. He was a tall man, very warmth, who always treated her with respect and civility. She offered him her hand, smiling: “Good game Anthony!” she said. - “Same to you Penny!” he answered, smiling too. The signal was given and both teams started to walk to the pitch, meeting the 24 000+ spectators that started cheering! Penny was trying to sink in the atmosphere but she still was angry at the display by the President of the club… After the little ceremony, the match started! Barely one minute in, she saw that it would be a defensive fest! Salford was literally having a minimum of five on the defensive line, a CM dropping down very low. At the same time, the wingers and the strikers were pressing like crazy! It took Sam, ten minutes into the game, to make her realize that Salford was playing with the right back playing higher on the pitch! As she was screaming to Jordan to be on a support role, the ball was hoofed by the Ammies central defender on the right side of the pitch, far behind Jordan who got slowed by their right striker. It was the right back that ran to the ball and was able to cross it from the goal line. Omar (Sowunnmi) missed the header and the ball was recuperated by Noel Mbo, Salford’s left side striker who didn’t miss his chance! 0-1! Penny was fuming! She told her boys to get back up and to work again! A few instants after the play started from the middle, she saw that the Ammies changed formation, bringing their two CMs as DMs. The wingers stayed at their position, sitting narrower and pressing with gusto. Until the end of the first half, the Bulls couldn’t do anything in front of the box. When the whistle was heard, Penny went straight to the dressing room. As her boys came in, she was in the middle of the dressing room, she could see their faces; frustration was creeping in. The talk she gave was aimed, mainly, at trying to gather the team, to try and give some energy into the squad. When they went back on the pitch, they were in better mental state for sure but she wasn’t able to muster the same faith in herself… Right at the start, Tareq bombed the right side and was able to make a good cross to the penalty area to Jay (Richards) who made a great header that hit the bar! She watched Tareq and made a sign to stay in support and move a bit inside, to create a three CD line. Jordan was asked to go wingback, at the height of Joel (Kaduba), her DM. Mitchell (Glover) had been pushed on the AMR position. It was an asymmetric system, wider than usual, to try and stretch the play. On the 55th minute, Salford made a change, bringing in a third CD, asking one of the wingers to go as CM and making the other leave the pitch. Seventy minutes in, Jordan was able to get a pass deep on the left side of the pitch. He crossed the ball to Jay, at the first post, which made another header on the bar! She pulled him out to bring in Reece (Miller) instead. The asymmetric system was working; Jay had gotten three solid chances to get a goal, twice a bar and the last one, kicking the ball right into the goalkeeper’s stomach! Mitchell was able to make a perfect pass to Reece barely three minutes later but, from the edge of the box, he missed by a few centimeters! Anthony Johnson pulled a striker out and brought one more CM! When the referee called the end of the match, after four minutes of injury times, the Bulls had been able to shoot quality, dangerous shots. nine times in the second half alone but never were able to score! The players were either cheering or crying on the pitch. Penny went straight to Anthony and congratulated him for the win. She did the same with all the staffs then went at the dressing room door, waiting for her boys to come in. It took a long time for her boys to come in it seemed… she wasn’t even sad she was just angry! Not at her boys! They had given all they had, did all they could! When they passed her, all got a fist bump and the warmest smile she could offer. Once Josh (Barnes) was in front of her, being the last to go inside, he looked at her with teary red eyes: “I’m so…” he started to say. - “No!” she interrupted him. “Don’t!” She took her goalkeeper in her arms and hugged him… he started to cry, again… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rien102 Posted July 9, 2018 Author Share Posted July 9, 2018 The sun was high, with no cloud in the sky to cover it in any way, and the perfect 16oC was just accompanied by a slight wind. As she was heading for the door, she crossed path with Billy, the main grounds keeper. She smiled at him and gave her the keys to her office. He sheepishly smiled back while taking them. As she was about to pass the doors, for one last time at Edgar Street, she turned to look at the Bull on the wall and she thought of everything she’d learned here… “Maybe later on, I’ll make another splash, somewhere…. But not now, I have Britanny to take care of…” The end. Foreword I have never, ever overachieved like this in a save before. While playing this save, a ton of stuff aligned in my head about roles and tactics and systems. I did get promotions, one year in, with LLM saves before, but to achieve two promotions in two years? Never. Best I ever did was getting promoted from Conference South but took two years in Conference before going up to League 2, through the play-offs! Funnily, I still can’t seem to win FA Trophy when I over perform on the table… I am not a writer, at all. I do write a lot for my job, I have to write and file a ton of progress updates and stuff like that, but they are technical, often with lots of numbers, close to a point form format. But “literary” type of writing, I never did that. I knew it would be a difficult endeavour. I never thought it would be something so emotional though! It surprised me, during that save, how emotional and attached I felt to the save and to that woman that exists, only in the save! Usually not a very emotional type in real life, I was surprised, and shocked!, when I had to squish a tear here and there, when I was writing some parts of the story. I even needed to open up about that thing, with one of the hall of famer, asking if it was me going insane… So, thanks for reading me till the end. B.L. a.k.a. Rien102 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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