A Tale of Two Brothers

[Offspring8]

“There they are! That’s my boys!” shouted Liam as the teams emerged from the tunnel. Jennie already had then camera flashing away and must have taken around 40 pictures within the first minute. Both parents and Clive almost burst with joy at the site of the two youngsters lining up in the yellow Oxford shirts.

To see one of them score would be a fantastic moment - especially for Jennie. She’d been through a lot to raise her sons in a way that she thought was right. To see them make a profession from football would have made everything she’d been through, worth it. It would show Andrew that he hadn’t broken their family with his violence.

**********

Colin placed the ball down outside the area. It was too much of an angle to take a shot so Colin was already looking for someone to aim for. With no obvious targets, Colin decided just to try and put the free-kick into a dangerous area and see what came of it.

The whistle blew and Colin struck the ball. Disappointingly, the cross hit the wall and bounced off-course, but still landed inside the area. Oxford’s defender Chris Willmott picked the ball up and passed it into the 6 yard box in hope of somebody picking it up.

And when the ball rolled to the feet of Jamie Constable, it came as no surprise to everyone that he took his chance well, blasting home past the ‘keeper from close to continue his good pre-season scoring record and give Oxford a shock lead.

After the goal – despite good link up play between Robert and Colin – Coventry came forward, scrapping and scratching for the goal to make both teams level again. Then, as Oxford’s ‘keeper Ben Hinchcliffe tipped another shot over for a Coventry corner, Colin heard a part of the crowd singing a song about Swindon.

Everybody knows about the Swindon-Oxford rivalry, and how both teams always sing about the other even in matches when they are completely unrelated. Well, this match was no different, with a song to the tune of ‘The Adams Family’:

“Their sister is their mother,

Their father is their brother,

They like to sh*g each other,

The Swindon Family,”

Colin had to smile to himself. Football was a humorous sport with plenty of banter between fans – that was part of what made football the sport that it was.

Then, as he looked around, Colin saw something which shouldn’t have surprised him, but still did. Grandad Clive was stood up on his chair, chanting along to the song, pumping one fist into the air after the other while Jennie was tugging at his Oxford shirt to get him down. Some may think he’s as mad as a hatter, others may think he’s just a good guy having a laugh, but nobody could deny he was one of a kind.

“He’s off once he gets into it, isn’t he?” Robert smirked to Colin. Colin nodded and laughed back before trotting off to pick his man up for the corner.

**********

”We had joy,

We had fun,

We had Scumdon on the run,

But the Joy didn’t last,

‘cause the basta—”

“Dad please, just sit down and stop singing! You’re distracting the boys!” said Jennie, still trying to pull Clive down to his seat.

“But Jennie, I’m just being vocal in my support.”

“What, by singing about having Swindon Town fans on the run but not being able to catch them because they're too fast at an Oxford-Coventry pre-season friendly?”

“Well....the boys find it funny,” smiled Clive.

[Offspring8]

Jennie shot a look of anger at Clive, who just turned back to the match laughing, only to find Coventry on the attack. 20 minutes had passed now and Oxford were still in the lead despite heavy pressure from their Championship opponents.

Coventry won another corner which Isaac Osbourne ran across to take. From Hinchcliffe’s left hand side, Osbourne punted the corner onto the penalty spot where there were a crowd of Oxford and Coventry players jostling for their right to attack the ball.

Coventry’s French midfielder Guillaume Beuzelin was the one who met the ball on the half-volley, and he made no mistake in converting the chance. Oxford had thrown away their lead thanks to a set piece which could have been avoided with tighter marking.

The half continued with Coventry being denied by some last minute defending and good goalkeeping. It also didn’t help when they struck the woodwork and hit easy chances off-target.

Eventually, they hit the back of the net once more. Freddy Eastwood was put through on goal and slipped the ball past Ben Hinchcliffe with a cool finish, but Coventry were to be frustrated once more. The linesman flagged, the ref blew and Coventry protested - the final conclusion being that Oxford stayed level until half time, even if by the skin of their teeth.

**********

“Colin, you’re doing well defensively mate but I know there is a lot more to come from you,” said Chris. Colin nodded and took a sip of his Lucozade. He agreed with the manager and was frustrated at himself. There was a lot more to come from him.

“Try and bring him into the game, boys. I can see that Coventry have him marked down as a danger and that they sometimes even have two men on him, but if we can get Colin clocking away in midfield, we can get ourselves a goal or two. Other than that, well done and keep going. We’re battling out there and that’s what we want to see,” continued the manager.

“How are you finding your first game at the Kassam so far then, mate?” said Joe Burnell to Robert. Joe had picked up a slight injury in the first half and was holding an ice pack to his knee. Joe was going to be replaced in the second half by Adam Chapman, an 18 year old midfielder on loan from Sheffield United.

“It took a few minutes to get used to but I love it!” answered the youngster. The Oxford captain laughed at the reply. Roberts’s eyes were glowing with wonder and he was enjoying it. It was easy to see that both of the brothers loved playing in front of the Oxford fans and Joe guessed that they would soon introduce themselves accordingly to the fans. Everyone could see the potential of the boys.

**********

Coventry’s Beuzelin took the ball into Oxford’s half at full speed, driving deeper as he went. Colin came across to challenge for the ball, using his shoulders and trying unsuccessfully to muscle his opponent off the ball.

Beuzelin simply held his ground, wrapped arms with Colin and kept running. In spite of his initial failing, Colin kept snapping away at Beuzelin, causing as much trouble as he could. It had been evident for a while now that Coventry’s players were faster and stronger than any opponents Colin had played before.

As well as their physical skills, it was a lot harder to get any space on the pitch than it normally was. Every time Colin or Robert picked the ball up, they were marked closely by opposing players, attempting to suffocate them from the game.

With Beuzelin still powering on, Colin knew he had to make a tackle before a goal scoring opportunity developed. While still having hold of Beuzelin’s arm, Colin went to the floor to try and win the ball back.

**********

The crowd cheered loudly as Colin won the ball back with a tackle that took the man down as well as took the ball away.

“That’s it, Col! F*cking crunch him son!” shouted Clive. Jennie gave him another slap but Clive took no notice, yelling loudly as Colin put another hard tackle in on another Coventry player. The Oxford fans showed their appreciation and so did the Oxford bench with Chris Wilder applauding Colin’s efforts.

The rest of the Oxford team then followed Colin’s example, throwing themselves in front of shots, battling for headers and keeping pressure off the ball to a maximum. As a result, Coventry were restricted to taking long shots – none of which were hitting the target.

In fact, Oxford were the first team to test the ‘keeper and that didn’t happen until the 70th minute. Colin worked the ball forward towards Yemi Odubade who held play up in an attempt to get more support. The support arrived in the form of Adam Chapman. Odubade slipped a nice pass into the path of the young midfielder, who struck the chance first time. It was saved fairly easily, but it showed a sign of intent which our fans appreciated.

The match continued in the same manner and Coventry’s first shot on target of the second half came in the 83rd minute when Freddy Eastwood worked space for himself in the area, only to be denied by Ben Hinchcliffe, who had came off us his line and rushed the striker into a shot.

As Eastwood’s chance flew wide of the post, Chris Wilder drew Lewis Haldane, James Clarke and Craig Nelthorpe from the bench to replace Simon Clist, Matt Day and Chris Carruthers.

The final moments of the game ticked past without any real chances. Oxford dominated though, and showed that they wouldn’t be bossed by higher-league opponents. They’d stepped up to the plate and drawn against a decent Championship side, showing that they were ready for the battle of the Blue Square Premier.

Oxford – 1

James Constable (4)

Coventry – 1

Guillaume Beuzelin (28)

Man of the Match: Guillaume Beuzelin

Att: 2578

**********

[Offspring8]

Jennie shot a look of anger at Clive, who just turned back to the match laughing, only to find Coventry on the attack. 20 minutes had passed now and Oxford were still in the lead despite heavy pressure from their Championship opponents.

Coventry won another corner which Isaac Osbourne ran across to take. From Hinchcliffe’s left hand side, Osbourne punted the corner onto the penalty spot where there were a crowd of Oxford and Coventry players jostling for their right to attack the ball.

Coventry’s French midfielder Guillaume Beuzelin was the one who met the ball on the half-volley, and he made no mistake in converting the chance. Oxford had thrown away their lead thanks to a set piece which could have been avoided with tighter marking.

The half continued with Coventry being denied by some last minute defending and good goalkeeping. It also didn’t help when they struck the woodwork and hit easy chances off-target.

Eventually, they hit the back of the net once more. Freddy Eastwood was put through on goal and slipped the ball past Ben Hinchcliffe with a cool finish, but Coventry were to be frustrated once more. The linesman flagged, the ref blew and Coventry protested - the final conclusion being that Oxford stayed level until half time, even if by the skin of their teeth.

**********

“Colin, you’re doing well defensively mate but I know there is a lot more to come from you,” said Chris. Colin nodded and took a sip of his Lucozade. He agreed with the manager and was frustrated at himself. There was a lot more to come from him.

“Try and bring him into the game, boys. I can see that Coventry have him marked down as a danger and that they sometimes even have two men on him, but if we can get Colin clocking away in midfield, we can get ourselves a goal or two. Other than that, well done and keep going. We’re battling out there and that’s what we want to see,” continued the manager.

“How are you finding your first game at the Kassam so far then, mate?” said Joe Burnell to Robert. Joe had picked up a slight injury in the first half and was holding an ice pack to his knee. Joe was going to be replaced in the second half by Adam Chapman, an 18 year old midfielder on loan from Sheffield United.

“It took a few minutes to get used to but I love it!” answered the youngster. The Oxford captain laughed at the reply. Roberts’s eyes were glowing with wonder and he was enjoying it. It was easy to see that both of the brothers loved playing in front of the Oxford fans and Joe guessed that they would soon introduce themselves accordingly to the fans. Everyone could see the potential of the boys.

**********

Coventry’s Beuzelin took the ball into Oxford’s half at full speed, driving deeper as he went. Colin came across to challenge for the ball, using his shoulders and trying unsuccessfully to muscle his opponent off the ball.

Beuzelin simply held his ground, wrapped arms with Colin and kept running. In spite of his initial failing, Colin kept snapping away at Beuzelin, causing as much trouble as he could. It had been evident for a while now that Coventry’s players were faster and stronger than any opponents Colin had played before.

As well as their physical skills, it was a lot harder to get any space on the pitch than it normally was. Every time Colin or Robert picked the ball up, they were marked closely by opposing players, attempting to suffocate them from the game.

With Beuzelin still powering on, Colin knew he had to make a tackle before a goal scoring opportunity developed. While still having hold of Beuzelin’s arm, Colin went to the floor to try and win the ball back.

**********

The crowd cheered loudly as Colin won the ball back with a tackle that took the man down as well as took the ball away.

“That’s it, Col! F*cking crunch him son!” shouted Clive. Jennie gave him another slap but Clive took no notice, yelling loudly as Colin put another hard tackle in on another Coventry player. The Oxford fans showed their appreciation and so did the Oxford bench with Chris Wilder applauding Colin’s efforts.

The rest of the Oxford team then followed Colin’s example, throwing themselves in front of shots, battling for headers and keeping pressure off the ball to a maximum. As a result, Coventry were restricted to taking long shots – none of which were hitting the target.

In fact, Oxford were the first team to test the ‘keeper and that didn’t happen until the 70th minute. Colin worked the ball forward towards Yemi Odubade who held play up in an attempt to get more support. The support arrived in the form of Adam Chapman. Odubade slipped a nice pass into the path of the young midfielder, who struck the chance first time. It was saved fairly easily, but it showed a sign of intent which our fans appreciated.

The match continued in the same manner and Coventry’s first shot on target of the second half came in the 83rd minute when Freddy Eastwood worked space for himself in the area, only to be denied by Ben Hinchcliffe, who had came off us his line and rushed the striker into a shot.

As Eastwood’s chance flew wide of the post, Chris Wilder drew Lewis Haldane, James Clarke and Craig Nelthorpe from the bench to replace Simon Clist, Matt Day and Chris Carruthers.

The final moments of the game ticked past without any real chances. Oxford dominated though, and showed that they wouldn’t be bossed by higher-league opponents. They’d stepped up to the plate and drawn against a decent Championship side, showing that they were ready for the battle of the Blue Square Premier.

Oxford – 1

James Constable (4)

Coventry – 1

Guillaume Beuzelin (28)

Man of the Match: Guillaume Beuzelin

Att: 2578

**********

[tenthreeleader]

This is just nicely written, Offspring. Count me as a fan.

P.S. Your grammar wasn't THAT bad.

[tenthreeleader]

This is just nicely written, Offspring. Count me as a fan.

P.S. Your grammar wasn't THAT bad.

[Offspring8]

Thanks 10-3, the first officially announced fan . And I'll take your word for it

Friday 1st August 2008

Robert felt no effects from the game the night before. In fact, he was ready to go out and play football again straight away. Colin was much the same, if not for a little bit of stiffness in his right leg.

It was approaching mid-day and both boys were strolling to the shop to meet some friends. The sun was in the sky and there were a few clouds around, a nice start to the month. A breeze blew across the faces of the brothers and Colin smiled as the cold air brushed against him. He much preferred the summer to the winter.

As they turned the corner to face the shop, the brothers could immediately see their group of friends. 6 friends to be exact: Darren, Stuart, Ryan, Scott, Craig and Chris all stood in a circle, laughing and joking to each other.

“Here they are, about time though eh!” said Scott. Scott, Stuart and Darren were all Colin’s age. They had all met each other at their secondary school and had become a group of best mates over the years. Ryan, Craig and Chris were all Robert’s age.

“I overslept, sorry lads,” said Colin. After a few more jokes, the group turned to the shop. It was something they done often: bought snacks from the shop, and then went to hang around at the park down at the local Rec.

With bags of food in hand, the group made their way to the park, each boy taking up their own, familiar spot. For Colin and Robert, this was on the swings.

“What’s happened with Dale then, Colin?” asked Darren. If Colin had to pick a boy out of the group to call his ‘best mate’, it would have been Darren. He was always up for a laugh and loved his football just like Colin – his only downfall coming in that he supported Liverpool. It was a common joke that he supported them due to him having red hair – so that his hair matched his kit. Obviously, it wasn’t true but Darren could take jokes as well as he could give them.

“What do you mean?” answered Colin. The group went quiet for a few minutes to listen to the conversation going. There was an unspoken ranking within the group, and Colin and Darren had been placed as the ‘unofficial leaders’ of the group. It wasn’t something that had been voted on or anything, it was just something that seemed to click.

“Well, some people around school have been saying he’s involved in some drugs and sh*t,” replied Darren.

“We’ve all had a go on the weed, it’s nothing new,” answered Colin, returning to his Dorito’s as he finished his reply.

“Apparently he’s gone into some heavier stuff. Some have said that they see him with Sugar’s lads quite a lot nowadays.”

“Nah he wouldn’t do that. He’s staying in our home; we made an agreement with him that if he was going to do any drugs, it would be away from the house and it wouldn’t be anything heavy,” said Colin, trying to sound as if this was just a small matter. However, the group of friends could sense that Colin wasn’t comfortable on the subject.

“Nah Dale’s a good guy. If you asked him not to do something, I’m sure he’d listen to you,” said Craig. Craig was seen as physically the strongest in the group. He played as a prop for the school rugby team and was almost as fast as Colin was.

“Exactly. He wouldn’t diss you after you took him in off the street. Anything new on whether Linda will take him back or not?” added Ryan. Ryan was known to be the innocent one of the group. He rarely smoked and drank and steered clear of drugs completely. It helped to have someone like that in the group, just to stop things from getting out of hand in sticky situations.

“I don’t think he’d do that stuff after what mum has done for him. As for Linda; she won’t take him back until she’s sure he’s off the drugs, has cut down on the drink and gets some kind of job,” said Robert. Robert himself had once tried to heal the bond between Linda and Dale, only to have his head bitten off by Linda. Since then, he had always trodden lightly around Linda.

“Do you think he’ll do all that stuff then?” said Darren.

“Well he’ll have to. He can’t live at ours forever. To be fair, he doesn’t smoke weed as much as he used to and he drinks a lot less than he used to. But where jobs are concerned, I don’t think he’s even bothered looking. He needs to start if he wants to go home,” said Colin.

**********

[Offspring8]

“Alright then Dale, this is taking the p*ss now. I want my payment – and I want it now,” said Sugar, looking down at the cracked and bloodied face of Dale.

“I don’t have it,” spluttered the beaten teen.

“Just over £150 you owe me. I want it within a week,” replied Sugar.

“I can’t get it, I need more time!”

Sugar pulled his leg back and sunk his knee into Dale’s gut. Dale felt the wind knocked out of him, and fell to his knees as he struggled for air. Despite his best efforts, his body wouldn’t take any air in. Then, there was a short burst of air that was inhaled before his body seized up again. Dale was so focused on trying to regain his normal breathing rhythm that he barely felt the knee come across the side of his head.

Well, he didn't notice it at first. The dull ache in his brain buzzed on, almost like a toothache inside his head. Coupled with his battle just to breath, Dale wasn't feeling to good. He looked up to see two versions of Sugar, smiling smugly down at him. Dale could only watch as the hazy versions of Sugar pulled out a fag.

Calmly, Sugar lit the cigarette and put it to his mouth, inhaling as it settled between his lips and kneeling down so that his face was inches away from Dale's. He blew the smoke out into Dale’s face before taking the fag from his mouth. With his left hand, Sugar grabbed a handful of Dale’s hair, wrenching backwards to fully expose his neck. With his right hand, Sugar pushed the lit end of the cigarette into Dale’s skin, just behind his right ear.

“If I don’t have it, we’ll have to pay your pretty little mother a visit and see if she can pay up in more ways than one,” laughed Sugar as Dale let out a scream. At the mention of his mum, Dale clenched his fist and sent it crashing into the side of Sugar’s head, putting the dealer onto his back.

“You go anywhere near her and I’ll kill you – I swear Sug--”

Dale was interrupted mid sentence by Sugars henchmen. They piled into the teenager, sending him crashing to the floor before crowding around him and each putting a boot into Dale.

“Stop!” shouted Sugar. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Dale had hit him hard – harder than he had expected. But that just meant that he’d given Sugar and his boys a reason to lay into him once more. Sugar didn’t need to be given two reasons and wasted no time in getting to work.

**********

“He isn’t answering his phone. I bet he ran into Sugar again, I know it,” said Colin. Once again, Dale had gone missing.

“Well Sugar normally hangs around here so he can’t be far away if you’re right,” answered Robert. The brothers had been looking for an hour now and there was still no sign of their older cousin. Then, a thought flashed into Colin’s head.

“How about the old garages? That’s where he hangs out apparently, let’s go check there,” suggested Colin. With his older brother leading the way, Robert followed.

Eventually the brother’s came to a row of old garages. The street was dimly lit, with only 2 of the 5 lamposts actually working. Most of the garages had been abused in some way and some of them were open. The brothers walked down the row, checking each garage as they did. Eventually, using their phones as torches, they found him in a bloody heap on the floor at the back of a dark garage.

“Sugar did this,” said Colin. “When I see him, I’m gunna--”

“You’re gunna what?” came a voice from behind the brothers, interrupting Colin. Neither of the boys needed to turn to see who it was. They knew it would be Sugar and his gang, thirsty for revenge in blood.

**********

[Offspring8]

Darren’s phone bleeped, startling the teen. He’d been on his computer, chatting to some mates and had forgotten he even had his phone with him. It was a message from Colin.

‘Old garages,’ it read.

At first, Darren was puzzled. Maybe Colin had sent the message to the wrong number? Then he remembered: the brothers had gone looking for Dale. They must have found him and ran into some trouble.

Immediately, Darren opened up a conversation with Craig, Scott, Ryan and Chris on the computer. They had to get going - and fast.

**********

“I’m in a generous mood, Col,” said Sugar. Colin didn’t reply, he just stared back at the older boy. In his head, Colin made a count of how many people Sugar had with him...6 – 7 including Sugar. The only hope that the brother’s had was that Darren had his phone with him and that he understood the message.

“I’m going to forget about what you, your brother and Dale done to me a while ago. You jumped out of the trees like cowards, there’s no need for me to humiliate you anymore. But what I do want is payment,” continued Sugar.

“Payment? What for?” asked Colin, mostly due to the fact that he needed to buy him and his brother more time. But a part of him wanted to know what Dale had got himself into, and this was his chance to find out.

“We had a few deals. But Dale can’t pay me back, so you guys are going to. Pro footballers now, ain’t ya?”

“What kind of deals? And not quite, Sugar, not quite.”

“Well, that’s patient confidentiality,” smiled Sugar, “but I get the feeling that you wouldn’t be too happy if I told you.”

“Stop with the crap, Sugar. What’s been going on?” said Robert, who was beginning to lose his patience. Both brothers wanted to tear Sugar to pieces, but Colin had to keep Robert on a tight leash until their friends arrived. Robert didn’t know that they were to get back up soon and if Colin couldn’t stop his brother from jumping into a fight too early, they’d both be beaten badly.

“Maybe you should ask Dale later. He’ll be able to tell you. For now, we want the money that he owes us, which is £150. Can you give it to us?”

Colin stepped forward in front of his brother. Even though he knew that Robert could handle himself, he still didn’t want it to get to that point. The garage was quite small and Colin was now mere feet away from Sugar and his gang.

“You’re lying; you’re just stirring things up to try and cause an argument between us. We’re not giving you any money, Sugar. Leave us alone, we can get Dale cleaned up and nobody has to know any better,” said Colin. He was determined to get the young gang leader back for this, but he knew that with 6 opponents plus Sugar himself, this probably wasn’t the best time to attack anybody.

“We’ll see, man. But if you won’t pay us now, we’re gunna make sure that when you don’t forget that you owe us money. Take him Nathan,” said Sugar. As he finished speaking, the largest member of his gang took steps towards Colin, stopping when he was just a meter or so away.

Colin took a deep breath and forced himself to concentrate. His stomach was jumping all over the place and his head kept repeating the same thing, ‘this guy is huge, this is gunna hurt’. But Colin forced the thoughts out of his head, squashing any fear inside him. Fear was his only weakness and if Colin could eliminate that, he could beat his huge opponent.

Colin raised his fists in front of his face for protection, stepping side to side. Nathan just stood in the same place, his huge arms down by his side with both his fists clenched like wrecking balls. He then reached out; grabbing Colin with his left hand and pulling his right back to throw a punch. The next time Colin opened his eyes, he was slumped down against the garage wall with a hot, stinging feeling in his lip.

“You’re actually going to fight him!” wailed Sugar, barely containing his laughter at the sight of Colin flying helplessly through the air. “The guy is like 16 stone! He can crack nuts with his fingers!” laughed Sugar.

Colin heaved himself back to his feet, spat out some blood and walked back towards his giant opponent, furious at the fact he’d been floored. That’s when all the rules of fighting went out of the window for the young teen.

“Really? Well I can crack nuts with my feet, watch...”

With that, Colin took a quick step towards Nathan before hammering his right foot between Nathans legs. He could swear that with the power in his kick of anger, Nathan had been lifted an inch or so of the floor. Whether he had or not, didn’t actually matter though. The giant gang member crumpled to the floor holding his groin and shaking. He then started gagging, almost as if he was trying to be sick.

For an instant, Colin felt bad for the guy. But then he looked up at Sugar and everything was good again. The leader was stood there with his mouth wide open, staring at his floored friend.

Robert decided to take advantage of the shock shown by the gang members. It had been a cheap shot by his brother but hey, how else do you floor a 6 foot beast of a lad?

“Come on then you tw*ts, let’s see what you’ve got!” scream Robert, walking aggressively towards the gang. Colin needed no second invitation and with the adrenaline still coursing through his veins, he broke into a sprint as his brother reached his side. Both boys then charged into the group, taking down as many opponents as they could with hard tackles.

[Offspring8]

Robert threw punches as fast as he ever had once he’d landed on one of the gang members, jabbing at the boy’s stomach in an attempt to knock the wind out of him. Once he felt the boy jolt and roll over gasping for air, Robert stood and looked for the next person to attack – and was then floored by another boy.

The scrap only lasted for a few seconds before Colin and Robert both got out of their scraps to stand side by side - opposite them stood Sugar and his gang. To the right of the brothers was the open garage, with Dale and Nathan inside. Nathan was still writhing around on the floor, while Dale had rolled over to lay on his back rather than his side. He was slowly coming round.

Then, Robert heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see Darren, Craig, Ryan, Scott, Stuart and Chris come speeding around the corner and Robert grinned madly. Now they had enough people to take on Sugars gang.

“You boys alright?” panted Darren, coming to stand at Colin’s other shoulder.

“Well, you could have gotten here a little earlier but better late than never I guess,” said Colin.

“Well let’s take ‘em then!” said Robert who was still in an extremely aggressive mood.

“No. Sugar, take your lads and leave and there won’t be a brawl. If you wanna stay and demand your money, we’ll take the fight to you,” called Colin.

Sugar stood still for a little while before putting his middle finger up to Colin and then turning to walk away from the row of garages.

“What are you doing? We could have had him then!” said Robert, pushing his brother in the chest. Colin grabbed the front of his younger brother’s shirt and pushed him up against one of the garage doors.

“And do what? Beat him up and give him a reason to keep attacking members of our family? Let it go, we’ll get him one day, you’ll see,” said Colin. He then watched the aggression melt away from Roberts face before he let his grip loose.

“So, what to do with the oaf?” said Robert. Nathan had been left behind and was still in the garage. Robert then told the story of how Colin had shamelessly floored the guy, before the group came to a decision of what to do with him.

Craig, Chris and Stuart held the boy down while the rest of the group stripped Nathan down to his underwear. By this point, Dale had woken up with a screaming headache and was sat up, watching the proceedings. Once the group had finished, Colin and Robert pulled Dale to his feet and they all walked home to get themselves cleaned up after a rough night.

**********

Saturday 2nd August 2008

Oxford City vs. Oxford Utd

Saturday 2nd August, Court Place Farm

“What happened?” said Chris Wilder, looking at Colin’s lip. He’d pulled his midfielder aside during the pre-match warm-ups after seeing the cut and immediately wanted to know what it was. Even though it was obviously not a threatening injury, it was clear to see that he’d been hit and the Oxford manager wanted to know why.

“My lip? Oh just me and my brother having a mess around,” said Colin, looking away and continuing to stretch his muscles. He couldn’t face the piercing gaze of his manager without making it blatantly obvious that he was lying, but Chris didn’t need to see Colin’s eyes to tell that.

“If you’re in some kind of trouble, talk to me and the club can help you. Don’t let things fester because I have a feeling that in a couple of month’s time, you and your brother will be pretty well known throughout the nation and it’ll be much easier to sort it now rather than to wait until the newspapers are interested in you. If that happens, everything will get blown out of proportion,” said the manager.

Colin gave Chris’s words thought. He was right, if Colin and Robert play well and eventually get attention, things could go horribly wrong where the media is concerned if they found out the kind of things the brother’s are into. But Colin still couldn’t tell the manager – he wanted to play as many matches for the first team as possible and if that meant that he had to lie, so be it.

“It’s nothing boss. Just a bit of trouble with a guy last night, nothing serious. We’ll be fine.”

Chris nodded, still watching the boy. After a few seconds of silence, the Oxford manager let his player return to the warm ups with his team mates. There was nothing more he could do for the boy apart from hope that he had told the truth.

**********

[Offspring8]

“Just here Clarke, to the feet,” called Colin. James Clarke, the Oxford right back, was taking a throw in. The ball landed at Colin’s feet and he already knew what he wanted to do with it. Colin surged down the right flank, deep into the Oxford City half. He managed to hold off City’s forward Matthew Russell and drive on towards the edge of the penalty area.

He then took on City’s left winger, Jon Foley. With his right foot starting inside and then going to the outside, Colin performed a step over. Then, with the outside of his left foot, Colin chipped the ball to his left and skipped past Foley to put himself at the byline.

From the right, Colin put the cross into the City box. It fell to the feet of Joe Burnell who was stood on the edge of the box to the left of the ‘D’. Burnell’s shot was poor, bobbling along the ground towards the penalty spot – but it provided all that was needed for Yemi Odubade. The striker slid in, hacking at the ball and snapping it in a different direction. With the ‘keeper completely wrong-footed, Odubade got back to his feet and began his celebration as the ball rolled into the net.

In the 17th minute, 10 minutes after Yemi Odubade had scored for Utd, Oxford acored again with what was quickly becoming a trademark goal for the team. A long, diagonal ball was played across the pitch to land in front of Robert Rudyard. Robert accelerated away from Oxford City’s defence and charge towards the byline once he had collected the pass.

In the penalty box, James Constable was hustling to get ahead of his marker. Eventually he did so and rewarded himself with a goal in return, cushioning the ball into the goal from 5 yards with his feet.

As a result of the goal, Robert picked up his 5th assist of pre-season while James Constable equalled that as a goal tally. The two of them had developed a good understanding with each other over time and it was paying off for Oxford.

5 minutes hadn’t even passed by the time Oxford had set up another attack which almost mirrored the second goal. From the half way line, Chris Willmott booted the ball down the right hand side of the pitch once more for Robert to chase. As ever, Robert reached the ball before anybody else and had plenty of time to spare when it came to picking out a target.

James Constable was in the area again but that wasn’t who caught Roberts’s attention. Instead, Robert first noticed Colin who was bulldozing his way through the crowd to get into a goal scoring position.

Robert put a cross in that ran along the 6 yard box to meet the head of his elder brother. Colin jumped into the air and flew at the ball with his head only to hammer the chance against the cross bar and out for a goal kick.

“Unlucky Col, you’ll get more chances and you’ll score,” said James Constable, helping the Colin to his feet. Colin nodded and jogged back into position, hoping that his team mate was right.

With City running around after United, trying to gather some form of scrap up, the brother’s were enjoying their game. Robert’s then got even better just before half time. Once more he swung a cross in from the right and once more Constable was there to meet the cross. But he wasn’t the last person to touch the ball before it touched the back of the net.

Oxford City’s Gary Holmes was the one who diverted the ball into the goal, using his thigh. This put Oxford United 3-0 before half time in their last friendly of the year.

**********

“Okay, good. We’ve had a good pre-season so far so let’s finish off strongly. A clean sheet will be our main priority in the second half, but another goal or two would go nicely as well okay?” said Chris wilder to his players.

“Keep using Robert on the wing. They don’t know how to cope with his pace so keep utilising him. Colin and Joe, well done in the centre of the pitch. You’re dominating that area and it’s giving us a base to go forward from. Just generally keep it up guys,” added Chris Wilder’s assistant, Mickey Lewis.

Both Colin and Robert were happy with their performances so far and things were looking good for them. Now they just hoped that the manager would continue to select them in competitive games.

**********

[Offspring8]

Yemi Odubade, Joe Burnell and Chris Carruthers had been taken off at half time and both brothers knew that they would probably be pulled out soon enough as well. So, they done as the manager had asked them to and kept things tight.

10 minutes after the re-start, the referee stopped the game. Robert looked across the pitch to see Adam Chapman and Barry Quinn stood by the fourth official and he knew they were the replacements of the brothers.

Colin clapped hands with Barry and Adam before taking his place on the wooden bench set out for the Oxford United team. He was soon enough joined by his younger brother and both of the boys slipped the Oxford United tracksuit on to watch the rest of the match.

And there wasn’t really that much to watch. With United trying to close the game out and City trying to chase the ball for as long as they could, it soon became more of a training exercise.

There were no shots on target for either side and the City fans were cheering whenever their team even got possession of the ball. Eventually, Oxford United closed out the game and their pre-season with a comfortable win.

Oxford – 3

Yemi Odubade (7)

James Constable (17)

Gary Holmes OG (44)

Oxford City – 0

Man of the Match: Guillaume Beuzelin

Att: 2578

**********

“That’s my strongest team,” said Chris Wilder, passing his assistant a piece of A4 paper. Mickey Lewis scanned the team and he couldn’t disagree with the manager.

In goal, Chris Wilder had written the name of Billy Turley. He hadn’t played in a single pre-season game yet but he had been Oxford’s regular number one since 2005 and he would continue that this season.

In defence from right to left, Mickey Lewis read the names of James Clarke, Chris Willmott, Luke Foster and Chris Carruthers.

“You’re putting Luke Foster in instead of Shane Killock?” asked the assistant. Luke had made one start and one sub appearance through the whole of the pre-season whereas Shane had started three of the four games.

“Indeed. Shane is a better overall player but Luke is good where it matters. However, they are both around the same level which means that if one of them gets injured, banned or falls short of form this season, we’ll have an adequate replacement.”

“That’s true. As well as that, we have Matt Day who can play anywhere across the back line – I imagine he will be the bench starter?”

“You’re right, Mickey. Matty will be the main cover man from the bench. What do you think of the midfield? I think that’s where our season will be this year,” said the manager, sitting back in his chair as he spoke about his midfield.

He couldn’t help but bubble inside with excitement as he imagined his combo of the Rudyard brothers raising eyebrows all around the country thanks to good performances. They had a future in the game and it would start at Oxford United in the Blue Square Premier.

“Robert Rudyard, Joe Burnell, Simon Clist and Craig Nelthorpe with Colin Rudyard playing just in front of Joey and Si? We haven’t tried it yet but on paper that looks like the strongest midfield in the league,” beamed Mickey.

“It should work and it will give Colin a bit more freedom to express himself and get forward. Supporting him, I want Robert and Nelly to push up on the wings. When we’re attacking, it should be more in the shape of a 4-2-3-1,” explained Chris Wilder, using hand movements to further explain his visions.

“And up front, we have James Constable by himself. How will Yemi react?” asked Mickey.

“Copper should be able to cope by himself. He’s brave, he’s strong and he’ll fight for every ball that’s put up to him. As for Yemi, I intend to use his pace late on against tired defences. He’ll get games, don’t you worry.”

Mickey Lewis then put down the sheet of paper. He was pleased with how that team looked but it hadn’t been put to practice yet. They couldn’t just change the formation and line-up completely.

“It looks great boss, but how are we going to break it in just before the season starts? Why haven’t we been practicing this since the start of pre-season?”

“We’ll carry on with how we are at the moment. I’ll tell the players about the new formation and line-up I want, and we’ll practice it in training. I never wanted this before because I hadn’t intended to use Colin and Robert in my team. Now, things have changed and I wanted a formation to fit around them that was strong in all areas,” answered Chris Wilder. He’d decided to put his hopes with the brother’s for this season, and he was sticking to it.

**********

[Offspring8]

I got bored and decided to add another update before I went off to bed Enjoy

Wednesday 6th August 2008

Robert straightened his school tie and laughed as he heard Colin swear and come charging from his room. It was 8:10am, 5 minutes until Darren, Scott, Ryan, Chris, Craig and Stuart arrived at the front door. They always left early to walk to school so that they could get half an hour of football in before they had to return to their Forms.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” asked Colin, with a mouth full of toothpaste and a toothbrush.

“I called you when I got up but you were cold out. Don’t blame me, I’m not your mum,” answered Robert. Colin spun around and walked back into the bathroom as Robert walked down the stairs to grab some breakfast.

“Was that Colin charging around upstairs?” asked Jennie.

“Yep. He overslept again,” said Robert while preparing a bowl of cereal.

“It doesn’t matter anyway, the boys are gunna be footballers, they don’t need an education,” said granddad between mouthfuls of toast. Jennie spun around to slap her dad once more. As it always was, Clive just chuckled to himself.

“Back me up, Liam,” added Clive.

“I would do but I can’t mate. I’ll get the wooden spoon if I say anything like that,” answered Liam.

“Both of my boys need an education. Football may be the path they choose but what if they don’t make it to the big time? They will be able to support themselves in the future – now Robert, where is your brother!”

At that second, Colin came charging down the stairs. He hadn’t put his tie on, his shirt was still unbuttoned so that his t-shirt was visible and his shoe laces were still undone.

With Jennie’s voice ringing in his ear, Colin ran out of the door quickly followed by Robert to meet their friends in the street.

**********

Kelvin Thomas drummed his fingers against the table. The small room was dark and there was nothing in there apart from a green, leather chair with an ashtray on its arm and a small, round table with a phone stand on top. Kelvin took another deep draw from his Cuban Cigar, slowly blowing the smoke out of the corner of his mouth and above his head.

He had heard from Chris Wilder that the Rudyard brothers would be big, but he didn’t realise that they would interest one of the top European teams. Now, he was almost laughing with joy.

The Oxford chairman shifted in his chair. His back had begun to ache and it felt like he’d been in this conversation for years. Kelvin then smiled to himself as he thought about the money that he could make from selling the youngsters. His team had uncovered two very valuable football gems.

“Mr Thomas, we feel it to be a good deal. Think about it; a link between our two clubs – during which we will loan you some of our good prospects to help your team. As well as that, we’ll play an annual friendly at your ground and you can keep all of the gate receipts. All of this just so that we can be offered priority should we decide to bid for the Rudyard brothers,” said the voice on the speakerphone.

“I feel it to be a good deal too, but if these players turn out to be two of the best in the game in ten years time, I want to know that I made my money’s worth from them. As well as that, I can’t guarantee that the two players would want to go to your team. Sure, I’d accept a decent offer from you and charge more for others but it would be up to the boys what team they signed for,” said the Oxford Chairman, his cigar perched in the corner of his mouth.

“Oh we’ll make you the richest team in the Blue Square Premier, don’t you worry about that. As for which team they’d sign for, leave it to us. As long as you’d do your part and act favourably to our team, we’ll hold ourselves accountable for whatever happens afterwards.”

[Offspring8]

Kelvin Thomas fell silent again and took another puff of his Cuban Cigar, hoping to make it sound as if he was seriously considering the offer. Really, Kelvin wanted to run around the room, screaming that he’d managed to link his team with one of the biggest in Europe. But he also wanted to see if he could milk this team for more money – and he was successful.

“Mr Thomas, we will also include a £55k annual fee to your team to sweeten the deal. How does that sound?”

Kelvin beamed to himself. That was a lot of money in terms of a Blue Square Premier team and the Oxford Chairman knew that he would accept the offer. There was just one thing bothering him.

“You’ll do all this just so that you can watch two players develop and possibly sign them? What if they don’t develop into the players that you expect – wouldn’t this all have just been a waste of time and money on your half?” asked Kelvin. There was a pause in the reply.

“We believe that these kids could be huge. Maybe we’re wrong and they’re just early developers – in which case we’re sorry for wasting your time. But we think they will come good and so we are prepared to spend this money as part of this gamble. Do you accept our proposal?” said the voice.

**********

“Hello, who is...oh, good evening Mr Thomas, what’s made you call me at 2 in the morning?” said Chris Wilder, picking up his phone.

“Evening Chris, sorry about the timing. We’ve had a call from West Brom’s officials, offering an unofficial link,” said the chairman.

“Wow, great. We could definitely do with some quality defenders and to be linked with a Premier League club is fantastic news.”

All of a sudden, the Oxford manager was feeling even more optimistic about the coming season. If they could get some of West Brom’s youngsters on loan, they would be the most talented team in the league by a mile.

“I didn’t agree to the deal though, I had a better offer. Listen to this,” said the chairman, interrupting Chris Wilder’s thoughts.

Kelvin explained the phone call to his manager, getting louder as he came to the conclusion. The Chairman could barely hide his excitement.

“That’s brilliant news, sir. I’ll tell the players tomorrow. What should I say to the Rudyard brothers?” continued the Oxford manager.

“Isn’t it just,” said Kelvin Thomas, puffing lightly on a brand new cigar. “Don’t tell them anything extra. We’ll make even more money if they progress well, I don’t want them under any extra pressure.”

“Okay, I’ll let them know just the as much as everyone else knows and nothing more, sir. Good night then, I’m sure you’ll sleep well if at all,” said Chris Wilder. The season was getting better and better and it hadn’t even begun yet. The Oxford manager fell asleep quickly, his dreams filled with visions of lifting the league title at the end of the season with the Rudyard brothers at either shoulder.

**********

| Name             | Position     | Nat     | Height  | Weight       | Age     | Value   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Ben Hinchliffe   | GK           | ENG     | 6'0"    | 11 st 6 lbs  | 19      | £12K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Billy Turley     | GK           | ENG     | 6'4"    | 15 st 6 lbs  | 35      | £20K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| James Clarke     | D RC         | ENG     | 6'0"    | 13 st 3 lbs  | 18      | £9K     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Matt Day         | D RLC        | ENG     | 5'10"   | 12 st 1 lbs  | 21      | £16K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Adam Chapman     | D R, M RC    | NIR     | 5'9"    | 11 st 9 lbs  | 18      | £18K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Shane Killock    | D LC, WB L   | ENG     | 6'0"    | 12 st 3 lbs  | 19      | £6K     | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Luke Foster      | D C          | ENG     | 6'2"    | 12 st 8 lbs  | 22      | £22K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Chris Willmott   | D C          | ENG     | 6'2"    | 11 st 13 lbs | 30      | £12K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Barry Quinn      | D C, DM, M C | IRL     | 6'0"    | 12 st 3 lbs  | 29      | £12K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Chris Carruthers | D/WB L       | ENG     | 6'1"    | 12 st 3 lbs  | 24      | £10K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Damian Batt      | D/WB/M R     | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 6 lbs  | 23      | £10K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Craig Nelthorpe  | D/AM L       | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 0 lbs  | 21      | £300K   | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Simon Clist      | M LC         | ENG     | 5'8"    | 11 st 0 lbs  | 27      | £16K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Joe Burnell      | M C          | ENG     | 5'9"    | 11 st 0 lbs  | 27      | £26K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Eddie Hutchinson | M C          | ENG     | 6'2"    | 13 st 0 lbs  | 26      | £12K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Lewis Haldane    | AM RL        | WAL     | 6'0"    | 11 st 2 lbs  | 23      | £45K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Robert Rudyard   | AM R, ST     | ENG     | 5'8"    | 9 st 10 lbs  | 14      | £45K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Colin Rudyard    | AM C         | ENG     | 5'11"   | 11 st 0 lbs  | 15      | £45K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| James Constable  | ST           | ENG     | 5'10"   | 12 st 12 lbs | 23      | £28K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Craig Farrell    | ST           | ENG     | 6'0"    | 12 st 8 lbs  | 25      | £10K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Yemi Odubade     | ST           | NGA     | 5'7"    | 11 st 6 lbs  | 24      | £18K    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| Matt Taylor      | ST           | ENG     | 5'10"   | 11 st 13 lbs | 17      | £14K    | 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

[Offspring8]

Thursday 8th August 2008

Dale tightened the knot around his arms before slapping his forearm rapidly. He had been waiting for this fix for what had seemed like ages. But now, with the brothers out at football training, Jenny out shopping for food, Liam at work and the sisters at school, Dale could finally satisfy his craving.

He felt his fingers twinge slightly at the lack of circulation in his lower arm. His forearm then began to ache, and his veins came to the surface of his skin. Without waiting any longer, Dale picked up the syringe by his side and prepared himself for the warm, fuzzy, buzzing feeling that was about to greet his body.

**********

“This new formation should help to get the best out of us as a team, with Colin being able to express himself up the top and with both of our wingers being able to attack while Joey and Si hold back and give us a solid defensive line,” announced Chris Wilder.

Colin looked up at the whiteboard in front of him and nodded. He wouldn’t be able to perform as many defensive duties as before, but at least he’d be able to help the team even more when they attacked. He didn’t mind playing in the heart of midfield or just behind the two strikers – as long as Colin was being given a fair chance to play, he was happy.

“Yemi, in general it will be you who is sacrificed. But don’t panic mate. Train well and you’ll be in the team. Otherwise, I plan to use you late on in games to run on past a tired defence, alright?”

Yemi Odubade nodded at the manager. It was clear that he wasn’t happy, but he understood the methods and reasons behind the boss’s choice. He needed to get the best out of the brothers to maximise the potential of the team, and this seemed the way to do it.

“We will still be fielding the same team for the first few weeks while we adapt to this new formation. Then, in a few week’s time, we’ll change it to this and see how we get on, okay?” added the manager.

All of the players nodded and murmured their agreement. It made sense to all of them. Chris smiled to himself. The team had taken the decision well and understood why it had taken so long to come to. But, the new formation wouldn’t be seen in action until later on in the month as they needed time to practice.

“Oh, and one last thing boys. We will soon be linked with another team. They will loan us players for free and we will benefit greatly on the financial side of things as well. For them, they will be able to have an advanced look at our players – mainly the young players – to make their own judgements.”

“What’s the other team, boss?” asked Joe Burnell, the club captain.

The eyes of Robert and Colin especially, lit up at Chris Wilder’s answer. It could just be that their paths to the top started here, and the brothers knew it.

**********

[Offspring8]

“Mum? We’re linked with Chelsea!” Colin screamed down the phone.

“What? What do you mean ‘linked with’? And who’s ‘we’?” answered Jenny.

“Oxford is linked with Chelsea! Like, Chelsea will loan us some of their youngsters for free and they’ll play an annual friendly against us here at the Kassam!”

“Wow, really? That’s great news, you might get to play against Frank Lampard next year! You never know, play well this year and you might get to play against Joe Burnell next year, if you get what I mean,” Jenny joked.

“Yeah exactly, how cool would that be! - Really? You think Chelsea would have a look at me?” asked Colin, getting more serious as he finished.

“That would be good. Well why not? Your manager thinks you’re good enough and now the two clubs are linked – if you play well, you never know where it could take you,”

“I can’t wait for the season to start. I just want to show everybody what I can do. Oh and that’s another thing, the manager is keeping me and Robert in the first team for this year. We can’t wait to get started,”

“That’s great news as well, well done! Tell Robert I said well done as well. But I have to go now, I’m about to drive home so I’ll talk to you later. Train well mate, bye.”

Colin finished the conversation before walking outside to eat his lunch. He was buzzing with the thought of playing against his heroes – and dreaming with the thought of playing alongside them. Now, that dream seemed one step closer.

**********

“Ok, so what do we know about Barrow?” asked Chris Wilder who was stood up in front of his white board with his players sat in front on chairs.

Joe Burnell raised his hand into the air and Chris Wilder nodded at his captain.

“Their gaffer is a defender and we’re favourites. So they’re probably going to play fairly defensive?”

“That would be my guess as well Joe, good thinking. They will also probably deploy an ordinary 4-4-2,” said Chris Wilder, drawing the formation and bullet-pointing information on the whiteboard in front of them.

The session continued with more known facts drawn up about what was known on Barrow, who their main players were and where Oxford could exploit their opponents.

“I’m expecting a win guys. It would be good if we could have a quick start to the season. But don’t think you can walk through the match. It’s the first game of the season and they will probably try and catch you by surprise. Don’t let them – stay sharp.”

**********

[Offspring8]

Saturday 9th August 2008

“Everyone is here apart from Dale...where is he?” said Jennie, handing coats to her two daughters, Trisha and Michelle.

“He didn’t want to come to the pub today. I asked him earlier but he said he wasn’t feeling too well,” answered Liam.

“Well let’s go without him then. Rachel is waiting down the pub for us, so let’s get down there in time for the start of the match,” replied Jennie. With that, the Rudyard family left their home to go and celebrate the debuts of Colin and Robert.

Upstairs, Dale led in bed, waiting for the door to slam shut. Once he heard the door go, Dale crawled out of bed and across to his bag of clothes. From it, he pulled a leather belt which he tightened around his left arm just above his elbow. Once the belt had been locked into position, Dale began lightly tapping his forearm once more, smiling at the satisfaction that would soon be his.

**********

Barrow vs. Oxford (Blue Square Premier)

Saturday 9th August, Holker Street

Colin looked at his shaking hands. There were over 1000 people in attendance today and it was by far the biggest crowd the young midfielder had played in front of. He began tapping his toes on the floor, his studs causing a clicking sound that soon irritated Joe Burnell.

“Oi, Colin! Stop doing that, will you? F*ck sake mate, it’s annoying. What’s up, you nervous?” said the skipper, giving Colin a light nudge with his elbow.

“Sorry, Skip. A little nervous, yeah. What if I make a mistake and the fans get on my back?” said Colin.

“Don’t be nervous, son. You’re a great player – you’ll get used to the pressure. Once you get out there and once you see that ball rolling, you’ll forget about the fans, trust me.”

Colin nodded and looked at his first Oxford shirt. Number 13 had been printed on the back, with ‘C. RUDYARD’ written across the top of it. He wasn’t too happy about what the first four letters spelt and hoped that nobody would mispronounce it as ‘CRUDYARD’, but there wasn’t much he could do about that.

Colin smiled to himself. He was in the Oxford United first team at 15 years of age, with a decent shot at a regular starting position and with the whole of the footballing world at his feet. He was determined to make it to the top, with or without Oxford. He wanted to play for England, to play with and against players of the calibre of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and John Terry. But before he could even contemplate that, Oxford had to overcome Barrow away from home on the first day of the season. Not so glorious.

Robert pulled the laces on his boots as tight as they would go before tying them in a tight knot. He’d been given the number 21 and was hoping it was a sign of how many assists he’d manage to pull in this season. With his stomach performing flips in all directions, Robert put his arm around his older brother.

“Let’s do it, Col. Let’s take this season.”

Colin laughed quietly before standing, offering his brother a hand. Robert laughed as well, taking the hand and pulling himself to his feet. Their debut game was minutes away and both boys were buzzing with excitement. Now, it was time to kick-off their first career season.

**********

[gavrenwick]

Still impressing me

[Offspring8]

Thanks, Gav hope it carries on that way!

Colin felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as the sound of over 1000 football fans rushed down the small tunnel to greet the players. Joe Burnell was shouting encouragement, James Constable was shouting encouragement and soon enough, Colin found himself shouting as well.

Robert looked across at the Barrow team as they emerged from their dressing room with their players shouting encouragement as well. Robert then looked for the Barrow player wearing number 19, Mickey Bell. That was the man that would be marking Robert today. As it normally was, Robert’s marker was bigger than him, but he’d learnt long ago that you didn’t have to be the biggest to be the best.

As the teams jogged out onto the pitch, Colin looked down at his battered blue Adidas +F10’s just to try and find something that was familiar to him and to remind himself that this match was no different to any other – it was a game where you had to put the ball into the back of the net. Colin then looked up and around at the fans, taking deep breaths. They were applauding the teams back onto the pitch and their hunger to see the football season back underway was clear to see. To know that this many people had paid money to come and watch him play football was a strange feeling to Colin. He felt a hunger to impress.

Colin then turned to find the hundred or so Oxford supporters crammed into the corner of the stand behind one of the goals. They too were applauding their team onto the field and Colin put his hands above his head a clapped the fans back. The stadium was in the north of England, past Blackpool whereas Oxford was situated down in the south of England and to see the loyalty of these fans was great.

**********

Colin soon found that league football was rougher than he’d expected it to be. Only 8 minutes into the game, Colin found himself eating dirt from the floor. He’d tried to wait for the ball to drop onto his chest just inside the Barrow half. However, Mark Boyd had decided that Colin was not getting an easy introduction and thumped the teen, sending him to the floor and setting up a counter-attack for Barrow in the process.

Despite Colin’s looks to the referee, the game went on. With Chris Wilder screaming his head off, Colin jumped back to his feet and chased back into his own half. As Colin crossed the half way line, Barrow’s Michael Pearson collected the ball. Colin set his sights and flew into his opponent, arriving after the ball had been played and knocking Pearson to the floor.

The referee waved for advantage while Colin and Michael Pearson attempted to get back into the action. Colin didn’t feel the sly kick from his opponent while they were both on the floor but that was mainly due to the state of his knee after the challenge. The ground was hard and the tackle had pulled the skin from Colin’s knee, which was now a messy, red-ish-brown-ish patch.

Colin played on with a quick warning from the referee and a few words with Michael Pearson. He’d decided to give as good as he received, and it seemed to be working. Pearson was rushing on the ball, aware that his teenage opponent was ready to snap at his heels at any moment.

Despite hard tackles being dished out from both colours, Barrow were dominating. Oxford couldn’t keep possession of the ball and Colin was spending more time trying to keep Michael Pearson on a leash than trying to trigger an attack. As for Robert, he was being starved of service. No balls were being played behind the defence for Robert to chase and their debuts had had a frustrating start.

After many fingertip saves from Ben Hinchcliffe, a lot of possession on Barrow’s part and relentless pressure, Barrow finally grabbed the goal they deserved. From 20 yards outside of the Oxford penalty area, Barrow’s striker Lee Hunt played a pass along the ground that slipped through the Oxford defence and found his striking partner Chris Thompson who was inside the area. Thompson held off Chris Willmott to fire a shot across Hinchcliffe and into the far corner to give his side the lead just before half time.

**********

“Why aren’t we winning?” asked Chris Wilder with his hands on his hips, looking around the dressing room.

“I don’t know boss,” answered Joe Burnell, the team captain.

“You don’t know? Get it sorted, Joe! Their man at the top – Chris Thompson – get into him guys! He’s a cracking player technically; he can do more things with a football than most people in this league. However, he is poor physically and his actual body strength must be among the worst in the league. Hit the man,” said Chris Wilder, trying evidently hard to keep his temper under wraps.

The general feeling in the changing room was frustration. Robert felt it more than most – He knew that Oxford should win this game and have energy to spare. But Barrow were fresh and looking to impress in front of their own fans for the first game of the season and things weren’t looking up for Oxford.

**********

[Dalbeider]

Just finished reading this. Awesomeness, keep it up!

[WelshWolf]

I too have just read it all the way through, qnd to say I'm impressed is an understatement. Your writing ability is fabulous and I can only hope that you keep it up - It'd be a shame for this not to go all the way.

Keep it up.

[Offspring8]

Good to have you along Dal Hope you continue to read and enjoy, there's still more to come!

Good to have you along as well, Welsh Wolf. Thanks for your words, I really appreciate it I hope they continue to keep you on board with the story as there's still a long way to go

Thanks to everybody for continuing to read this story, means a lot

10 yards outside of the area and with his back to goal, Colin positioned himself to receive the ball to his feet. He attempted to move backwards, closer to the Barrow area, but a strong hand in his back stopped the teen from getting any closer. When the ball was just a few metres from Colin, he turned a little to the right and dropped his shoulder, attempting to draw his defender in to making a tackle before twisting quickly and taking the ball left instead.

Colin saw his opponent’s boot and at that moment Colin stopped, touched the ball to his left with his right foot and spun away from the tackle of his marker, creating a bit of space and time for himself.

Colin looked up to see Adam Chapman, fresh from the bench, making a move inside the penalty area. With a quick, snappy pass, Colin fed the ball to Adam Chapman who turned with it and broke a shot off at goal, showing frustration when the Barrow ‘keeper got two strong hands on the shot to tip the ball over the bar.

“Twenty minutes left and we’re still behind. How can we push for the title if we can’t win these types of games?” Chris Wilder asked himself. He knew that this game was hardly make or break but every point mattered.

A few minutes later, Barrow had a throw-in deep inside the Oxford half, level with the 6 yard box. From the Barrow left wing, the ball was flung into our penalty area. Chris Willmott went for the headed clearance and succeeded only in putting the ball deeper into our area. Shane Killock was then next in line to put his boot through the ball, but he made a hash of things as well.

Killock miss-kicked the ball and watched on in horror as Barrow’s Chris Thompson skipped onto the poor clearance before popping the ball into the net from close range despite Chris Carruthers’ best efforts, putting Barrow 2-0 up with less than 10 minutes of the second half left.

Straight after the goal had been conceded, Oxford flew into an attack in an attempt to pull in a late draw for their first game of the season. Substitute Craig Nelthorpe made a late run down the left wing before swinging a deep cross.

Colin had made a run into the area and he was in a position to challenge for the cross. With a defender lining up to jump with him, Colin launched himself into the air and connected well with the ball, heading it towards one of the corners and down at the ground. However, he’d put so much power into the header that the accuracy wasn’t that good. James Constable charged onto the header and slid in, hooking a shot at goal. The shot was saved and beaten away to keep Barrow’s clean sheet intact.

Minutes later, Oxford were on the attack once more as Colin knocked the ball into the path of Joe Burnell. Robert saw the Oxford Captain looking around for somebody to make a first time pass for and he saw his chance to grab some kind of consolation for Oxford.

Robert rose his hand into the air and set off at a blistering pace, soaring away from the Barrow defenders and onto the Joe Burnell through-ball, which he met just a few metres from the edge of the area.

Barrow’s ‘keeper Alan Martin came running from his goal line to try and close down the angle for Robert Rudyard. Robert carried the ball right onto the line of the 18 yard box and, from just inside the left side of the ‘D’, Robert drilled the ball along the floor with all the power and control that he could manage.

Alan Martin fell to the floor, trying to keep the shot by using his feet to save the shot. The ‘keeper felt no contact with the ball and as he turned, he saw the ball smash into the back of his net and saw the small Oxford winger run to the ball, pick it up and start jogging back to the centre circle.

“Get in there, Rob!” said Colin, running to his brother and putting his arm around him. Robert smiled, pleased that he’d grabbed a goal. But they were still a goal behind with just a few minutes of normal time left, and a loss would not be a good start to the season for a team expected to challenge for the title.

Oxford hurled themselves into a flurry of frantic attacks while Barrow attempted to grasp anything in sight to hold onto the 3 points. Then, in the 92nd minute, Shane Killock hoofed a free-kick from just inside the Oxford half to the Barrow area. Robert had managed to creep away from his marker and his heart jumped when he saw that the ball was curling towards him.

He accelerated from the edge of the ‘D’ to the penalty spot, and in the corner of his vision he could see the Barrow ‘keeper charging out at him – and he could hear him screaming loudly in an attempt to unnerve the young midfielder. Robert took no notice and, with his right foot, he let the ball cross his body so that he was facing the goal before side footing the ball on the half volley.

Robert knew it was in and he raced away in celebration, with his team-mates. Then, he heard Joe Burnell screaming at the linesman. Robert looked up and the linesman had his flag held out straight in front of him, signalling for an offside play. A few seconds later, Robert found himself trying to stop his older brother from marching at the linesman.

“Listen Col, just leave it. Things like this happen in games, it just hasn’t been our day.”

Reluctantly, Colin listened to his younger brothers words. But Joe Burnell continued to protest until he was eventually booked. Robert himself had thought that he was onside and was angry that it had been ruled otherwise. Perhaps, because of his pace it had looked like he was offside because of how quickly he got away from the defenders. He didn’t know. But one thing he was pretty sure about was that he had been onside when the free-kick had been taken.

Barrow – 2

Chris Thompson (40, 83)

Oxford – 1

Robert Rudyard (88)

Man of the Match: Chris Thompson (BAR)

Att: 1314

**********

[footballfan08]

I'm really enjoying this story! Keep up the good work. Its a fantastic read. I hope it all works out for the boys. I find myself rooting for them lol.

[Offspring8]

Footballfan, welcome to the story . I too hope it works out for them, but you never know where the game will take them - if anywhere. But hopefully, FM will throw good things their way and then I can continue to write a story that you and others will enjoy Thanks for the comment mate, here's the next bit

Monday 11th August 2008

“So maybe we could have collected a point had things of been different in that late offside decision,” said Chris Wilder. “But even so, a point would have been disappointing for us. The only positives we got from that game were that none of you guys played appallingly and we had plenty of the possession. But we need to be more clinical. Our season starts in our next match against Weymouth tomorrow – make sure we get all of the points.”

Robert - although he was unhappy with the final result of the Barrow game – was satisfied with his own personal performance. He’d managed to grab a goal in his first competitive appearance for Oxford and could have had two if lady luck had been smiling at Oxford.

As well as his goal, Robert had put himself into the Oxford United record books already. At 14 years and 17 days he was the youngest player to ever make a competitive appearance for the club. Going in to the game, Robert hadn’t even thought of the record. But now, he was proud of the achievement and was looking forward to setting as many records as he could manage.

**********

“Ah man, just come down for a sec!” shouted Sugar. The 5 boys behind Sugar were all stood at the garden gate. Sugar himself was at the front door of Liam and Jennie’s house. Once again, he was looking for payment from Dale and he was prepared to break the door down if he had to. The gang had waited until they’d seen Liam leave the house – luckily, he’d taken his wife and kids with him.

“Listen Dale, I know you’re in there and no matter whether you come out, you let us in or we have to let ourselves in, we’re gunna see you today!” shouted Sugar, punching the door.

Clive heard the shouting and saw the gang stood at the front gate of the house as he rounded the corner into the cul-de-sac that the Rudyard’s lived in. He’d walked down to the local shop just to get some fresh air and buy a few things and he knew Liam and Jennie were going into town to go food shopping and had taken Clive’s granddaughters with them. But that still didn’t mean that it was ok to have yobs banging down on the front door.

Clive felt 30 years younger as he felt anger rise from the pits in his stomach. He quickened his pace and smiled to himself as he saw the astonishment on the faces of the youngsters once they saw the old man pacing towards them. The sight of the old, balding man walking towards the gang with a determined look almost made some of the boys want to laugh – but at the same time, there was something about the look of the guy that told them he wasn’t to be messed with.

“And what are you here for?” Clive asked the group, panning his eyes across the faces of each of them.

“We just wanna see Dale, old boy,” answered one of the gang members. Each of them sniggered at the response and Clive clenched his fists, wishing that he could mop the floor with the youth.

“Well he obviously doesn’t wanna see you, now get away from my house,” answered Clive, barging through the group. One of the gang members pushed Clive in the back as he passed him, causing the old man to spin around and grab the youngsters’ jumper.

“Don’t you dare try and start a fight with me, little boy. I’ll kick your a*se all over this town if you touch me once more.”

Clive let go of the teen and pushed him back as he did so. The boy had been surprised by the anger, courage and strength of the old man. But once the surprise had subsided, he was left with humiliation and if Sugar hadn’t turned around and approached Clive, he would have set upon the older guy himself.

“Steady-O, granddaddy-O! Nobody’s here for a fight!” laughed Sugar. Well, he laughed for a few seconds before Clive reached out and grabbed the boy by the throat. Clive could tell that he was the one considered to be the ‘Leader’ of the group, and if he could walk over him, the group would leave the house alone.

“If you and your kids carry on with whatever you’re doing, you’ll get a fight. I can tell the difference between the kids that are friends with Dale and my grandkids, and the kids that mean trouble. You guys mean trouble and you’ll get it if you hang around here for much longer,” spat Clive.

Sugar coughed, spluttered and stumbled towards his group once Clive let his vice-like grip loose. Out of rage, the boy who had been humiliated by Clive before stepped forward, hawking before spitting at Clive. Though the phlegm never hit Clive, it gave him a reason to react and Clive took his chance.

With surprising speed, Clive stepped forward and flung a fist at the nose of the gang member. His connection wasn’t that great as the youngster attempted to lean out of the way, but his punch still hit the target and the boy fell backwards clutching his nose. 2 members of the gang stepped forward to help their fallen friend from the floor before they each turned towards Clive.

“You boys want a scrap? I’ll give you one. I may not win, but I’ll damn well make sure that I take as many of you down as my body lets me – and I guarantee that I’ll take at least a couple of you basta*ds.”

As the teens began to step forward, Sugar held out his arms to stop his friends from moving in and attacking Clive. He knew that the best way to get the old man was to get his grandsons – and that’s exactly what Sugar intended on doing. Sugar then turned to face Clive.

“Listen up, old boy. You made a big mistake today. The only reason I’m lettin’ you walk free this time is cause I think you’ve got a set of brass balls on ya, and I respect that man. But watch your back – don’t cross us twice,” said Sugar, pointing a finger at Clive. Sugar then spat on the floor before turning and walking out of the front garden, closely followed by his pals.

The only thing that had scared Clive throughout the confrontation was the look in Sugar’s eyes as he had said ‘Don’t cross us twice’. It had seemed as if the boy’s eyes had glazed over, similar to that of a great white shark when the fearsome beast is attacking its prey. He couldn’t tell what it was, but Clive could see that Sugar was clocking something over in his head, and Clive didn’t like what he may have set off on this afternoon.

**********

[Offspring8]

Tuesday 12th August 2008

Oxford (19th) vs. Weymouth (15th) (Blue Square Premier)

Tuesday 12th August, The Kassam Stadium

Colin waved to his mates, sat down near the front of the East Stand – otherwise known as the Oxford Mail Stand. Despite this stand not being able to house as many supporters as the other two stands, it normally generated the most noise and was occupied by most of the 2900 season ticket holders. Among those 2900 holders were some of the friends of the brothers; Darren, Ryan, Craig and Chris.

And that wasn’t a mistake when I said ‘the other two stands’. As of yet, there was no West Stand to the stadium – just a wooden fence and a car park behind the goal. That didn’t hinder the potential for big crowds at the Kassam though, which can seat an impressive 12,500 fans.

The Oxford United players were performing their pre-match warm ups. As Robert turned to jog from the North Stand towards the South Stand, he looked up towards the executive boxes where he knew his family would be. Sure enough, Liam and Jennie were stood outside one of the boxes. Liam had his arm around his wife and the two sisters, Trisha and Michelle, were nowhere to be seen. Robert guessed his sisters would be inside, eating some of the biscuits provided by the club.

**********

“We have to starve Weymouth of possession – I want to get our season started today. Within reason, I want you to take the shot every time the chance comes around. We can definitely win this game,” said Chris Wilder.

Colin had already heard these words; the manager had told him to take shots as often as he could. With images of himself scoring in front of the fans in Colin’s mind, Colin pulled tape tightly around the top of his blue socks, as was his regular routine before a match. He felt sick, he couldn’t sit still and he was desperate to impress people. Colin then told himself to pull it all together. He needed to stand up to the challenge, not be scared of it.

Robert was much the same as his older brother. He knew he had the ability to perform well at this stage but he was slightly nervous about playing in front of so many people. But, like his older brother again, he knew he had to meet the challenge head on and play to the best of his ability.

Colin stood up, rolling his shoulders and jumping lightly on the spot. Robert finished off on his laces, sat upright and took a deep breath. As had begun to be their custom, Colin offered a hand out to his brother, who took it and stood up. Their friends and family were watching; it was a must-win.

**********

“Robert looks like he’s really enjoying it,” said Clive, watching as his youngest grandson jinxed and jived with lightning feet past Kevin Sandwith, Weymouth’s left back. After Robert’s Ronaldo-esque run, the young winger swooped a cross to the back post only to see it knocked out for an Oxford corner by Weymouth’s Cameron Mawer.

As Robert watched the ball go out for a corner, he heard some members of the crowd congratulating his effort. Oxford were shooting towards the East stand, meaning that it was the fans who were always the most vocal behind the goal. It was a strangely satisfying feeling, having hundreds of people who you don’t know congratulate you by your first name.

The corner was eventually headed over by Shane Killock, but it was still a move that was appreciated by the fans. It wasn’t long until the fans in the East Stand saw more action with Oxford winning a throw in deep inside the Weymouth half.

Colin jogged into the 6 yard box to stand beside Weymouth’s goalkeeper, Conrad Logan. Logan was by no means a small guy; he stood a couple of inches taller than Colin and he definitely weighed a lot more than Colin. Despite the size of the ‘keeper, it was Colin’s job to make his life difficult if the ball came into the 6 yard box.

Oxford worked the ball well on the left and eventually it was Simon Clist who had possession of the ball on the edge of the area. Clist was quickly closed down by Weymouth players, but they were unable to stop the midfielder from clipping a cross into the box.

The cross floated towards the back post, which didn’t help Colin as he was at the front. Still, the young midfielder back-peddled in an attempt to meet the cross. With his marker too slow to react, Colin jumped backwards and nodded the ball back across goal before falling to the floor. He knew that the ‘keeper would have fallen onto the header fairly easily as there wasn’t much power in it, but there was always the hope that Logan would make a mistake. Alas, it wasn’t to be and the score-line still read 0-0.

That was until the 30th minute, when Oxford scored another of their trademark goals. The ball was played down the right hand side of the pitch and into the corner for Robert to chase down. As was to be expected, Robert reached the ball before anybody else and before it went out of play.

Without taking a touch to control the ball and facing out towards the south stand fans, Robert hoofed the ball over his shoulder and into the penalty box. At the same time, James Constable peeled away from his marker and sprinted towards the back post. At full speed, Constable launched into the air and headed home from close range, almost flying into the post as the ball bounced into the net.

All of the players ran to the bench where the whole team celebrated. It was important that Oxford’s season was kick-started today, and this was the best way to start it.

[Offspring8]

“Keep the pressure up boys, one goal isn’t as comfortable as I want,” said Chris Wilder, clapping some of his players on the back. The Oxford manager was confident that the 3 points would go to his team but he didn’t want to rest on one goal – things don’t always go to plan.

However, on this day things were clicking for Oxford and the pressure was sustained up until half time. Just before the break though, Oxford won a corner on the left wing just inside the Weymouth half. Chris Carruthers was the man to take the throw and he put the ball onto the chest of James Constable, who has come deep to collect it.

“Stay strong, Cop! Turn inside, you have Joey just there!” shouted Colin, attempting to help Constable with keeping the ball. As he spoke, Colin looked in front of himself and saw some space to move in to. Without wanting to draw too much attention, the young midfielder trotted forward into a gap that had formed inside the Weymouth half, just in front of the centre circle.

While Colin crept forward, Constable turned inside and fed the ball to the Oxford captain, Joe Burnell. Before the ball had even reached the captain, Burnell could hear the quick calls coming from Colin Rudyard. Burnell received the ball from the left and controlled the pass with his right foot, turning to face inside as he did. Then, seeing the space that Colin Rudyard had found for himself, Burnell chipped a 25 yard pass to his right which fell to the feet of Colin.

Facing the direction of the corner flag from the side the throw had been taken, Colin let the ball come past the left side of his body before trapping it calmly with his right boot. The low murmur of ‘shoot’ echoed from the stands and Colin, despite being almost 40 yards out, felt that he had to please the masses.

After taking one more touch to roll the ball forward, Colin lent to the side and attempted to curl the ball into the top corner to the Weymouth ‘keepers left hand side, with the shot being taken in line with the penalty spot.

The shot curled so much that the ball was almost in line with the edge of the 6 yard box at the widest point of the arc. Weymouth’s ‘keeper, Logan, scrambled across the goal, jumping and stretching so much so that the muscles in his body could stretch no further. Then, with the realisation the ball was arcing around him, Logan turned his head to see if the net would bulge, thumping to the ground as he did.

The net bulged, but thankfully for Weymouth, it was in the wrong direction. The shot curled wide of the post before crashing into the side netting. While some Oxford fans momentarily cheered, others let out gasps. The Weymouth team let out a sigh of relief as Colin looked to the floor before receiving a clap on the back from Joe Burnell. He had come close to a wonder first goal at the Kassam Stadium, but it was not to be.

**********

“Jesus, Colin’s got a shot on him, hasn’t he?” said Clive. The granddad of the brothers was on his best behaviour today after being seated in one of the executive boxes. Normally, he’d be down in the East Stand, chanting songs about Swindon with a pie in hand. Instead, he was sat on a padded seat, further away from the pitch and with no songs to sing and no pies to eat. Having said that, he enjoyed munching on the biscuits provided by the club – but he still preferred the East Stand.

“Yeah it wasn’t a bad effort all in all. And Robert is running his bloke all over the place, we’re doing well so far,” answered Liam.

“Well, saying that, it is only Weymouth. They’d need either an unbelievably, undeniably talented manager who was simply a footballing genius, an inspirational leader of men and a tactical god just to even stay in this league,” replied Clive.

“That is true! Imagine what kind of manager it would take to get this team to challenge for the league title!”

“Any man who could take this team and turn them into title challengers would be more than a god. If ever there was such a man, I’d clean his feet with my tongue – that’s how confident I am that there is no manager who could make a success of this team. So let’s not get too carried away that we’re winning.”

...

**********

[footballfan08]

Glad to see an update. Loving this story. Keep up the good work!

[Offspring8]

Glad to see a comment I'm also glad that you like the story and continue to follow it - it's hugely appreciated and motivating to know. Hope you and any other readers enjoy this latest entry

“Alright lads, get up and win it!” shouted Colin. Oxford had won a corner in the 52nd minute and Colin was on patrol just outside the area, waiting for anything to bounce out to him.

Some of the players that went up to meet the corner taken by Simon Clist included the man who had come on at half time in defence for James Clarke, which was Matt Day. Another aerial threat was in the form of Shane Killock, and he was the one the corner was aimed at. Killock won the near post header, but his effort was poor, bouncing before the ball even met the ‘keeper.

Weymouth were poor at retaining the ball though, and they soon found themselves defending once again. Simon Clist had possession at the left corner of the Weymouth area. Clist came inside, keeping his body between the ball and his opponent while looking for somebody to pick out.

Clist found that someone in the centre of the pitch, running in from a deep position. It was Colin Rudyard and as Clist rolled the ball into the path of the youngster, everyone stood from their seats, knowing that another effort from outside the box was coming.

The shot was high and looked to be beating the Weymouth ‘keeper once again, but it wasn’t to be. Logan launched himself upwards with all his strength. His timing was perfect and just before gravity cranked Logan back to the ground, he managed to stretch out one arm to flick the shot from Rudyard just over the bar and out for an Oxford corner. It was a fine save and Colin appreciated it with a quick few seconds of applause.

“Unlucky kid, but don’t expect to get another f*cking chance like that. I’ll snap your legs if I see the ball anywhere near you,” Colin heard. Spinning around, Colin saw Weymouth’s Marcus Browning smirking to himself. Colin’s first instinct was to square up to his opponent, but he managed to hold that back. Instead, he told himself to rise above the mind games.

“Yeah ‘cause you’re a big man, aren’t you?” Colin laughed back at his opposite.

“You know, you sounded exactly the same as your mum just then. All you have to do now is squeal and it’ll be almost exactly like that night I spent with her a few years ago!”

That was enough. Spitting with rage, Colin clenched his fists and was about to launch himself at Marcus Browning. The only thing that stopped him was Joe Burnell, who had guessed that Weymouth’s experienced midfielder would know exactly how to wind Colin up so he had kept an eye on the teen.

“Leave it, there are better ways to get back at him,” said the Oxford captain, putting his arm around Colin. Despite all of his anger, Colin knew his captain was right. He could get Browning back at another point in the game. For now, Colin’s fists stayed firmly at his sides.

Clist stepped up curled the corner to the front post, where Joe Burnell was tussling with his marker on the front corner of the 6 yard box. Using his upper-body strength, Burnell eased his marker towards goal before jumping and heading an effort on target.

The ball spun to the back post and buried itself into the far corner. Weymouth’s ‘keeper didn’t even move for the effort and he simply raised his arms towards the man that had been marking Joe Burnell.

Meanwhile, Colin charged towards Marcus Browning, putting his finger to his lips in a ‘Shhh’ action. After he was sure that Browning had got the message, Colin turned away to celebrate with his team-mates.

“You see what I mean?!?” Burnell shouted over all of the cheers. Colin nodded, clapping hands with his captains. This kind of revenge was much sweeter than any punch thrown and Colin felt a strange pang of satisfaction that, for once, he’d hit somebody harder than they’d hit him without using his fists, feet or head.

**********

10 minutes after the second goal, Chris Wilder decided to make another change. Yemi Odubade was the one recalled from the pitch to be replaced by Craig Farrell. Farrell was a fast striker, on loan from York. He wasn’t considered part of the first team but he provided the depth that teams needed.

Robert wasn’t having the best of games and was trying to get back into the mix. Sure, he wasn’t playing badly, but he wanted to be in the centre of the action. Looking at his brother, Robert could see that Colin was on a good game and he could also see that he was locked in a personal battle with Marcus Browning. There were a lot of off-the-ball words exchanged between the pair, and Robert laughed at the thought of his brother challenging the older man. They all knew that in a fight, Colin would lose – but that didn’t mean that he’d lay down and take grief from Browning. He’d give as good as he got.

Colin looked up as the ball rolled towards him. He could see that Constable was moving ahead of him into space and that’s when Colin decided what he wanted to do. From the centre circle, Colin zipped a pass forward to James Constable, who took control of the ball with his back to goal on the edge of the ‘D’.

Constable saw Colin come sprinting forward from deep and the forward held the ball up using his strength. After a few seconds of hustling, Constable looked up to see Rudyard pointing for the ball to be rolled in front of him. Constable touched a pass gently in front of Rudyard before moving closer to goal to jump onto a rebound from a shot that he knew was coming.

With Browning hot on his heels, Colin knew he had to take the shot early. With his first touch, the midfielder set the ball in front of him. His second touch launched the ball towards the goal once more, curling and swinging once more. Once more though, Logan was equal to the shot and he parried it out in front of him, breathing a sigh of relief as the ball was thumped away.

Weymouth then began to press. Stuart Beavon was released by a long ball from the back line and was only denied by Ben Hinchcliffe’s strong hands after getting through to one on one.

From the sidelines, Chris Wilder could see that Simon Clist was beginning to lag behind everyone else. The Oxford manager called Craig Nelthorpe forward and told the left winger to warm up. He needed fresh legs in case of any late burst from Weymouth.

With little over 10 minutes remaining, Nelthorpe took to the pitch in an attempt to shore up any opening gaps. The change in tactics worked just as Chris Wilder had hope and Oxford managed to close out the remaining minutes with little threat from a blunt Weymouth attack. Oxford United’s season was off and running.

Oxford – 2

James Constable (32)

Joe Burnell (55)

Weymouth - 0

Man of the Match: Joe Burnell (OXF)

Att: 4095

**********

[Offspring8]

“You both played well tonight and we’re both proud of the pair of you,” said Liam, putting an arm around each of his sons. It was true as well; Liam couldn’t help smiling to the point where his mouth was bigger than his whole head when people asked about his boys. There were a lot of benefits to it; people generally wishing you well, a future in the game for his sons in which a lot of money can be made and Liam even had inside information on his team.

Then of course there were the obvious plusses: free tickets to games, free food at games, unlimited opportunities to meet the players and all of the other club-related quirks. So, all in all, Liam and Jennie were both happy with the direction that their sons were headed in.

“I didn’t do all that much today, if I’m honest,” said Robert.

“Hey listen, it isn’t just about what you do on the ball. You kept their left flank pinned down for the whole game because they were too scared to attack and leave you unguarded,” said Liam. “And don’t forget that you set up Constable’s goal today. I thought you both done really well.”

The family then settled down for the late dinner that always arrived after the brothers had played their game. Dale was also sat at the table so that he could hear how the brothers had played in their game. Robert spoke openly to Dale, but Colin barely said a word to his cousin. Dale had said he’d be at the game, but he never came. And that’s what made Colin suspicious; what was he doing that had stopped him from coming to the brothers’ first match at the Kassam?

Colin went through the possible answers in his head, but he could already place a good bet on the reason. Dale had sworn that he wasn’t doing any drugs but Colin knew he was lying. It’s why Sugar was after him – Dale owed the dealer money for the drugs he’d been buying. Colin wanted to fly across the table and pummel his older cousin, but he didn’t want to give away that Dale was on drugs.

Jennie would surely kick him out if she found out. At times though, that seemed like the best option. If Dale wasn’t here, Sugar would never have any reason to visit the house of the Rudyard family. And, if Dale wasn’t here, drugs would not be around Colin’s younger sisters, Trisha and Michelle. That’s what infuriated Colin the most. He’d asked Dale to keep drugs out of the house for his sisters’ sake but he’d ignored Colin’s words.

Colin’s thoughts were then interrupted. The front door opened and the sound of Granddad Clive’s laughter filled the house. Despite his anger at Dale, Colin couldn’t help but laugh at the sound, almost choking on his food as he did so. Clive just had an infectious laugh that got everybody going, especially when he was drunk.

“Good evening, my family,” Clive shouted down the hallway. Everybody greeted Clive between mouthfuls of food and bouts of giggles.

“My boys,” Clive said, walking down the hallway and into the kitchen before putting his hands on the backs of Colin and Robert.

“My boys, we make a bloody good team, my boys, a bloody good team......my boys,” said Clive, hiccupping as he spoke.

“And why’s that, granddad?” asked Robert, who was trying his hardest to suppress the urge to laugh to the point of tears.

“Well, you’se pull in the prerformanzes and I...I’ll pull in the free pints down the...pub. Works like a treat, trust me,” said Clive, clapping the two brothers on the back. The old man then walked out of the kitchen and into the front room, where he led down on the sofa.

“And did you know,” shouted Clive, “If you flew from.....London...New York on a conker--”

“A conker?!?” laughed Liam.

“Yeah, one of them fast planes!” shouted Clive, almost angrily, in reply.

“Oh, you mean a concord, not a conker.”

“Yeah, one of them. Anywho, if you flew from London to New York in a concord,” said Clive, raising his voice as he spoke of the plane, “you'd arrive two hours before you left,” said Clive, pushing everyone else over the edge and into the pits of laughter. The older man smiled to himself before pushing the cushions from the sofa and rolling onto his side, drifting into a deep, drunken sleep.

Colin, after putting a stop to his laughter, looked up at Dale. Then, the anger came back and Colin fell silent once more. It was all he could do to stop himself from forcing some sense into his cousin, who seemed oblivious to the fact that he could soon see himself out on the streets if he continued with the drugs.

**********

[tenthreeleader]

Just a quick note to express my admiration for your imagery, Offspring. This is rapidly becoming a polished piece of writing and it's a pleasure to read.

[Balthazars]

Offy, finished reading the first page (plenty in there) and felt it's time to comment - excellent writing, this is a cracking piece of work that you have here.

I'm looking forward to finding the time to finish reading the rest of it, and of course seeing where things go in the lead up to the matters you 'consulted' me about.

[Offspring8]

Thanks as always, 10-3. It's flattering to recieve such praise from an accomplished writer such as yourself and it really is appreciated, just like every other comment

I'm glad it's got the thumbs up from you Balth if I can get it anywhere near the standard of your story, I'll be more than happy . As for that issue, you'll probably be able to spot the build up to it and I doubt it's too far away from this point of the story!

Thanks so much again for the comments, views and continued support from everybody love to y'all

Thursday 14th August

The streets were peaceful as the sun began to set in the orange sky. It had been a warm day with a light breeze and the orange blanket above the brothers and their friends was beautiful to look at, the silhouettes of council houses being the only thing that wasn’t nice to look at. The faint sound of cars speeding along the dual carriageway nearby was one of the few sounds that could be heard in Barton.

One of the other sounds that chirped from the streets was the sounds of the Rudyard brothers and their friends. As it was the summer holidays, the boys had been able to just spend the day hanging around with each other. They’d spent most of the day kicking a football around the local field and were now slowly dawdling towards the local shops, winding down alleys and along streets almost without even thinking of where they were walking because of how often the group of friends had walked the same route together.

“I’m telling you though, this Asher Roth kid is gunna be big!”

“Colin, he might be good but he’s just a pretender to the real king. He won’t even scratch what Eminem has accomplished,” said Darren.

“He isn’t trying to be Eminem though, he’s his own artist and he has his own style. People think that ‘cause he’s white and he raps, he’s trying to be Em,” answered Colin. He’d heard of a young rapper named Asher Roth on Radio 1 and had introduced his friends to the artist’s music. Now, it was a debate on whether the young rapper was trying to copy the accomplishments of Marshall Mathers, otherwise known as Eminem.

“I like him,” Ryan added, slowly pedalling on his BMX alongside his friends, “Hey Col, do you remember when me, you and Robert made that rap song a few years ago? That was a masterpiece!”

Colin and Robert began to laugh with Ryan while the rest of the group looked on, willing for one of the boys to tell the story to the rest of the group.

“Oh man, that was fun. We were really bad though, weren’t we?” said Robert.

“We were amazing! We coulda been a rap trio if these two hadn’t left me hanging to go and play football!” laughed Ryan. Really, he knew that the three of them had sounded extremely bad, but they’d had a laugh and that was all that the boys had ever wanted to do.

After encouragement from the rest of the group, Colin, Robert and Ryan began to recall the lyrics to their old one-off song. Eventually, the lyrics flew back into the heads of the boys and the three of them broke into the chorus of the song together. As the rest of the group laughed and clapped along to the lyrics that really did sound as if they’d been written by 10 year olds.

‘We graffiti walls, and pimp up 4 by 4’s,’ was one of the lines included. As was painfully obvious, the boys were never going to make it as song writers. After a large amount of laughter, the group arrived at the local Barton shops.

Colin pulled his hood down before he entered the shop. It was well known around the area that you’d be asked to leave the shop if you had your hood up. It was an everyday thing that somebody would attempt to steal from the shop. Although it was never big raids, you would still be reported to the police if the shopkeeper found out that you had tried to steal anything.

As Colin entered the shop, he glanced across at some of the other shops and saw a group of girls hanging around outside the fish and chips shop. There must have been around 8 of them stood in a group, some of them sat on the small wall outside the shop while others stood in front of and around them.

There was only one which really caught Colin’s eyes though. She was shorter than Colin – a guess would be maybe 5ft 6, Colin thought. She was a brunette of slim build and, even from the distance which Colin was stood away from her, he could see that she had big, bright blue eyes.

And that’s when Darren slapped Colin lightly in the face.

“Come on man – you’re supposed to be a footballer! Be smooth!” Darren laughed. Colin hadn’t realised that he’d just been stood in one spot, staring at the girl. He blushed slightly before quickly walking inside the shop as the group of girls laughed to themselves.

“Why did you do that? You just embarrassed me man!” Colin said, turning to Darren once they had entered the shop.

“Colin, you were embarrassing yourself. Darren saved you! Now come on, buy some food and lets go,” laughed Robert.

Colin rolled the pound coins in the palm of his hand, looking at them and figuring some kind of rough plan in his head to give him an excuse to talk to the girl.

“Nah man, I’m gunna get some fish and chips. Anybody else?”

At that, the boys broke into laughter and jeering as they saw Colin’s eyes light up. It wasn’t often that the Oxford midfielder put this much thought into something and this was a rare occasion which they intended to take full advantage of you.

“Oh come on, boys! Honestly, there’s about ten of them over there, I can’t go on my own. I need someone to back me up. Anybody up for it?”

Colin looked around at the giggling group. He began to get annoyed when all he saw were sniggers and he was just about to give up his hope of talking to the girl.

“Okay, alright mate,” Darren laughed, “I’ll be your wingman, bro. Let’s get our roll on!”

Colin smiled and laughed, clapping hands with Darren as the two teens walked out of the shop together. He knew he could count on Darren when he needed too and Darren knew that Colin hadn’t really shown a serious interest in any of the girls around Barton until now. Now, it was the real test for the young footballer.

**********

[Offspring8]

I can't be 100% sure but I think this will probably be my last post for a few weeks as I'm going on holiday to Florida in a few days time.

Just a quick thanks to those who are reading the story and a bigger thanks to those who have commented - once again, it's appreciated and I am truly grateful The story will resume in about 3 weeks.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy bad weather whilst I'm on holiday

Jokes ,

laters people

“Hi,” said Colin, simply. The group just turned to look at the two boys and that’s when Colin realised that there were a few guys in the group as well. Looking around at them, Colin saw that he recognised one of the guys, but he wasn’t sure where he’d seen him before.

Then, Colin’s eye’s roamed over to the girl who had caught his attention moments earlier. She wore jeans and a plain, black zip-up hoody. The girl smiled at Colin and he was unsurprised to see that it was the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. Small dimples formed in the cheeks to go with the big, white smile and blue eyes. Something in the pit of Colin’s stomach crackled and he immediately forgot that anybody else was present.

That was until Colin got a sharp jab in his back from Darren. Then, Colin decided to stop smiling so that he didn’t look like a fat kid drooling over a cake in front of this girl and her friends.

“Hi. I’m kinda hungry – wanna get some food?” the girl said to Colin, nodding towards the fish and chips shop next to the group. Colin nodded embarrassingly. He may as well have had his tongue loped out the side of his mouth and been dribbling all down himself and he’d probably have looked cooler.

The two walked into the warmth together, leaving the whispers and sniggers of the group behind them. As he watched Colin walk into the shop with the girl, Darren turned his attention to another girl from the group. Using his most relaxed tone possible, Darren attempted to make conversation with the girl.

“I’m Colin - -,”

“I know who you are,” interrupted the girl. Normally, Colin would have been annoyed at somebody who he hardly knew cutting him off but he couldn’t help but let it pass. “You’re Colin Rudyard, right? The football star?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call me a ‘football star’, but yeah I play for Oxford,” Colin laughed, blushing slightly that the girl knew him but he didn’t know her.

“Well everybody says that you and your brother are bloody good at football. I agree with them as well, I’ve seen you on the school field a couple of times. I’m Danielle – you might know my older brother actually, Sam? Sam Murillo?” the girl said.

Once again, Colin blushed because of the fact that she’d seen him around school and he’d taken no notice. Then again, when Colin played football, there was only ever one thing on his mind. As for Danielle’s brother, a bell rang loudly in Colin’s head. He saw the face of the boy outside stood with Danielle’s group and then he saw Sugar’s face.

That was it! Colin had seen the boy outside before – he was one of Sugar’s thugs. Nothing was ever straight forward. Colin took a deep breath and decided to ignore that fact – he wasn’t interested in Danielle’s brother.

“Yeah, I’ve seen Sam around,” Colin answered, nodding. The two teens collected their order before heading back outside and sitting on the wall together. There, they spoke about their hobbies and interests.

Colin was amazed. He’d never been able to talk to somebody so openly at such an early stage before. This tanned, brown-haired, blue-eyed girl seemed so easy to talk to and she had something about her that just made Colin forget all the bad things going on. She seemed to make everything ok just by talking. It was almost perfect – but her brother was a member of a gang who detested Colin, and he felt fairly sure that this ‘Sam’ wouldn’t take too kindly to his younger sisters’ new friend. Still, it was worth any aggro; or so Colin believed.

**********

Sam looked over at his younger sister and his anger simmered just below the surface. Was this some kind of attempt at mocking him from the young Oxford midfielder? He didn’t know, but the youngsters’ arrogance annoyed Sam.

Still, Sam knew that Sugar was planning an attack on the boy and his brother soon so he knew he’d get his chance to pummel the younger lad.

Without another word, Sam flicked his hood up, put his hands together inside the front pouch on the hoody and turned, walking silently away from the group and towards the harsh suburbs that he knew as home and safety.

As the hooded character walked away from the laughter and talking of the group, the sky began to darken and the streets began to empty. Some of the orange street lights flickered on, others just flickered while a few others simply remained still, having been smashed by youths with nothing better to do.

Colin found himself lost in Danielle’s words, spinning from chatting into laughter at regular points. Eventually, Robert and his friends left Colin on the wall, talking to his new friend. The same could be said of Danielle’s group. However, neither of them noticed their friends leave and neither of them noticed the darkness slowly creeping in around them. Neither of them cared.

**********

[swagat sinha]

Just a quick note to express my admiration for your imagery, Offspring. This is rapidly becoming a polished piece of writing and it's a pleasure to read.

I'd like to disagree, 10-3. :o

It's always been a polished piece of writing in my humble opinion.

[Offspring8]

Swag, welcome to the story and thank you for your words it's great to know that you're reading along

Friday 15th August 2008

It was one of the hottest days of the year and the brothers were at the Oxford United training ground for some last minute preparations for Oxford’s game tomorrow at the Kassam against Eastbourne Boro.

“Afternoon, guys,” smiled Jon Brown, one of Oxford’s physio’s. The 26 year old sat down beside the two brothers and opened his kit bag, pulling a sandwich and some crisps from it.

“Alright, Jon,” Robert replied. “I thought that was to store your physio stuff in, not to carry your lunch around?”

The physio took a huge bite from the sandwich and shrugged his shoulders, never taking his eyes from the food.

“What else do you keep in there?” asked Colin, grabbing the physio’s bag and pulling it closer to him. Inside, Colin found all sorts of things ranging from lads mags across to a PSP and even onto duct tape.

“Jon, why do you keep duct tape in here? Are you gunna tape somebody’s snapped leg back into place or something?”

“You never know when you might need it, Col. It can be useful in a lot of situations – Des keeps some in his bag as well.”

Just at that moment, an idea struck inside Colin’s head. Des Buckingham was a 22 year old youth coach at Oxford who was notorious for his discipline levels despite his age.

“Jon, can we just borrow that tape for an hour or so? We’ll get it back to you, I just wanna try something?” Colin smiled. Jon Brown, still with a mouth full of food, nodded his head and Colin pulled the grey duct tape from the bag. Throwing it lightly up in the air and catching the tape again, Colin rose and nodded to his younger brother.

“Where are we going?” Robert asked.

“We have a little prank to play on Des. Here’s how we’re going to do it..”

**********

“Des! Come here for a sec, will you?” Robert called. The youth coach strode towards the young winger with a quizzical look mapped on his face.

“What’s up?” asked the young coach.

“I just wanna try this trick I saw on YouTube, that’s all. It’s great, you’ll love it,” smiled Robert. “Just put your hands flat on the side of your head over each ear.”

“You what? You have to be -,”

“Just stop being such a gruff, Des, and do it,” Robert interrupted. Reluctantly, the coach complied and placed each hand on the side of his head. At that moment, Colin pulled the duct tape from under his shirt and ran across to where the coach was stood with his brother, being careful to stay silent and not alert Des Buckingham.

Colin crept up behind Des and, before the coach could react, Colin had stuck the tape to the coach’s forehead and was frantically wrapping the tape around his head. After a few seconds, Des had tape covering his eyes, his mouth and his hands were stuck firmly to the side of his head.

Howling with laughter, the brothers sped away from the coach in a bid to avoid his flying feet. A subdued scream of fury came from Des and eventually the rest of the team turned to see what was happening. After seeing Colin and Robert speeding away from Des, who had virtually his whole head covered in duct tape and his hands stuck between the tape and his face, the rest of the squad broke into laughter.

Perfect preparation for the game against Eastbourne.

**********

[Offspring8]

Saturday 16th August 2008

Oxford (12th) vs. Eastbourne Boro (14th) (Blue Square Premier)

Saturday 16th August, Kassam Stadium

“Alright everybody, listen up,” said Chris Wilder. “As you already know, we’re playing with the new formation today. Make sure you stay in position and I’m sure we’ll get the three points.”

Robert had heard what the manager had said, but he wasn’t really paying much attention. He was still being played wide on the right so it didn’t make much of a difference to him. He heard the Oxford faithful signing loudly once again. It was strange. Today, he was playing against adults in a game of football that would be played in front of over 4000 people. On Monday, he was back at school.

Robert looked to his side at Colin. His leg was shaking again, bouncing up and down at a high speed. But calmness was etched over his face, and that was normal for Colin. He rarely showed his emotions, preferring to mask them for some reason. Robert remembered how his brother had once told him that to show certain emotions was a sign of weakness.

“You ready?” Robert asked.

“Yeah,” answered Colin, simply. He just wanted to get out and play.

**********

GK: Ben Hinchcliffe

DR: James Clarke

DC: Chris Willmott

DC: Luke Foster (In for Shane Killock)

DL: Chris Carruthers

MR: Robert Rudyard

MC: Joe Burnell ©

MC: Simon Clist

ML: Craig Nelthorpe (In for Yemi Odubade)

AMC: Colin Rudyard

ST: James Constable

Subs: Billy Turley (GK), Matt Day (DEF), Adam Chapman (MID/DEF), Lewis Haldane (MID), Yemi Odubade (ATT)

**********

A light breeze fluttered across the pitch as a pass from James Clarke glided to the feet of Robert Rudyard. After some encouragement from Joe Burnell, Robert danced and sped his way past the Eastbourne left back. He stayed just inside of the touchline and eventually thumped a fast cross into the box, which was unsurprisingly met by James Constable.

The striker jumped and met the ball from just a few yards out, but the cross was too high for him. He headed the chance over the bar before turning and applauding Roberts’ efforts. The young winger heard members of the crowd shout encouraging words as well, which only made him hungrier for the ball. He’d impressed in his early games and he was enjoying his football.

With 25 minutes played, Robert took control of the ball on the half way line, running down the wing at his opponents once more. It was Matt Crabb who made an attempt at stopping the youngster this time, and he made a hash of it. Robert pulled off a step over with his left foot before flicking the ball outside with his right foot and beating Crabb. However, as Robert passed his opponent, a leg was stuck out in his path and the young winger tumbled over it at speed.

The referee came jogging across and, as Crabb helped Robert to his feet, he was shown a yellow by the ref. Robert gave the ball to his older brother, who had come across to the right wing to take the free-kick. It was just inside the Eastbourne half and Colin knew he wanted to whip the ball into the area.

Colin scanned the field for a target, and found it in the shape of Craig Nelthorpe, right across the other side of the pitch, stood on the corner of the Eastbourne area. Nelthorp was pointing in front of him, towards the penalty area and Colin needed no further instructions.

With relative ease, Colin lumped a 45 yard pass right into the path of Craig Nelthorpe, who wasn’t being tracked by his marker. Nelthorpe took one touch to cushion the brilliant pass before stretching out and tapping the ball past the stricken goalkeeper.

The crowd went crazy and Nelthorpe spun to find Colin, embracing the young midfielder immediately.

“Des! We gotta dedicate this to Des!” Colin shouted.

Chris Wilder was celebrating with his staff when he turned to see the two Rudyard brothers, Craig Nelthorpe and Joe Burnell all jogging towards the bench with their hands over their ears, imitating the prank that had been played on Des Buckingham just a day before. The youth coach simply laughed and hugged the players as they came to the bench. 1-0 to Oxford.

The players returned to the pitch to resume the game and were almost 2 up within a few minutes. A loose ball squirmed its way out of a crowd of players and Robert was there to pick it up, just outside the penalty area.

With one touch to control the spinning ball, Robert lashed a shot at goal which went less than a yard wide of the ‘keepers’ top right corner. It was a worthy effort, but it didn’t change the scoreline.

A few minutes later, things got worse for Eastbourne Boro. A cross from the left was headed clear and collected by James Clarke. The Oxford right back came inside before being tackled from the side by Matt Crabb. The whistle blew, a second yellow and then a red was shown and Eastbourne were down to 10 men with not long left until half time.

**********

[Infonote]

Congrats for the story.

I assume you used the editor to create 2 new players: Colin and Robert.

I guess it will be difficult to follow two players when they are eventually transfered to two different teams.

Keep up the excellent work.

[SJFunk]

Interesting and Intriging story there Offspring. Looking forward to seeing what is in store for the brothers.

[Offspring8]

Infonote, welcome to the story and thanks for the comment

You are correct as well, the data editor was used to create both players. And that could become difficult, but because of the strong relatioship between the pair, it is very possible that they could follow each other to any given team (It's likely that if a team becomes interested in one of them, it's going to be interested in the other as well). That may not be the case though as Colin is a Chelsea fan and Robert is a United fan sooo who knows; the game will decide where they end up and I'll continue to write in the same way thanks again.

SJ, welcome and thanks to you as well hopefully, there will be a lot in store for them, whether that be in a bad way or a good way!

And a quick message to all: sorry about the lack of updates here for the past month or so. As most of you could probably tell, I've been a tad busy elsewhere. Hopefully though, I can get a bit more of this story done now (As 'Top Drog' is virtually finished). Thanks to all of those who have read, continue to read and a special thanks to those who have dropped a quick comment here and there hope you do and continue to enjoy reading. Anyways, I'll shut up now. Here's the next update

“We’re dominating – especially in the middle of the park and in the last third. Well done to all of you, we deserve to be ahead,” Chris Wilder said to his team.

“Gaffer’s right, boys,” Joe Burnell then said. It was normal that Joe would say a few words at half time. Both the team and the staff liked the idea, because it gave a point of view from somebody who was actually on the pitch.

“We’re using our possession well, Rob and Nelly; well done on the wings, lads. You guys haven’t stood still and they’re struggling to mark you so keep the movement going and keep giving everybody options,” continued the captain.

After Joe had finished talking, Mickey Lewis took over. His talk was all about exploiting their disadvantage: they only had 10 men. Colin was told to hang back a little bit to add a bit of stability and to add another short passing option. The management team wanted this game to be closed out professionally with a clean sheet and possibly a few more goals if the team could grab them. But the main order was a clean sheet and a confident performance.

**********

As the players began the second half, Colin could see that it was clear that Eastbourne’s captain Paul Armstrong had been asked to look after the young Oxford midfielder personally. He got close and physical and it was long before Colin heard the threads in his shirt crackle as Armstrong lived up to his name by giving a firm tug of Colin’s shirt. It was difficult to play against, but Colin was getting used to it by now.

On the hour mark, Oxford won a corner kick. The ball was cleared away but only as far as Colin, who had been told to lurk on the edge of the box. Colin’s first idea was to unleash a shot on goal, but when he saw Eastbourne’s Danny Brown charging out at him, Colin knew he couldn’t get a shot off.

Instead, he knocked it to his right with the outside of his boot in an attempt to get away from Brown. The Eastbourne player decided to let Colin know exactly where he was going though, by sending him to the ground. The referee blew and Oxford were awarded a free-kick just outside of the area.

Colin picked the ball up, signalling clearly that he wanted to take the free-kick. It was 20 yards from goal, almost level with the centre of the goal.

After the referee blew, Colin ran up and thumped the ball. It flew through the wall and nicked a slight deflection before rising up and into the bar. As the ball thudded away and the fans echoed ‘Oooh’s around the stadium, Colin put his hands on the back of his head. Still no first-team goal.

Over the next half an hour, Oxford clicked into ‘retain’ mode and suffocated their opponents. Try as they might, Eastbourne couldn’t get out of their own half due to being pinned back by both Robert Rudyard and Craig Nelthorpe. Oxford were happy enough to knock the ball around and along the ground, every now and then chipping a ball for the wingers to chase before whipping in a cross in an attempt to gift James Constable with a goal.

The second goal never came, but Eastbourne never even developed a chance in the Oxford half. The game finished and Oxford ran out comfortable winners.

Oxford – 1

Craig Nelthorpe (26)

Eastbourne Boro - 0

Man of the Match: Craig Nelthorpe (OXF)

Att: 4024

**********

“So he’s trying to steal my girl as well now?” Sugar shouted. Sam had told his friend of the new friendship that had spouted between his sister, Danielle and the young Oxford footballer, Colin.

Sam knew that Sugar had a soft spot for Danielle, and he had figured that if he could get Sugar to do his dirty work for him with Colin, then Sam’s family couldn’t blame him if Colin then stayed away from Danielle.

“He’s tryin’, man. The tw*t was using his football sh*t as a chat-up as well, you know what I mean? I don’t want that skank with my sister, man,” Sam said. He meant it as well. He didn’t want Colin to get together with his sister. If that happened, Sugar would have grounds to dismiss Sam from the gang. And dismissals from this gang were never pretty.

Sugar lit up another fag. As he blew the smoke up towards his dimly lit, bedroom ceiling, a thought popped up inside his head. Colin didn’t respect Sugar. He didn’t realise just how dangerous Sugar was. But the gang leader was confident that he would realise just how serious he was soon enough.

Sugar had decided to ask for some help from his uncle, Thabo. Thabo was part of an ‘organisation’ – a glorified and organised gang, if you like. Thabo was one of the senior members and he had access to all sorts.

Including firearms.

**********

[Offspring8]

Wednesday 20th August 2008

“George has experience and he’ll provide us with an extra option at right back. We expect him to arrive at the club tomorrow and start training as soon as,” Chris said to his players. Oxford were close to agreeing a deal for George Abbey, a Nigerian right-back currently plying his trade at Crewe.

“As for our next game against Wrexham, we all know it’s going to be hard. They were favourites to win the league for a reason and they’re on a three match unbeaten run at the moment,” continued the manager. Oxford would be playing away for this league game and Chris Wilder knew he’d need his big players to step up if Oxford were to win.

It was a game, though, that could be taken by Robert Rudyard. Wrexham had a slow defence, and the last person they want to see lining up against them was the pacey winger. If used effectively, Robert could single-handedly smash the Wrexham defensive line to pieces.

So that’s what Oxford worked on in training: getting Robert to run at defenders whilst maintaining a balanced, alert system at the back in case the home team decided to try and break.

**********

Stars filled the sky and the sound of hooting boys echoed around the empty field. Colin’s brother and friends were playing handball; their own made-up game which consisted of (Real) Football, Rugby and Fake (American) Football.

Colin himself though, was sat next to the campfire that he’d spent the first half of his evening preparing. They always had campout parties in the summer, and this one was no different: Campfire, One 3-man tent between 10+ people, Alcohol, a football and a Barbeque.

Colin took another sip from his can. He still wasn’t overly-fond of the taste of alcohol, but he drank it nevertheless. The Oxford midfielder looked down across the dark field and he could see the figures of his friends and brother crashing into each other and fighting over the ball.

Then, behind that pile of bodies, Colin saw 4 figures walk through the opening and onto the field. At first, he wasn’t sure who it was, and his senses were on guard. It wouldn’t be the first time that a campout had ended in blows dealt between Colin’s and another gang, and it wouldn’t be the last.

But then, as the figures drew closer, Colin heard a laugh which he could spot from lightyears away. His stomach performed backflips, sideflips and all the rest as he realised that one of the figures was Danielle Murillo.

Danielle’s group first approached Colin’s friends. Then, after a few seconds of conversation, 2 of the group broke away and began to trudge towards Colin. As they drew closer, Colin saw that one of them was Danielle. Her bronzed skin and bright smile gave her away, and Colin got to his feet.

He approached Danielle and the pair hugged as a greeting. Danielle’s straight hair had become a little messy during the walk to the fire, but it suited her in a way. Then, as Colin wrapped his arms around Danielle, her sweet scent drifted into Colin’s mind. Nobody else ever had the same scent as Danielle, and Colin longed for that in itself.

Danielle’s friend then nodded at Colin and smiled. She was also very attractive, but that couldn’t take Colin’s attention from Danielle. She wore tight jeans and a dark blue hoody, and she still seemed attractive.

The pair sat down next to the fire as Danielle’s friend raided the drinks to take some back over to where the game was, leaving Colin and Danielle alone. They sat in relative silence for a few minutes, the only thing disrupting the silence being when Colin offered Danielle a bacon sandwich.

“My brother doesn’t want me to hang about with you,” Danielle finally said. Colin looked at the girl with one eyebrow raised.

“He says you’re just trouble and that you do drugs and get in fights all the time?”

“Your brother says that? Even though he’s one of Sugar’s thugs?” Colin snorted, forgetting that he was talking about Danielle’s older brother in his annoyance.

“He’s not a thug. He’s just friends with Sugar, that’s all,” said Danielle. Colin nodded, smiling. The girl was a little naive.

“Anyway, why would he tell me that you’ve attacked him in the past? And why should I believe you when I know that Dale deals in drugs and lives in your house?”

Colin looked at Danielle with both eyebrows raised this time.

“I don’t attack anybody unless the insult me, my friends or my family. So if I’ve attacked him, it would have been because he attacked me first,” Colin answered. “And Dale doesn’t do drugs in my house.”

“Lay off of it Colin, everybody knows that Dale’s a druggy – that’s why his mum hates him.”

Those words automatically made Colin want to strike out and, for a split second, Colin had to resist everything in him just to stay calm. Then, Andrew’s face flashed into Colin’s mind. His face seemed outlined, pale-white and as clear as anything Colin had ever seen. From behind dark, sunken eyes, Andrew stared at his son.

Colin snapped himself out of it, the hairs on the back of his neck standing. He didn’t want to see his dad, and he certainly didn’t want to be anything like him. He looked down at his can to see that he’d clenched it too hard in one hand and crushed it.

“Are you okay?” came a voice from Colin’s side. He looked at Danielle, her eyes questioning what she’d just seen from Colin. From nowhere, Colin had changed in front of her eyes. She’d seen his jaw clench tightly through his cheek, he’d began to breathe deeply, he’d began to shake slightly and his fists clenched, crushing his drink in his hand. Then it had suddenly stopped, and Danielle wanted to know what had happened. It had scared her.

“Don’t say anything about Dale. You don’t know him – you don’t know about anything that has happened. Just, please, don’t talk about Dale,” Colin said. Danielle nodded in reply, looking into Colin’s misty, light blue eyes. He was almost squinting and Danielle could swear that he was close to tears.

But in a second, that look had gone and Colin returned to looking like that confident, strong young boy that everybody knew. Or thought they knew.

Colin himself was scared. He’d almost struck out at Danielle and he hadn’t been able to control his anger until the last second. He didn’t want to be anything like Andrew, but did he really have any choice, or was it just part of his genes?

**********

[Welwyn]

Awesome story mate, brilliant stuff.

[Offspring8]

Thanks, Welwyn . Welcome to the story and I hope you continue to enjoy it

Saturday 23rd August 2008

The engine of the coach rumbled underneath the players as it worked its way along the M40 from Oxford towards Wrexham for the Blue Square Premier game between the pair.

Wrexham had had a considerably poor first few games even though they were unbeaten. After 2 draws, Wrexham had scraped through to win against a weakened Rushden team and claimed their first 3 points of the season. Despite being early favourites to coast to the championship, the recently-relegated club found themselves in 9th position after the first trio of games – but there was still plenty of time to recover, and nobody was panicking just yet. And that’s why this match was being touted as an early title clash.

Wrexham had been on the decline for the past couple of years. If you’d have been looking for them 5 years ago, you’d have found them in League 1. However, after a couple of bad seasons, The Red Dragons suddenly found themselves hustling in the BSP, and their fans were eager to return to the big time.

Wrexham itself was situated in the north-eastern territory of Wales, and was the oldest professional Welsh Football Club in the game. Before they were relegated at the end of last season, the club had enjoyed 87 years of consecutive pro-league football. Perhaps that’s why it came as such a disappointing blow to the fans when the team went down.

Their stadium, The Racecourse Ground, is currently the worlds’ oldest stadium that is hosting international games. Today, it would play host to an Oxford team that was looking to attain the championship, and it would prove a test for the southern team.

**********

Wrexham (9th) vs. Oxford (6th) (Blue Square Premier)

Saturday 23rd August, The Racecourse Ground

The sun crept into the sky and burned above the pitch, forcing sweat from each player. Robert much preferred playing in the winter. Well, that was at least until it actually was winter. When the winter months arrived, Robert told himself that he preferred to play in the summer. It’s a British thing.

Not many of the fans complained though – until it came to the football. It was nervy and the game was ridden with fouls and bookings. A fair count of the fouls came against Colin Rudyard, who answered back with some snappy tackles of his own. In fairness though, none of Colin’s were really that bad, which is why he wasn’t booked.

In fact, some of the youngsters' tackles were glorious to behold. He put plenty of force behind them and almost always won the ball fairly. But that was all he could manage. Scott McLaughlin, Wrexham’s defensive midfielder, was on strict orders not to let Colin outside of reaching distance.

Colin’s opponent done well, shutting his marker down every time he got the ball and always sticking a tackle in from a standing position, ensuring that Colin struggled to find space and open ground to stride into.

This was one of the reasons for the lack of action in the first half. It wasn’t just Colin kept on an impressively short leash either. Robert had barely had a sniff of the ball. He’d been well marked and he was also still trying to form an understanding with Oxford’s new right-back, George Abbey. It was his debut for Oxford United and the right flank was yet to click.

All in all, it was a gritty first half as the two heavyweights went in on level terms.

**********

[Offspring8]

A bit of a monster update here as I've been working a lot on this story without updating it. Here's an update to keep it ticking over as I'm not that far away from returning to roughly a post per day - apologies for the constant delays:thup:

“They’ve clipped off our wings and we’re struggling,” Chris Wilder said to his assistant, Mickey Lewis.

“You’re right; Lewis and little Rob have both struggled to get any space whatsoever so far. You want me to have a word with the kid for you?”

The Oxford manager nodded at his assistant. Mickey was always better with the younger lads, having spent more time with them in training. Therefore, if ever there was any need for the staff to have a word with one of the youngsters; it would normally be Mickey that would do the talking. He could distinguish between the ones that needed to be shouted at and the ones who just needed some encouragement.

Mickey Lewis eventually found Robert with one of the physio’s. He was taking large gulps from a bottle of water and getting some work on his calf from one of the physio’s after complaining of some light touches of cramp.

“It’s really warm out there so you need to keep your fluid levels up, Rob.”

“Warm? I’m sweating buckets and I rarely sweat at all!” Robert smiled back.

“I’m surprised at that, to be honest. You haven’t had much ball work to do today, what’s up?” asked Mickey. Robert tilted the bottle once more and squeezed it with both hands, taking a few large gulps of water as he cast his thoughts over the game so far.

“I’m just being marked out and I can’t get in behind their back line. As soon as we cross the half way line, Wrexham are all over the middle lads and they have no time to pick out a ranged pass, so I have to keep coming inside and keep coming short to even see the ball.”

“Okay Rob. Just stick to your wing and try and spread their midfield. If you can’t deal any damage on the ball, try for some off of it. Keep moving and stretching their lines and try to tire them down. We can’t depend on you for every game.”

**********

“We have to get a goal, Rob. Pull your finger out of your ar*e and get that flank moving,” Colin said to his younger brother as they exited the tunnel and jogged back onto the pitch for the second half.

“Stop worrying about me and get some work done yourself, you lazy bast*rd,” Robert called back. Colin clenched his jaw tightly. He hated it when his younger brother insulted him – he just had an amazingly great urge to floor his sibling every single time. That could wait until they got home though.

“Rob, we didn’t come all this f*cking way and sweat buckets just to go home with one or even no points. Let’s get that goal and p*ss off home.”

It didn’t take long for Oxford to get their breakthrough. Colin’s part in the goal came when he took control of the ball on the left side of the pitch, just over 40 yards from the Wrexham goal line.

After carrying the ball across-field, Colin used the outside of his foot to deliver the ball to his younger brother, who was on the corner of the Wrexham box facing in-field. Thanks to a quick shout, Robert could tell that Oxford new boy George Abbey was making a dart in behind him towards the byline. Robert let the ball run between his legs before simply re-directing Colin’s original pass into the path of George Abbey using his heel.

It was a neat move and one that managed to get Abbey that extra bit of space he required to swing a deep cross into the area towards James Constable. The loanee striker got up above his opponent to head the cross home from just a few yards out and put his team ahead with the games’ first goal.

The first half of the game had, to Colin’s delight, been full of hard tackles and the second half proved to be a bit more of the same. After the Oxford goal, the away team began to control more of the ball while the Wrexham players began to stick their boot in a little more often.

Robert, being a small player, was on the end of his fair share of hard tackles and it was only a matter of time before one of them forced him off of the pitch.

The foul came from Wrexham’s 18 year old midfielder, Nathan Fairhurst. His elbow led the way into the challenge and Robert quickly found himself on the floor and in no fit state to continue.

The reaction from the Oxford United players was swift and George Abbey was the first one in. Abbey grabbed Fairhurst’s shirt and came nose-to-nose with the younger player, muttering to his opponent words that could only be heard by the two of them. James Constable was the man to pull Abbey away from the Wrexham man, but Fairhurst’s ordeal was far from over.

With the physio’s on the pitch, Colin steamed through Joe Burnell and Simon Clist to try and reach Nathan Fairhurst. Luckily for Colin – and Fairhurst in fact – the captain and Simon Clist chased the young midfielder and both grabbed a massive chunk of his shirt, pulling him back away from his target.

“Keep it calm Colin, do the damage on the pitch,” Joe Burnell shouted in Colin’s ear.

“Oh don’t you f*cking worry about that, skip – I don’t intend to let him off the pitch until I’ve done the damage, dirty f*cker!” Colin shouted, pushing Joe Burnell away. By this point though, the referee was also fighting to restrain Colin whilst his assistants were trying to diffuse another confrontation just a few metres away.

On the sidelines, the managers were being kept apart by their staff members. Chris Wilder was fuming, while Wrexham’s Dean Saunders argued that his player had slipped during his challenge and that the flying elbow was an accident.

In the end, the only player who got his hands on Nathan Fairhurst was Oxford’s James Clarke, a player who was already on a yellow card. Clarke pushed Fairhurst in the face, an action that inevitably led to Fairhurst falling to the floor clutching his face. That was enough for Colin. Fairhurst was on the floor so Colin decided to check on his younger brother who was coming round.

“How are you mate?” Colin said, kneeling down next to Rob. The young winger was shaking and he didn’t look entirely alert, but he spoke.

“I’ll be alright, just a bit shook up. I don’t want to go off though, we’ve still got half an hour left.”

“That’s not going to happen, Robert. We need to get some proper checks done on you,” said Charlie Greg, Oxford’s top physio. Eventually, Robert was helped to his feet and led off by the physio’s from both teams to applause from the home fans. Chris Wilder had a quick few words with his young prospect before sending on Adam Chapman as his replacement.

The referee eventually issued a yellow card to Nathan Fairhurst after being told by one of his assistants that Fairhurst’s challenge was the result of a slip and that his elbow was purely an accident. George Abbey himself was also called over because of his early shows of aggression. A yellow card was raised in his direction, but he knew he would be off of the pitch soon anyway. His fitness wasn’t entirely up to scratch and he was now on a yellow so he expected the board to show his number soon.

Then, it was James Clarke’s turn to receive some attention from the referee. He knew what was coming. Clarke had already been on a yellow before he pushed Nathan Fairhurst, so it came as no surprise to him when a red was raised in front of him. Clarke left the field, leaving Oxford with 10 men and just under half an hour left to play.

[Offspring8]

Immediate changes ensued. Obviously, Robert was replaced by Adam Chapman. Then, Abbey was also replaced after a solid debut. Matt Day was the replacement as Chris Wilder decided to revert to a 4-1-3-1, putting Day in the centre, Chapman at right-back, moving Clist in front of the back four and pulling Colin back into the centre of the field in the middle of a narrow 3.

I suppose you don’t need me to tell you that the game heated up even more after the red card? Colin was on the end of a lot of the rough treatment after his aggressive displays towards Nathan Fairhurst. But the Oxford players – Colin in particular – were also dealing out the rough cards. Most of the hard tackles were aimed at Fairhurst but as long as they hit someone in a red shirt, none of the Oxford players really cared who was on the end of it.

From then on, Wrexham were the ones controlling the possession on pushing for an equaliser. The build up play from the home team was good but the end product was non-existent and Colin enjoyed looking around himself at the Wrexham players who were arguing amongst themselves. They were becoming frustrated and it was exactly what was needed.

With 10 minutes remaining, Wrexham’s well-travelled striker Patrick Suffo took control of the ball and ran through the middle of the Oxford defence, leaving all but one defender for dead.

Matt Day stayed with the front man and matched him stride-for-stride before sticking in a beautiful tackle, proving that tackling itself was still an art that could be perfected.

Unfortunately, Suffo himself wasn’t having a good day and he didn’t appreciate the challenge which left him clutching his thigh. As Day attempted to climb out from underneath Suffo to clear the loose ball, the powerful striker turned and struck Day in the face with his elbow.

Again, a crowd of players formed and Colin made sure that he was in the thick of it. Somebody grabbed his shirt and pulled him back hard, causing Colin to spin around with a clenched fist. It turned out to be Joe Burnell that had pulled Colin from the scrap. The captain had been keeping a special eye on Colin and wanted to ensure that he wasn’t involved in anything that could get him in trouble.

The crowd eventually broke and the only people remaining were the referee, Wrexham’s physio and Patrick Suffo. As soon as the Wrexham striker got to his feet, he was shown the red card and ushered off of the pitch by the physio, leaving his teammates to sink to a home loss against a resilient Oxford team.

**********

After applauding the travelling fans, Colin returned to the away dressing room to check on his younger brother’s injury.

Robert was sat up on one of the physio tables in his jeans and jumper, holding an ice pack against the side of his head. He could tell that the boisterous mood the rest of the team had come in with meant that Oxford had held onto the 3 points and he was pleased.

“How are you doing, mate?” Colin asked, walking straight towards his brother.

“Well, the doc has had a look and he says I should be fine. Apparently there’s no signs of any lasting damage and all I have now is a bit of a headache so I should be good for the next match,” Robert answered with a smile on his face.

After a quick chat about the bits that Robert had missed, Colin unzipped his kit bag and pulled his towel and shower gel from it before heading for the showers. Eventually the whole team was ready to leave and the journey home to Oxford began, leaving the brothers with plenty of time to chat about the red cards and everything in between.

Wrexham – 0

Patrick Suffo Sent Off (81)

Oxford - 1

James Constable (49)

James Clarke Sent Off (63)

Man of the Match: Chris Carruthers (OXF)

Att: 3422

**********

[Offspring8]

Sunday 24th August 2008

Colin and Robert approached the Kassam Stadium, leaving their mum Jennie sat in the car reading a magazine.

The Kassam was a very good ground for a non-league team and that was evident as soon as you looked at it. The reflective windows forming an arc just above the entrance were the first thing that jumped out to visitors and it certainly was a nice touch.

The brothers passed under the reflective windows and into the reception area. To their surprise, somebody was already waiting there for them.

“Colin and Robert Rudyard?” asked the smartly dressed woman with a clipboard. Even though she was clearly aging, it was clear to the brothers that in her younger years she’d have been a bomb for males.

After Colin had confirmed that they were the pair that she’d been instructed to greet, the woman asked the brothers to follow her.

“My name is Wendy. I work here on the reception on Sundays,” she smiled to the brothers as she led them down corridors and past the various suites situated in the building. Polite exchanges between Colin and Wendy then became the only sound filling the corridors, as Robert stayed quiet.

It turned out that James Clarke had also been called in by Chris Wilder for a chat, but it was obvious what that would be about. Eventually, the trio came through a door which opened up into a small waiting room with chairs around the edge of the room and a glass table in the middle, littered with magazines and newspapers.

“Have a seat, Mr Wilder will be with you soon,” Wendy smiled, gesturing towards a couple of chairs situated right next to another door, opposite the one which they had entered through.

After a couple of minutes, the door opened and James Clarke walked out into the room. He saw the brothers look at him quizzically and couldn’t help but smile.

“Don’t worry lads; I don’t think you’re in trouble. Mine was a warning. I’ll see you at training in the week, yeah?” James said, clapping hands with his team mates.

“Ah right, we’ll just have to see I guess. Yeah alright them James, take it easy mate,” Colin answered. No sooner had James left the room than Chris Wilder had stepped into the room.

“Good morning, boys,” He smiled. “Come in and take a seat each.”

The brothers entered and sat down opposite the manager, who sat behind a desk. It looked like your regular managers office – you know, photos of his family, a computer, a framed picture of Wilder as a player for Rotherham – all of your regular items.

“This shouldn’t take too long, boys. Sorry to take up some of your Sunday but there’s just a couple of things we need to talk about.”

Both brothers nodded, still unsure of what was coming.

“Firstly: Colin. You didn’t get booked this weekend but I have seen you being held back by Joey a couple of times this season. Now I’m not asking you to take your aggressiveness out of your game, because it’s part of what makes you a great player,” said the Oxford manager. Colin had heard this before from a few of his previous managers at childhood clubs. He was about to ask him just to think more before he takes action.

“But what I do want you to do is to take a deep breath and think before you react to things,” Chris said. Colin smiled. He’d had this conversation before.

“I’ll try boss, but it’s just that on the pitch and in the thick of it all, I just get a bit carried away,” Colin answered.

“I know how it is mate. And believe me; it’s brilliant to have a bit of a bulldog in the middle of the pitch, scrapping for everything. But at the same time it’s going to get you into trouble sometime if you don’t learn to put a collar on it. We’ll help you.”

Colin simply nodded a smiled briefly. In the past, people had simply asked him to make a change but this time he’d be getting help and he appreciated it. It wouldn’t stop him from flying into tackles but it might save him from one or two bookings.

“Now the other thing is for both of you. Being local lads, the fans have taken to you very quickly and that’s fantastic. Now, because of this, the local paper wants to interview the pair of you. Would like to go ahead with this? I mean it’s a profile booster and it could do you good, but I don’t want to be forcing you to do things if you’re uncomfortable with it.”

Colin and Robert glance at each other and they knew they wanted to go ahead with it. To them, this was a bit of fame that they hadn’t quite tasted before and it was exciting for both.

“We’d be fine with doing that if it’s ok with you, boss?” Colin answered.

“Great. I’ll get on the phone to them and we’ll get something arranged for this week,” said Chris Wilder, clapping his hands together. The three of them then rose from their seats and the manager shook hands with his players before walking back to the reception area with them.

After the Rudyard brothers had left, Chris Wilder returned to his office, picking up his phone as soon as he sat down again.

“Mr Thomas?” Chirs Wilder asked as the Oxford chairman answered his phone.

“Yes Chris, did they agree?” asked Kelvin Thomas.

“They did, sir, they were more than happy to go ahead with the interview.”

“Great work, Chris. It’ll be a bit of a profile booster and that, in turn, will be a value boost for the pair of them. We’re going to get our money’s worth from these kids and it’ll be a happy payday for both of us. Well done Chris.”

**********

[TerrierBhoy7]

This is fantastic Offspring, I have just read it from start to finish and I am completely blown away, great stuff!

[Offspring8]

Thanks, Terrier It's not the longest story on the forum but that's still quite a reading session there and welcome to both FMS and my story . Lets just hope that you enjoy the rest of the story as much as you seem to have enjoyed this first part. Thanks again mate

Sugar slumped down against the brick wall that he’d been leaning on. He’d been waiting there for over half an hour and his legs were hurting. The sun had already gone down and Oxford wasn’t a busy place late at night on a Sunday.

The alley that Sugar had been waiting in was deserted, and the teenager didn’t expect to see anybody passing through anytime soon – muggings were notorious at this spot as Sugar knew only too well.

Eventually, Sugar heard heavy footsteps come off of the high street and down the alley towards where he was sat. He knew it would be his uncle so Sugar quickly jumped to his feet to see the heavy-set man walking towards him with his hands buried deep into the pockets of his leather overcoat.

His black boots made even more of a loud sound each time he stepped closer to Sugar and the orange glow from the street lights reflected out of Thabo’s black sunglasses. At 6ft 4 and well over 250 pounds, Thabo was not the kind of guy you’d like to meet down a dark alley unless you were one of his closest contacts.

“There’s my boy – long time no see!” Thabo called as he approached his nephew. He spoke quickly and in a deep voice, the African roots in his dialect still easy for all to hear.

“Uncle T, how are you man?” Sugar said, hugging Thabo as they came together.

“I’m good, I’m good...” Thabo said, smiling. Then, he took a few steps back and looked his nephew up and down. “Boy, what stuff you been smoking?” Thabo said, all of the humour and happiness leaving his voice to be replaced with a sharpness that scared Sugar.

“Just your regular stuff, Uncle T, I swear!”

As Sugar finished speaking, Thabo pulled a big cigar from his overcoat pocket, resting it between his lips and lighting it before lightly puffing on it.

“Well you better be hittin’ the gym and munching the food as well, my man. You’re looking weak. People take advantage of the week,” Thabo said before pulling the cigar from his mouth and pointing it at Sugar. “You don’t want people to take advantage of you. That would look bad on me and I can’t have that. Understand what I’m sayin’?”

Sugar bit at the skin on the inside of his lip, looking at the floor and nodding. Even though he was part of Thabo’s family, he wasn’t sure how far Thabo would go to protect his image.

“Now where were we?” Thabo smiled, bringing what seemed to Sugar like a million rays of sunshine back into the meeting.

“Uncle T, I need a piece,” Sugar said, darting straight to the point. He was trying to sound relaxed but it wasn’t working. He could see it in his uncles’ eyes as he took another puff on his cigar.

“And what kind are we talking about?”

“Nothing big, just a warning,” replied Sugar.

“Will you be firing off on the warning or just a ‘gun to the head’ kinda warning?” Thabo asked. Sugar paused for a second. He hadn’t considered scaring his targets with a replica. But that wouldn’t do, if he pulled it off for real, only then would everybody respect who they were dealing with if they mess with Sugar.

“I’ll be shootin’,” Sugar finally replied. Thabo nodded at the answer and smiled.

“Straight to the action then, eh? I like it,” Thabo laughed, clapping Sugar on the shoulder. “I’ll get it sorted for ya, little man, leave it with me.”

With that, Thabo turned and started walking back towards the high street. Sugar could see a black car with tinted windows waiting for his uncle, but he couldn’t tell what make of car it was from the side.

“Oh, tell your mother I said ‘hi’ as well, boy,” Thabo called over his shoulder. Sugar didn’t reply, instead he just watched as Thabo opened the back seat door before turning to wave at his nephew and then climbing inside the car. The rumbling engine could be heard for a few seconds but then that disappeared and Sugar knew he was alone again in the streets he knew so well.

With his hood already up, Sugar turned and trudged away down the alley. He didn’t know what was going to happen now or how long it would take for the firearm to reach him – if he was even going to get one. All he could do was wait and plan. So that’s what he done as he walked back to his house. He began to plan how he could hit his targets and get away with it.

**********

[stoehrst]

If my boss gets on me for slacking off today, I'm going to blame you. Just read this start to finish and its BRILLIANT. I'm riveted, offspring, KUTGW

[Offspring8]

Stoehrst, I'm sorry my friend however, welcome to the story and thanks for reading, you're an extremely talented writer yourself so to have you on board is great news

Monday 25th August 2008

Colin led Danielle and her dad Nigel up to their seats. They would be sharing one of the plusher seating areas with other people who were also the friends/family of some of the players in the match today.

In the Oxford team, 4 changes had been made but both Colin and Robert had been selected to play. Being as young as they were, both of them were as fresh as spring daisies and looking forward to another long spell on the pitch. A win today would take Oxford up to second place in the league and they had to take this chance.

“So, are you nervous about today’s game, Colin?” Nigel asked. It was the first time he’d actually met the young footballer but he had a feeling that he’d be seeing a lot more of him in the near future, given the way Danielle had been acting around him.

“I wouldn’t say I’m nervous, excited is probably a bit closer to the truth,” Colin answered, looking at Nigel. He was a big guy – not in an overweight way, more in a well-built, stocky way. His light grey hair had been gelled back in an attempt to look presentable, and the huge smile that had been across his face since Colin had first seen the man was still there.

“Well I think you’ll do well today. Hey Colin, has Danielle told you about her cousin in Spain, Ruben? He plays for Villarreal Under 19’s,”Nigel continued. Colin shook his head in reply.

“They’ve got big hopes for the boy; he can’t be more than a year older than you, come to think of it. Who knows, you might end up in the same team someday.”

**********

Oxford (3rd) vs. Woking (13th) (Blue Square Premier)

Monday 25th August, Kassam Stadium

Robert once again pulled his socks up and began to jump on the spot. He hated the wait in the tunnel before the game, preferring to get out onto the pitch and play rather than taking part in the pre-match pep talk which Colin seemed to enjoy.

Once again, the sun was out in force to watch the match inside the Kassam and Robert could feel his studs sinking into the ground which had been treated well by the groundstaff. It wasn’t a dust-pitch nor a swimming-pool, just a sleek surface ready to host a good game of football.

But both teams were slow out of the gates and things were looking drab until Woking’s Nicky Featherstone showed some good agility to make space for himself on the edge of the Oxford ‘D’ before chipping the ball onto the crossbar.

And that was almost everything in terms of entertainment for the first half. However, 10 minutes before half time, the Rudyard brother snapped back into life.

After latching onto a misplaced Simon Clist pass, Colin turned with the ball and advanced towards the Woking goal-line. A host of players then rushed towards Colin at once and he knew he had to get rid of the ball if Oxford were to keep this attack alive. After hearing his younger brother screaming for the ball, Colin looked up and rolled a pass towards Robert, who was being tightly marked on the edge of the area with his back to goal.

As his marker attempted to intercept the pass, Robert leaned into him and let the ball run across his body. Then, knowing he didn’t have time to look up and place a shot, the youngster took a snap shot at goal, whipping his right foot through the ball and keeping the effort low.

Woking’s ‘keeper saved the shot with his feet, deflecting it over the bar but it was what the fans had wanted – some kind of a sniff. It had been a poor first half showing from the home team but they were at last applying a little pressure just before the break.

**********

“That wasn’t a performance given by a team that are aiming for promotion. It was pathetic – what’s up, why are we suddenly scared of the bloody ball?” Chris Wilder asked, standing in front of his players. He didn’t expect an answer.

“We have to show some kind of hunger if we want to win this game. I know we played a tough game a couple of days ago, but this is what it takes if we wanna win this league. I want you to want the ball, give the man with the ball some options and keep the movement levels high. Do we want to win this?”

‘Yes,’ was the answer from all of the players. However, saying you want to win and actually winning are two completely different things.

**********

It only took minutes for Oxford to create the first chance of the second half, and it came from a tried and trusted method.

With the defensive line pushed up to the halfway line, Oxford were controlling possession in the Woking half. As the ball was stroked along the back line, Colin Rudyard came deep to collect it from the defence and drive on at the Woking back line.

As he turned with the ball, Colin could see acres of space forming in front of him from where the Woking midfielders were backing away. After hearing Simon Clist say ‘Go on Col, have a run’ from just a few yards away, Colin needed no further instruction. He just put his head down and charged towards the back line.

It was almost as if it was an alarm bell going off, as movement suddenly erupted in the Oxford ranks and numerous people became available, leaving their sleepy markers in the dark.

As Colin drove infield, he heard a call from the left wing coming from Lewis Haldane. Without looking up, Colin reversed a through ball between the Woking right-back and the centre-back to eventually find Lewis Haldane at the byline.

Haldane curled a cross into the penalty area and it was James Constable who attacked it. The front man won the header but failed to direct it, heading over the bar and into the crowd, bringing a nice move to an abrupt end.

Oxford began to dominate and Colin was allowed all the space he wanted to pick his passes. However, after seeing one too many chances missed, Chris Wilder decided to call up the changes and bring the tired legs off for fresh ones.

Joe Burnell was one of the players coming off of the pitch to be replaced by the versatile Adam Chapman, but Burnell didn’t go straight to the edge of the pitch. Instead, he began to jog in the opposite direction. At first, Colin had thought it was his way of saying he didn’t want to be taken off.

But then, Colin saw that the captain was taking off his armband and jogging towards Colin. He eventually passed the elastic strip to his midfield partner and gave him a quick clap on the arm before jogging off to a warm reception.

Colin looked down at the armband. With the word ‘Captain’ gracing the length of it, Colin felt as proud as he ever had. With a renewed energy, the youngster pulled the armband up to his upper arm, enjoying every second of it. It was there and then that he made the vow to himself. He would captain a great team one day, and this was just the beginning.

“Come on then boys, let’s pick this up and take the three points! Keep the pressure up and we’ll eventually get the goal we deserve!” Colin called out to his team mates, clapping his hands together at the same time.

In the stands, Nigel found himself proud of Colin. He was hardly connected to the kid, but he still found himself feeling proud. In the last couple of seconds, he could have sworn that he’d seen Colin grow a little taller and fill out a little more. He was stepping into the leaders' role with a natural ease, it seemed.

And one quick glance at a watery-eyed Liam, Colin’s step-dad, told Nigel all he needed to know about what he’d just witnessed; This was the birth of a leader and it was a moment that would live on for a long time with anybody who was connected with Colin.

[TerrierBhoy7]

Go on Col!

[dechardonay]

Oh, bugger another story I've caught up with in FMS.

Fantastic read, you're another one with a knack of drawing your readers into your characters. I'm hoping you'll go far with this story. I'm equally fascinated with how you're running the story ie building these players into the game and then just letting them fly. You've inspired me to try a save with a similarly edited database. I take it you're playing as Chris Wilder, Oxford's manager? I'll be interested to see how you go if and when the lads move out of Oxford... Maybe they'll stay loyal and build the team up to the Premiership...