A Tale of Two Brothers

Nottingham Forest · August 6, 2011

It's back .

gavrenwick · August 6, 2011

You can't keep doing this, Offy. Stopping and starting this fine story is quite upsetting when you're enjoying it like I do. Bloody southerner.

Offspring8 · August 7, 2011

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Saturday 28th August 2010

Historically, Liverpool are the most successful team to have played in the League Cup.

In the early 1980’s, Liverpool won the trophy four times on the bounce – a feat which no other team has managed to equal. They have won the competition more times than anybody else (7), They have made the most appearances in the Final (10) and they possessed one of the greatest players the League Cup ever saw (Ian Rush – 49 League Cup career goals, joint highest tally with Sir Geoff Hurst).

So when it was announced that MK Dons, the lowest ranked team left in the competition, would play host to the historical giants, Robert and Colin couldn’t help but lick their lips in anticipation - and what made it even better was the fact that it would be televised, meaning the nation would get to see the under-dogs knock Liverpool out of the cup.

The only bit of bad news was that they wouldn’t get to see Colin square up against Steven Gerrard. The England international had twisted his ankle in a match just a few days earlier and wouldn’t be risked in the League Cup match.

Colin’s disappointment soon disappeared though, as they both received a call up to the England Under 19’s squad for the friendly matches against Bulgaria and Switzerland U19’s respectively. Even in this good news though, the brothers found a trace of bad news. The call up would mean that they would not be returning to Oxford’s Kassam Stadium to watch the Oxford Under 18’s take on the MK Dons Under 18’s. It was a small price to pay for an England call up, but both boys loved the Kassam Stadium and were sad that a return there would have to be delayed.

But before the brothers were whisked away to link up with the England U19 squad, there was the small matter of a League 1 match against Charlton Athletic to be played out.

**********

MK Dons (1st) vs. Charlton (12th) (League 1)

Saturday 28th August, stadium:mk

Robert found himself watching from the stands once again. During training throughout the week, he’d been put through fitness tests and observed by Karl Robinson, Matt Hillyer (MK Dons Fitness Coach) and Simon Crampton (MK Dons Head Physio). The management weren’t 100% happy with Robert’s fitness levels, and so weren’t prepared to risk rushing him back just yet – much to Robert’s annoyance.

Colin, on the other hand, found himself policing the center of the park once again, but had barely made himself comfortable before Angelo Balanta struck to put the Dons ahead in the second minute.

From just inside his own half, Sean O’Hanlon hoofed a free-kick down the right wing, which Steve Marlet chased. The 37 year old Frenchman was beaten to the ball, but he won it back straight away and in a dangerous position.

Without taking a look, Marlet drilled the ball along the edge of the 6 yard box – the kind of area that any half decent striker would run into given the circumstances. As it is, Balanta is a half decent striker; he accelerated across his marker towards the near post and firmly side-footed the ball into the back of the net with incredible ease.

It was a very quick start by the Dons, but Charlton weren’t too far behind their opponents.

Akpo Sodje received the ball 40 yards from goal following a goal kick, and he wasted no time in putting his head down and driving at the Dons’ defence. Within seconds he found himself on the edge of the box, and he didn’t require any more time to make his decision.

Sodje shot, sending the ball over Dean Martin and onto the crossbar. Lady Luck smiled upon Sodje today though; the ball bounced down against the back of Dean Martin and into the goal to level things up once again.

15 minutes later, Charlton worked the ball well down their right wing and it eventually came to Lee Martin, who carried the ball to the by-line. Despite being closed down by Dean Lewington, Martin managed to squeeze a cross in and his efforts were rewarded as Akpo Sodje climbed above Stephen Gleeson at the near post to nod the cross home and put Charlton 1-2 up.

From the restart, Colin received the ball just inside the center circle and managed to side step a challenge before rolling the ball to Angelo Balanta, who was 10 yards inside the Charlton half. Balanta was given the time and space to turn, and then he dealt out the damage.

After taking a quick glance at the Dons right winger, Daniel Powell, Balanta pushed an angled ball through between the Charlton LCB and LB which met up with Powell just inside Chalrton’s penalty area. Powell carried it into the area, waiting until he was around 10 yards from goal before he thumped it into the net just inside the near post to level things up once again.

2-2 with 20 minutes played, and the fans at stadium:mk had a feeling that they’d be seeing a few goals today.

**********

Offspring8 · August 8, 2011

“Guys, how on earth are we only drawing?” Karl Robinson said as all of his players sat down on the wooden bench that ran around the edges of the room.

“They’ve just walked off that pitch asking themselves how they’re still in this. It’s because we are playing with fear. You guys are playing the part of the underdogs, you’re playing their reputation, not the team that is out there in front of you – and that must change!”

Colin could understand exactly what Karl Robinson was playing. In truth, Charlton had played extremely poorly - but then so had the Dons. They were playing as if they expected to get beaten by Charlton, and if i continued then they would do.

“At the start of the season, this lot were considered favourites for the title. Everybody said that they’d be in first position at the top of the table – but who is actually top of the table right now? We are, and we’ve earned that.”

The talk was getting to some of the players and it was exactly what they needed. Charlton were there for the taking if the Dons were brave enough to reach out and take them.

“Now, when you lot go back out there, go out proud of where we are in the league and know that we’ve earned it. Go out there and play as if we deserve to be top. Let’s send a message out that we’re serious about challenging for the title and let’s send this lot back to London with no points from this match.”

**********

Karl Robinson stood at the edge of his technical are with his arms folded as the second half began. His words had got his team fired up, now the rest was down to them. The Dons would have to beat the bigger teams if they were expecting to challenge for the title.

Colin sensed Karl Robinson’s eyes on him as he received the ball with his back to the goal, 35 yards out. He’d already taken a quick peek over his shoulder, and he knew that a Charlton player was approaching him to close him down. Colin looked to his left – the right wing of the Dons – only to remember that Robert was sat in the stands.

With that thought, Colin turned to his right and made diagonally for the goal. As he reached the penalty area, he heard the shout of Stephen Gleeson behind him. Colin backheeled the ball into the area he’d just come from, and then turned to see Gleeson run onto the pass and play it first-time to Jemal Johnson.

Johnson, sideways on from goal and just to the side of the ‘D’ on the edge of the penalty area, hit the ball first time. It flew low and hard into the opposite corner as Karl Robinson pumped his fists. An early goal always does well for confidence in a team.

With that confidence, the Dons would launch their next attack. Jemal Johnson took the ball on the left wing, inside his own half, luring the Charlton right-back well out of position. Colin saw the gap that the full-back had left and ran into it, calling for the ball. Eventually, it was 3 on 2 with Colin, Angelo Balanta and Steve Marlet up against the two Charlton centre-backs.

Johnson chipped the ball over all of them for them to chase, and it was Angelo Balanta who reached the pass first. He beat the first centre-back with pace and collected the ball in behind him, meaning that the other centre-back had to come across to deal with him, which meant that Steve Marlet was left in the open.

After making it to the edge of the ‘D’, Balanta poked the ball across to Marlet, who opened his body up to fire the ball past the ‘keeper, scoring his first MK Dons goal and putting the Dons 4-2 up after 54 minutes.

Just a few minutes later, the Dons had a throw-in half way inside the Charlton half, on the Dons’ right wing. Daniel Powell threw the ball in to Steve Marlet, who took it on his chest before rolling it back to Powell and then making a run into the penalty area.

Powell wasted no time in running down the wing with the ball before putting a low cross in to the near post. Steve Marlet was the man who met the cross with a right-footed half volley. The ball floated past the helpless ‘keeper and put the Don’s 5-2 up with half an hour left on the clock.

They’d destroyed Charlton with 15 minutes of the restart and there was no way back for the London club and former favourites. Even though the game had passed Colin bye, MK Dons had proven that they could stand toe-to-toe with the best in their league and still come out on top.

MK Dons – 5

Angelo Balanta (2)

Daniel Powell (20)

Jemal Johnson (50)

Steve Marlet (54, 58)

Charlton - 2

David Martin O.G (5)

Akpo Sodje (19)

Man of the Match: Angelo Balanta (MKD)

Att: 11290

**********

“Come on, let’s just go, we’re going to Ipswich with the England squad on Monday aren’t we? And by the time we come back, everybody will be near enough back at college!” Robert pleaded. He wanted to go to a house party that the brothers had been invited to, but was having trouble persuading Colin

“I just can’t be ars*d with it though, Rob. I’m not in the mood.”

The real reason he didn’t want to go was because Toni Hill would be there, and Colin still felt awkward about when she’d gone to try and kiss him at the last party. Since then, she’d texted Colin a lot, but Colin had tried to keep the replies to a minimum. There was something about Toni that had Colin hooked, but there was also something about her that screamed ‘stay away’ at him. He did fancy her, but he had to stay faithful to Dani. She was carrying his child.

“I have to stay in with Dani anyway – I promised her I would!”

“Colin, don’t even try that one,” Robert laughed, “get ready, ‘cause you are going tonight, even if I have to drag you there.”

**********

Offspring8 · August 9, 2011

“Colin, grow some balls. Nobody is making you go, you have a choice and you’re choosing to go. But that’s fine, do what you want – you normally do,” Danielle said down the phone.

“Dani I’m sorry. If I could take your pregnancy for a night so that you could go out, I would,” Colin laughed, “but I can’t! I need to have a social life Dani, otherwise I get bored.”

“You think this is something to laugh about?” Danielle said, raising her voice.

“Bored?!? You’ll get bored?!? So what am I supposed to do then, Colin? Why don’t I just go out drinking and partying just so that I ‘don’t get bored’?” Danielle said, mocking Colin. He laughed but gave no actual reply.

“Do you know what? Just go. Just make sure you don’t get bored Colin; you know we’d all hate that.”

With that, the phone went dead.

“You are absolutely hopeless, Colin. You really are,” Clive smiled. Colin laughed and slipped his Blackberry into his pocket - looked like he would be going out after all.

**********

“Been avoiding me, have we?” a voice said, coming from behind Colin. He knew who it would be before he even turned around.

“Evening Toni, of course not, why would I avoid you?” Colin smiled in reply.

“I don’t know, but you don’t reply to my texts and you’ve been avoiding eye contact with me all night, so I just put two and two together – “

“And came up with five,” Colin interrupted. Seeing her again felt strange and he felt like he could get into trouble just for being seen with her, but he also didn’t want her to leave. She was extremely attractive and a lot of fun to be around.

“Drink?” Toni asked. Colin held up his bottle in reply, signalling that he already had one.

“Oh don’t be a baby, come and do some shots with me!” Toni beamed, grabbing Colin’s hand and leading him to the kitchen. The pair of them fired back a fair few shots before heading back to the front room to dance.

Robert had seen Colin drinking with the girl and had asked a few people about who she was. He could see that she was very attractive and was hoping that Colin had nothing more in mind than dancing with her. Once he saw them dancing close, he became concerned.

“Colin,” Robert said, tapping his brother on the shoulder, “I just need to speak with you quickly about travelling on Monday.”

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Colin asked, waving his hand at Robert.

“Sorry mate, but no. Excuse us for a sec, Toni,” Robert said, smiling at Toni before putting his arm around Colin and leading him out of the front room and into the hallway.

“Rob, what are you playing at?” Colin asked as they left the room.

“Actually Colin, what are you playing at? What would Dani or Sam say if they were here? They’d go nuts!”

“Toni is just a friend, we don’t like each other in that way. Besides, you were the one that dragged me here, and now you want to control what I do? It doesn’t work that way, little brother,” Colin said, going to walk away from Robert and back into the front room.

“I’m not trying to control what you do. I’m just saying; you’re going to be a dad soon. It’s about time you started thinking a little more about what you do,” Robert finished, grabbing Colin’s arm.

He was right and Colin knew it. But it was a struggle to keep away from Toni, and a few seconds later, Colin was dancing with her in the front room again. She was extremely likable and was just looking for some fun – which was exactly what Colin was after, given that Dani was being so serious all the time.

“Pretty hot in here, right? Fancy going upstairs?” Toni said in Colin’s ear before winking at him.

Colin didn’t need to be asked again and, even while knowing that what he was about to do was so wrong; he couldn’t wait to get away from the crowd with Toni. He took her hand and the pair walked quickly out of the room and up the stairs.

With Toni’s hand still in his, Colin opened the first door he came to upstairs; a bathroom. Not what he was looking for. He continued down the hallway to the next door; a bedroom, but with (now annoyed) occupants already in it. The next door though opened up to a bedroom that was unoccupied and as soon as the door shut behind Toni, Colin found his lips locked to hers.

He knew he should have put a stop to it before now, but he couldn’t help it. In truth, he was bored of Danielle. Toni was everything that Dani currently wasn’t – she was funny, outgoing, confident and generally up for a laugh. He could feel himself falling for her and he knew that it was too late to stop it now.

**********

Johnny Drama · August 9, 2011

Good stuff this mate, been reading it over the last few days and felt it needed a comment. Looking forward to how this works out with Danielles brother if he finds out

Offspring8 · August 10, 2011

Thanks Johnny there could be a lot of interesting reactions if people were to find out!

‘Sh*t, I’ve gone and f*cking done it now!’ Colin thought to himself as he lay next to Toni, his hands covering his face. Those 8 words just kept bouncing around in Colin’s head, blocking out the sound of the bass that was shaking the whole house as the party continued downstairs, unaware of Colin’s dilemma.

“What’s the matter? Was it not as good as you thought it would be?” Toni said, smiling and still breathing heavily.

“No-no-no, it was as better than I thought it would be... not that I thought about it before... or that I thought you’d be bad... it’s just –”

“Then shut up worrying! Nobody has to know if you don’t want them to, do they? I won’t tell anybody, you won’t tell anybody, and then nobody gets hurt,” Toni smiled as she climbed back out of bed and put her clothes back on.

Her smile comforted Colin and it almost made him feel as if what they were doing was the right thing. For a second, he forgot about Danielle and the pregnancy and everything else. But then it all came rushing back to Colin and he reminded himself that what he’d just done was a very stupid thing.

And even then, in the midst of all his guilt and worrying, he wanted more of Toni.

Colin pushed the covers off of him and moved to the edge of the bed, where he sat with his head in his hands. For weeks he’d told himself that he wouldn’t get involved with Toni. Yet all it had taken for Toni to lure him in was a few words.

“Colin, look at me,” Toni said, sitting down on the bed beside him, “if you want to start seeing me, why deny yourself that? Yes, you have a child with Dani and everything, but id Dani what you really want? Don’t fight your feelings, Colin. You’ll only wind yourself up if you do,” Toni said, putting her hand under Colin’s chin and lifting it so that he looked at her.

Once again, his worries went away. It was as if, when she lifted his head to look at her, she lifted his whole being and he felt a lot happier. They kissed once again.

“Listen, I’ll go downstairs now, people are less likely to notice me. You go to the bathroom, give it a few minutes, and then you come downstairs. Nobody has to know, nobody has to get hurt, okay?”

Colin nodded and they kissed again. He couldn’t get enough of her. Toni left the room and checked the hallway. After seeing that nobody was around, she waved and winked at Colin before making her way downstairs. After she’d gone, Colin moved out to the hallway and proceeded to the bathroom, where he looked at himself in the mirror.

“You really must be the biggest tw*t on this earth.”

**********

“Hello?”

“Hi Dani. It’s Colin.”

“Colin? Why the hell are you ringing me at almost two in the morning?!?” Dani said, looking at her alarm clock to find out the time.

“Sorry, I just wanted to check you were asleep and okay and everything?”

“Colin, in case you hadn’t gathered, most people are asleep and okay by 2AM.”

“Right, sorry,” Colin said, “listen Dani, I’m sorry I haven’t been all that great recently, but I will step it up. I’ll take care of you and the kid and you know it. You’ll both get the best things money can buy and I’ll do anything for you.”

“Sounds like somebody has been drinking a bit tonight?” Danielle laughed, “Listen Colin. Don’t worry about it. I know we’ll be fine. I’m going back to sleep now though, okay?”

“Okay Dani. Good night then, I love you,” Colin replied.

“Night, Colin. I love you too,” Dani said before hanging up the phone. It was an odd phone call and it wasn’t the type of thing that Colin would normally do, but it must have been down to the drink, Dani guessed.

Whatever it was down to, it made Dani smile that Colin still cared. He’d been distant for months now, but she’d put it down to not knowing how to deal with the pregnancy. She didn’t mind him getting scared now, as long as he wouldn’t run away when the child was born. That would be when she’d need him most.

**********

torquayfmer · August 11, 2011

Glad this is back

Offspring8 · August 12, 2011

Glad to have you still following, tfmer

Also, we have passed the 4000 view mark in the last few days so I just wanted to say a quick thank you to those of you that have read and continue to read along - even though it can be hard to keep track of this story because of how intermittent it has been!

Sunday 29th August 2010

“Robert, your new travel bag is on the kitchen side!” Jennie called out as she placed the shopping down in the kitchen. Robert came downstairs, thanked his mum, and then went back upstairs to continue packing his bag. The brothers were going to be away from home for about a week with the England U19’s squad and would be staying in Ipswich for the first U19’s match, before flying out to Switzerland for the second U19’s match.

“Four hours on the train? Four hours? It’s gunna be so damn boring,” Colin whinged as Robert got back into the room.

“Will you shut up crying about it, we’re going to play for our country. At least we’re not stuck in some shop doing a boring job or something like that,” Robert answered.

“That’s true... still, train journey’s are so bloody boring!”

In the midst of his whinging, Colin felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Taking it out, he saw that he’d received a text message from Toni:

Hey Colin, can we meet and talk about last night? Come around mine at about 5 if you can, parents will be out, see you in a bit x

From the looks of it, Toni wasn’t too impressed from what had happened the night before, which was a good thing. He’d been thinking it all through during the day. He had too much with Dani to just throw it all away. He had to put a stop to it all before it got even bigger. He had to make sure that his child had a good start in life.

He wanted to meet her so that he could get it all buried before he went away with England. His only fear was that she would be upset and tell everybody about it, but by the looks of her texts, she’d had second thoughts about it as well. He agreed to go and meet Toni.

**********

Toni’s house was impressive and her parents were obviously fairly well off, but her bedroom was pretty small. Stepping into it, Colin guessed it must have been about 5 metres x 5 metres.

She had a single bed up against the wall to the left of the door as you entered the room, and a white desk that ran along the wall to your right, which hosted her TV and her laptop. The walls were plastered with posters of various Abercrombie models and the like, as well as a few framed collages which contained pictures of Toni and her friends.

“What are your thoughts on last night then?” Toni said, smiling. It was slightly embarrassing for both Colin and Toni, but they both wanted to know where they stood with each other.

At that point, everything that Colin had planned to say beforehand simply vanished from his head. It was almost as if his mind was playing some kind of cruel joke on him and instead of saying everything the he’d meant to do and putting an end to it, he simply stood there with his mouth open.

“Well I hope that’s a good thing,” Toni laughed. Her laugh was infectious and sexy, so it made Colin laugh as well.

“Sorry, yeah, I just forgot what I was going to say... I’m not sure what I think about it... I just know it shouldn’t be happening but I kind of don’t want it to not happen... if I’m making any sense?”

Toni laughed again at his response. It wasn’t often that anybody saw Colin embarrassed or flustered.

“Besides, weren’t you the one that wanted to talk about it? What do you think about it?” Colin asked.

“I thought it... I thought it was pretty good, actually,” Toni smiled, nodding at Colin. The answer took Colin by surprise. He felt attracted to her as soon as he’d seen her again and knowing that she liked him made it extremely hard for him to resist her.

“Cool,” Colin answered, making Toni laugh again, “Sooo... what shall we do about it then?”

“That is your call, Colin. I have no ties and I know what I want. You on the other hand... well; you’ve got a lot of stuff going on, so it has to be your choice.”

It was exactly the answer that Colin didn’t want, and he looked to the floor, unsure of how to respond. All of his senses screamed for him to get out and he felt sick, but his legs just wouldn’t let him leave the room.

“Colin,” said Toni as she moved towards him and took his hands in hers, “You haven’t got to do anything, this is your choice. But if you have feelings, why fight them? If you want something and you can get it, go and get it, don’t deny it to yourself.”

Without a second thought, Colin moved in to kiss Toni once again, and he felt relaxed immediately. As naturally as they’d kissed, both Colin and Toni removed their tops before climbing into Toni’s bed.

The only difference between this time and last time was that it wasn’t fuelled by drink. Both of them knew what they were doing, and both of them wanted to do it.

**********

neushoorn70 · August 12, 2011

this story shouldnt just be on this forum, this should be a book, a movie even.

loving this story offspring, keep it up.

gavrenwick · August 12, 2011

Turning immensely fruity here in Milton Keynes, ain't it!

Offspring8 · August 13, 2011

Neushoorn, thanks a lot! I'm glad that you think so highly of this story and I hope you continue to enjoy it, thanks again for the comment, it's appreciated

Gav, I was thinking of asking to have this thread renamed to 'The Only Way Is Milton Keynes', but didn't want to risk losing your love now though, it's time to take a small break from the girl drama...

Monday 30th August 2010

“So you’ve been back in training for about a week now then, yeah? Feeling strong and fit?” said Derek Wright, one of the England physio’s.

“Yeah it’s all healed up well, I’ve been fine. I feel ready to play a full ninety minutes if I’m allowed to,” Robert replied. Derek Wright nodded before asking Robert to follow him so that they could do some tests just to make sure that he had fully recovered from his injury and was ready to play if needed.

Colin was working with the rest of the England U19 squad as they prepared for tomorrow’s game against Bulgaria U19’s at Portman Road.

“Jay, you gunna be put out to face us when we meet you lot in the next round of the League Cup?” Colin called out to Jonjo Shelvey in reference to the Dons being drawn out against Liverpool in the League Cup 3rd Round.

“I can’t, can I - you muppet. I’m on loan at Reading until January,” Shelvey replied.

“Ah yeah, ironic that, isn’t it? Out on loan during the match when you might get to face me,” Colin laughed. There was a healthy rivalry between Jonjo Shelvey and Colin as they fought for the same position in the U19’s team. The other central midfielder in the fight to get one of the central midfield roles in the U19’s team was John Bostock of Tottenham, currently on loan at Wolves. Bostock didn’t tend to give or take banter as well as Shelvey though.

At the end of the training session, England U19’s manager Noel Blake sat the whole squad down to announce who would be in the starting lineup for the match against Bulgaria. Robert was awarded with a start, which delighted him as he hadn’t made an appearance on a football pitch since pre-season, but Colin found himself on the bench behind Jonjo Shelvey and John Bostock, much to his disappointment.

**********

As the large majority of the U19’s squad found themselves taking part in a mass FIFA11 competition, Colin was in the gym. The team were staying at Seckford Hall, a 4 star hotel 20 minutes away from Ipswich.

He was frustrated at not being in the team, and so worked it off by pulling some weights. He was also holding a lot of trouble with the whole situation involving Toni and Danielle and everything that came with that. Not only had he betrayed Danielle’s trust and let his unborn child down, he’d also betrayed the trust of Dani’s brother Sam, who had just left Sugar’s gang to look out for Dani and Colin.

In spite of all the guilt he felt, he still missed Toni more than he missed anybody else. He still wasn’t sure of exactly what it was, but there was something about her than made him just want to be around her 24/7.

It was all made worse by the fact that he couldn’t share it with anybody either. If he told Robert, he would never hear the end of what the ‘right thing to do’ is, so he couldn’t do that. One person he did trust enough to tell was Fulham winger Nigel Winters, but Nigel was away with the England U21’s squad in Liechtenstein, and it would all be too hard to explain through texts.

For now, he had to keep it all to himself. After finishing in the gym, Colin went for a cool down in the pool before heading back up to the room that he shared with Robert to take a shower and then catch some much needed sleep.

**********

Wednesday 1st September 2010

| Pos   | Inf   | Team           |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| [b]1st   |       | MK Dons        |       | 4     | 4     | 0     | 0     | 9     | 3     | +6    | 12[/b]    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Peterborough   |       | 4     | 3     | 1     | 0     | 10    | 5     | +5    | 10    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Plymouth       |       | 4     | 3     | 1     | 0     | 6     | 2     | +4    | 10    | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Hartlepool     |       | 4     | 3     | 0     | 1     | 10    | 6     | +4    | 9     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Rochdale       |       | 4     | 2     | 2     | 0     | 7     | 2     | +5    | 8     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Southampton    |       | 4     | 2     | 2     | 0     | 8     | 6     | +2    | 8     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Brighton       |       | 4     | 2     | 1     | 1     | 7     | 5     | +2    | 7     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Swindon        |       | 4     | 2     | 1     | 1     | 4     | 2     | +2    | 7     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Carlisle       |       | 4     | 2     | 1     | 1     | 5     | 4     | +1    | 7     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Sheff Wed      |       | 4     | 2     | 1     | 1     | 4     | 3     | +1    | 7     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  |       | Huddersfield   |       | 4     | 2     | 0     | 2     | 9     | 7     | +2    | 6     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  |       | Leyton Orient  |       | 4     | 2     | 0     | 2     | 7     | 6     | +1    | 6     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  |       | Bristol Rovers |       | 4     | 2     | 0     | 2     | 5     | 7     | -2    | 6     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  |       | Exeter         |       | 4     | 1     | 2     | 1     | 3     | 3     | 0     | 5     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  |       | Bournemouth    |       | 4     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 7     | 5     | +2    | 4     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  |       | Brentford      |       | 4     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 3     | -1    | 4     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  |       | Dag & Red      |       | 4     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 4     | -2    | 4     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th  |       | Charlton       |       | 4     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 10    | 13    | -3    | 4     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th  |       | Walsall        |       | 4     | 1     | 0     | 3     | 4     | 7     | -3    | 3     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th  |       | Yeovil         |       | 4     | 1     | 0     | 3     | 6     | 11    | -5    | 3     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 21st  |       | Colchester     |       | 4     | 0     | 2     | 2     | 4     | 6     | -2    | 2     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22nd  |       | Oldham         |       | 4     | 0     | 2     | 2     | 5     | 8     | -3    | 2     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 23rd  |       | Tranmere       |       | 4     | 0     | 0     | 4     | 3     | 10    | -7    | 0     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 24th  |       | Notts Co       |       | 4     | 0     | 0     | 4     | 2     | 11    | -9    | 0     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|       |       |                |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Transfer Window Roundup
There weren’t all that many transfers through the summer, but the third biggest transfer of the summer saw big Ajax centre-back Jan Vertonghen make a £10.75M move to Manchester United. The 23 year old made 93 league appearances for Ajax but wanted to move to a club that played Champions League football regularly.

The second biggest transfer saw Costa Rican winger Bryan Ruiz move from FC Twente to Manchester City for the fee of £12.25M. After spending just a season with FC Twente, the 25 year old described the move to City as ‘an opportunity that only a madman could let pass by’.

The biggest transfer of the summer saw Chelsea sign 18 year old forward Neymar from Santos for £17M. The Brazilian striker had long dreamt of a move to Stamford Bridge and couldn’t wait to get the season underway.

Meanwhile, in League 1, Karl Robinson had been awarded the League 1 Manager of the Month award while Colin had come runner-up in the League 1 Young Player of the Month award. Dean Lewington had text Colin to let him know the good news, and there was an official certificate waiting at the club to be given to Colin once he returned from international duty.

**********

NOTE: if anybody would like in-game transfer news on a specific team or anything, just ask and I can have a look for you and let you know.

Offspring8 · August 15, 2011

England U19’s vs. Bulgaria U19’s (U19 Friendly)

Wednesday 1st September, Portman Road

With it just being a friendly, it shouldn’t have mattered to Colin that he wasn’t in the starting lineup. But it still frustrated him immensely. He wanted to take every chance that he could to play, so that he could impress and continue to move through the England Youth ranks.

He’d set himself a goal to be a regular part of the England U21’s by the start of the European U21’s Championship Finals in Denmark in June 2011. To do that, he’d have to push Everton’s Jack Rodwell or Chelsea’s summer signing Tom Cairney out of the U21’s starting lineup, and he knew that it would be easy.

As for Robert; he was happy as a solid fixture in the U19’s squad. Having only just turned 16, he was still ahead of schedule and had mixed in well with the rest of the team. He was just looking to continue helping the U19’s squad in qualifying for the European U19’s Championship Finals, held in Romania in July 2011.

These friendly games were organised by the coaches so that they could get the team gelled together in time for the Championships. Morale amongst the boys was always pretty high and there were hardly ever any disputes amongst them. Most of them had good heads on their shoulders, and those that didn’t soon learnt by the behaviour of his colleagues.

The game against Bulgaria U19’s went pretty well. Within 15 minutes, the England U19’s were 2-0 up thanks to two goals from Crystal Palace first-teamer Wilfried Zaha. On the half hour mark, Hull’s Mark Cullen also got in on the act, bagging one goal for himself which would see it through at 3-0 to England until Half-Time.

There were a few changes made, but Colin remained on the bench and Robert remained on the pitch after a quick chat with Derek Wright just to make sure that his ankle was still holding up fine. At one point, he’d taken a kick to the ankle but it seemed to hold out well, which gave Robert a bit more confidence. Up until then, he’d been playing within himself, afraid to really push his boundaries in case something in his ankle went again, like it did in pre-season.

Having taken heart from how well it had held up though, Robert was back out there, terrorising the Bulgarian left back once again. 10 minutes after the restart, he received the ball on the right wing, just inside Bulgaria’s half.

The full back came charging at Robert, who feigned going left by pulling a stepover with his left foot, before knocking the ball through the legs of the defender with the outside of his right foot and speeding past him.

The centre back then came across to try and intercept the move as Robert ran to catch up with the ball, but he wasn’t quick enough to beat Robert to the ball, who continued on down the right wing. After beating the centre back, Robert changed his run so that he was running at the goal from the right wing, instead of towards the byline.

As he entered the penalty area and closed on the 6 yard box, he heard a call to his left. With the ‘keeper rushing out at him, Colin pulled the ball back across the face of goal, where it found Jonjo Shelvey who rifled home from 8 yards out to make it 4-0 to England.

With 20 minutes remaining and the game already won, Colin came on to replace Shelvey and was given the task of winning the battle in the centre of the park and sitting back to ensure that England conceded no goals and kept a clean sheet.

After Mark Cullen added his second goal and Wilfried Zaha completed his hat-trick, the game finished as a 6-0 win to the England U19’s. It had been a straightforward, easy victory for the team and the mood once they all got back into the dressing room was good.

England U19’s - 6

Wilfried Zaha (7, 9, 81)

Mark Cullen (31, 75)

Jonjo Shelvey (56)

Bulgaria U19’s - 0

Man of the Match: Wilfried Zaha (ENG)

Att: 1238

**********

Thursday 2nd September 2010

“I’m not sure when we’ll be back, I can’t remember what date they said, I think we’re coming back the day after the match – so Monday the 6th.”

“Well Monday the 6th had better hurry up, feels like I haven’t seen you in ages for some reason!” Toni replied. She’d been texting Colin everyday that he’d been away, but contact would be broken while he was in Switzerland.

“I know, it does seem like it’s been a while since I last saw you, but I’ll come and see you on the day I get back, maybe we can go out and get something to eat or something?”

Toni agreed before the pair had to say goodbye to each other. The U19’s were all packing up their belongings, ready for the flight from Stanstead to Zurich before the team caught a coach to Schaffhausen, where they’d be staying at Best Western Hotel Banhof; a 4* hotel situated right next to the Rhine River and a 5 minute drive from Stadion Breite, the stadium where they’d be playing the Switzerland U19’s – all this minus the flights paid for by the Swiss FA.

“Who was that?” Robert asked, walking in from the bathroom.

“I thought you were downstairs! It was just Dani, just gave her a quick call before we fly out,” Colin answered.

“Fair enough, have we heard any more about the sex?”

“What?”

“I mean the sex of the baby,” Robert laughed, “You know; is it a boy or a girl?”

“Oh! Not yet, Dani is due to go in for a scan when I get back from Switzerland, that’s when we should find out. It should have been clear at the last scan but they still weren’t entirely sure.”

The ultrasound scan was booked for September 7th and Colin was looking forward to it. In spite of all the problems with Danielle, Colin was looking forward to being a dad and was eager to find out whether they’d be having a boy or a girl.

With all of their items packed once again, the brothers headed downstairs to the hotel lobby and waited with the rest of the team. They would then all be packed onto a coach and driven to Stanstead Airport via an hour long coach journey before embarking on a flight to Zurich which would take approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes. Footballers lives aren’t all money and parties, you know.

**********

torquayfmer · August 16, 2011

I love that this is getting updated more regularly! Really well written as always!

Offspring8 · August 16, 2011

It's great to know that you appreciate it tfmer now just to try and sustain it - and that has always been my problem

Saturday 4th September 2010

Schaffhausen was a wonderful city and both brothers loved everything about it. A lot of the city that they saw still maintained the look which it gained in the renaissance and the weather was largely similar to what the squad was used to from the UK.

After putting in some good training sessions earlier on in the week, the squad were given Saturday off to do what they wanted to. The Rudyard brothers, accompanied by Jonjo Shelvey and Wilfried Zaha, spent the morning visiting the iconic Munot Fortress, situated right on the River Rhine.

In the afternoon, the four of them went to visit the Rhine Falls – Europes largest waterfall. The power of the waterfall was terrifying, but Wilfried Zaha wasn’t the biggest fan of sightseeing.

“Boys let’s just get back to the hotel. Start a new tournament on FIFA or something!” the forward moaned.

“Wil, stop whinging for once will you? This is one of the many good things about being a footballer – would you rather be stuck inside some classroom or office?” Robert replied.

“No, but I would rather be playing FIFA or on a beach somewhere. Not watching a flipping waterfall.”

“Shut it Wil, what Rob is trying to say is that this is one of the best bits about being a footballer. You get to travel the world and see stuff that not everybody else gets to see – all for free as well!” Jonjo added.

In the end though, Wilfried couldn’t be swayed and, as Man of the Match in the last game, he got to choose what the boys did next. After being ridiculed for wanting to try and kayak down the River Rhine, Wilfried decided that the next best thing to do was to head back to the hotel, and prepare for tomorrows match by slugging it out on FIFA.

Meanwhile, back in England, MK Dons had been drawn out to play fellow League 1 side Leyton Orient in the Johnstones Paint Trophy South Second Round. There were also 8 League 1 fixtures to be played out today, none of which involved the Dons. As a result, the Dons slipped down to second place in the league but with a game in hand.

**********

Sunday 5th September 2010

Switzerland U19’s vs. England U19’s (U19 Friendly)

Sunday 5th September, Stadion Breite

The friendly got underway with the England U19’s lineup unchanged from their match against the Bulgaria U19’s. Once again, it was frustrating for Colin but it gave Robert another chance to get some game time under his belt.

This game always was going to be harder than the game against Bulgaria, and it took England 42 minutes to get their first goal of the day.

Robert was once again the architect, having received the ball on the right wing half-way inside the Swiss half. After the Swiss winger and left back doubled up on him, it took a well disguised turn of pace to beat them and make it to the byline, where Robert thumped a low and hard cross into the penalty area. Wilfried Zaha was the first one to react to the cross, adjusting his body position quickly to tap home from close range.

It stayed at 0-1 through half-time and up until the 73rd minute, by which time Colin had been brought onto the pitch and Robert had been taken off of it, when Mark Cullen latched onto a clearance after a Switzerland corner, and carried the ball into the penalty area before sliding it past the Swiss ‘keeper.

Even thought Switzerland put up more of a fight than Bulgaria did, it was another relatively straightforward result for the young lions and it meant that they’d finish the trip on a high.

Switzerland U19’s - 0

England U19’s - 2

Wilfired Zaha (42)

Mark Cullen (73)

Man of the Match: Jason Banton (ENG)

Att: 976

**********

ScottleeSV · August 17, 2011

Continues to be brilliant brilliant stuff, and I don't use those words lightly. Keep it up!

Offspring8 · August 18, 2011

Thanks a lot Scottlee, it's great knowing you appreciate it, hope it continues that way

Monday 6th September 2010

“I was just wondering if you wanted to catch a movie or something?” Dani asked. Colin had been back in England for a fair few hours now but hadn’t contacted Danielle to tell her he was home.

“I can’t Dani, I said I’d help my granddad with the garden when I got back. Maybe tomorrow after the scan?” Colin replied down the phone. Danielle agreed before saying goodbye and putting the phone down.

“You were never brought up as a liar. You’ll get found soon, whatever it is. Blokes play the game, but women know the score,” said a voice from behind Colin. It was Clive.

“What do you mean?” Colin answered.

“I never asked you to help me with any gardening. I don’t even bloody like gardening. In fact, I’d rather sit on a barbed wire fence, chewing nails than do any gardening. What are you up to, Colin?”

“Nothing granddad. I just need some space from it all, that’s all.”

“Well,” said Clive, “I don’t mean to get all ‘Jeremy Kyle’ on you, but why didn’t you put something on the end of it?”

Colin laughed before walking out of the house. He had to get away quickly because if there was one person he couldn’t lie to, it was his Granddad Clive. All it would take is a few questions from Clive and it would all be out, and he couldn’t risk that.

**********

Colin picked up another slice from the pizza that he was sharing with Toni. He’d always loved the pizzas that they made in Oxford’s Zizzi.

“It’s getting pretty risky, Toni. I don’t know how long we can keep it up,” Colin said.

“Colin, we haven’t even been going for two weeks yet and you’re already sweating. Trust me, it’ll be fine. You hear about these sorts of things going on for years without anybody noticing a thing, so we’re fine,” Toni said, holding Colin’s hand from across the table.

He hoped she was right. Nowadays, every minute he spent with Danielle, he wished he could spend with Toni instead. Had Danielle not been pregnant, he would have already left her for Toni. But now he was stuck in a rut.

“Toni, if I can hit a big contract somewhere, would you move away with me?”

Toni looked up in shock to see if Colin was serious. As she met his pale blue eyes, she knew that he was completely serious.

“I would love to, but... Colin, you have a kid on the way. You can’t just run away from that, surely you know that?”

Colin nodded and knew she was right. He wanted to leave the country with Toni so that nobody could stick their nose in or pass any kind of judgement on their relationship, but he knew that it was realistically impossible with Dani being pregnant.

“Besides, haven’t you only just joined your new team? You can’t leave now, surely?”

“I could ask for a transfer in January and state that it was for personal reasons. I could still support my child with money, couldn’t I? It just seems like it’s the only way that we can really be together, Toni. That’s what I want; now it’s up to you.”

He couldn’t quite believe what it was that he was proposing, but he was genuinely ready to go through with it, if it meant he could be with Toni. Given that she agreed to it as well, he would go ahead with it.

“Okay,” she said, after a few minutes of consideration. “If you’re ready to go ahead with it, I will too.”

It was exactly what he wanted to hear. For now, he would continue with the Dons, but come January, he would ask for a transfer away. He started to imagine himself with Toni in somewhere like Spain or Italy, and he couldn’t wait for his new life to start.

**********

Nottingham Forest · August 18, 2011

Still amazingly great Offspring . Clive is great .

Offspring8 · August 20, 2011

Clive is probably my favourite character to write for thanks again NF!

Tuesday 7th September 2010

As they walked into the hospital Dani could feel that Colin’s palms were sweating as they held hands... well, as she held his hand. Colin didn’t seem all that interested in holding hands, but Danielle guessed that was down to nerves once again.

Half an hour later, Danielle was led on a hospital bed with a nurse moving some kind of contraption around on her stomach. It looked a little bit like a high-tech computer mouse.

“I’m pleased to tell you that you’re going to be having a baby boy by the looks of it,” the nurse smiled.

Colin couldn’t help but smile at the news as he walked around the bed to get a better look at the image on the screen. There, on the small computer screen in front of him, was Colin’s unborn son, and he couldn’t do anything to stop the massive smile that cracked through his nervous face as soon as he saw it.

It made Danielle smile too. She hadn’t seen Colin looking that happy for months, and to know that he was excited about it and that he wouldn’t run at the first sign of trouble made her happy.

For Colin, this was bigger than he thought it would be, and it affected him more than he thought it would. Did he really want to bring a child into a broken relationship? AJ hadn’t been there for Colin when he was young, did Colin want that for his son as well? Of course not.

He knew what he had to do. Even though he truly wanted to be with Toni, he wanted to be a good dad more. He had to finish things with Toni, no matter how hard he might find it. He had to finish it with Toni, and fix it with Danielle.

“Any ideas on a name?” Colin said, turning to Dani.

“Hmm... I do like ‘Anthony’. Anthony Rudyard?”

“Anthony sounds good to me,” Colin answered, bending down to kiss Dani. “How about a middle name?”

“I’ll be nice and let you pick the middle name.”

“In that case, he can have ‘Clive’,” Colin smiled, “Anthony Clive Rudyard.”

**********

Friday 10th September 2010

“So what do you think?” Colin asked as he parked the learner car up once again. “Am I ready for my test?”

“Do you know what? I think you actually are ready to book your test. Go to the website that I told you about and try and get it booked for about three week’s time, okay?” Paul said.

“Whoa, really? You actually think I can pass it?”

“Yes, I do. With a few more weeks practice just to iron out a few little problems, I think you’d be up to standard.”

Colin thanked his uncle before getting out of the car. He’d been learning for a couple of months now, and it felt brilliant to be close to passing his test. His next job was to buy himself a car and some insurance – never a cheap business.

Then, Colin had his thoughts interrupted as his phone went off in his pocket. Pulling it out, he could see that it was Toni calling him.

“Hey Colin, sorry I haven’t answered any of your calls or texts, I’ve been really busy recently. One of my friends has some boy problems so I’ve been trying to help her with that – you know how it is!” Toni laughed as Colin picked up the phone.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I was just wondering if we could talk soon. Like meet up and stuff?”

“Oooh I seeee,” Toni replied, thinking Colin was flirting. “Well I’m not available tonight, but how about at that house party tomorrow night, if you’re going?”

“Well I wasn’t going to go because we have a match tomorrow, but it’s a home game so I guess I could make it in the evening. I’ll see you there then,” Colin said before ending the call.

In all truthfulness, he’d been putting off breaking up with her, but it was something he knew he had to do, so it was best just to get it out of the way.

He just hoped that she wouldn’t take it badly and tell everybody about it. With the baby on the way and his intentions to fix things with Dani, it was the last thing he needed.

**********

DeadPanda · August 21, 2011

Rarely post in the stories section, but love to read and thought it was about time I gave this one a comment! Fantastic story you've got going here, looking forward to seeing how this love triangle all turns out.

Glad to see Anthony's middle name is going to be Clive :thup:

tenthreeleader · August 21, 2011

Haven't posted to you in awhile, Offy, but this remains excellent work. Congratulations for sticking with it.

Offspring8 · August 21, 2011

DP, I haven't seen you around here before but thanks a lot for the comment! As for the love triangle - who knows what could happen and there was only ever one realistic choice for Anthony's middle name

10-3, I'm surprised you have any spare time for any comments nowadays - what with you (and Gav) having to police the streets of FMS! Thanks a lot anyway, I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Saturday September 11th 2010

As both brothers sat in the changing room, pulling their warm-up sweaters over their heads, they could hear the noise of the fans slowly increasing as kick-off got nearer. The Dons would be playing 19th placed Colchester at home today, and it would be Robert’s first competitive match of the season.

He had finally fully recovered from his ankle injury, and he was set to become the youngest MK Dons and League 1 player to have ever featured in a game at 16 years and 50 days old.

“Try not to injure yourself in the pre-match warm-ups, granny ankles!” Colin laughed as he and Robert both rose and left the changing room to start their warm-ups together. Robert simply laughed in reply. It was his way to go quiet and become focussed before a match, whereas Colin would become loud and boisterous.

As they left the tunnel and jogged onto the pitch, both brothers got a warm reception from the fans. They clapped back as they approached the rest of the squad, showing appreciation to the fans. They’d heard some good things about Robert, and many of them were looking forward to seeing the energetic winger in action.

MK Dons (2nd) vs. Colchester (19th) (League 1)

Saturday 11th September, stadium:mk

In spite of their league positions, Colchester were the ones that started as the brighter side. They dominated the opening 15 minutes, and that culminated in them hitting the back of the net.

Colchester’s Kem Izzet had the ball at his feet just inside the Dons half, to the right of the centre-circle. Dean Parret came short, calling for the ball from Izzet. Colin was on hand to close down Parret as he received the ball 40 yards from goal, but there was nothing he could do to stop the ball being sprayed first time out to the Colchester right wing as the away side looked to create the first real scoring chance.

Colchester winger Ashley Vincent chased the pass and met it level with the 6 yard box, outside the penalty area. He took one touch to control it, which carried it into the penalty area before side-footing it into the 6 yard box, where Odejayi bundled it into the box.

Celebrations were cut short however, as the linesman held his flag up. Ashley Vincent had been flagged for offside and the score stayed at 0-0.

For some teams, having a goal disallowed has no real effect. For others, it can encourage them as it shows that they can breach the defence of their opponent and that it isn’t impossible to score. But then for other teams who are perhaps low on morale, it can make them feel as if today just isn’t going to be their day.

Colchester went quiet. They didn’t exactly fall behind, but the game fell into a lull that saw both teams play poor football as they both tried to grab that scrappy first goal that might just win them the game or even open the floodgates.

As it was, the score remained at 0-0 through until half time. It had been a poor 45 minutes, but how many times has football shown that it is a game of two halves?

**********

Karl Robinson hadn’t been pleased that the game was still 0-0, but neither was he fuming. It was easy to tell that this match was balanced upon a very fine point and that one wrong move would see the game lost for one of the sides. It was more likely that the game would be decided by the mistake of a defender than by the creativity of an attacker.

And just after the hour mark, that proved to be the case. Stephen Gleeson took the ball comfortably from Colin’s pass, before knocking it out to the right wing, where he found Robert. As the ball travelled to him, Robert took a glance into the penalty area and saw that Steve Marlet was leaving the penalty area and running towards Robert, calling for the first time pass.

Robert fed him the pass to his feet and Marlet feigned a one-two with Robert before turning inside and facing goal from the edge of the area. His marker had recovered and attempted to put a foot in to block the shot, but couldn’t manage it. Marlet’s shot flew low at the ‘keeper, who crouched down to gather the shot into his arms. Instead, the ball hit him in the chest and bounced out in front of him, where Steve Marlet was the first to react. He followed up on his shot and thumped it home from close range to give the Dons a 1-0 lead.

Only a few moments later, Angelo Balanta danced his way through the Colchester defence before passing the ball across to Steve Marlet. Marlet carried the ball into the box, but saw his low shot well saved by the Colchester ‘keeper.

Colin chased after the ball in an attempt to get the rebound. He went to strike it first time into an empty net from 10 yards out, but was denied by a fantastic last ditch tackle by Colchester’s Andy Bond. Colchester were struggling to hold it together as the Dons threatened to bag more goals.

As it went, no more goals were scored. The Dons dominated after they took the lead, but could not double their lead even though they managed to fit in a lot of attempts at goal. In the end, the 1-0 victory was enough to take them joint top.

MK Dons – 1

Steve Marlet (67)

Colchester - 0

Man of the Match: Dan Woodards (MKD)

Att: 12136

**********

nbrethe · August 22, 2011

Delighted you've updated this again, just had an hour long catch up seesion!

Panpardus · August 24, 2011

Fantastic read Offy, I remember reading part of this a while back, but stopped after one of your long spells.

Just spent the last three days re-reading and its a great tale.

Keep it up!

Offspring8 · August 25, 2011

It's good to know you're reading along again nbrethe! Hope you enjoyed the catch up

Great to have you along as well, Pan hopefully now I've fallen into a routine of updating this every few days which I don't fall out of!

Thanks for the comments guys, hope you continue to enjoy it

Colin and Robert had arrived at the house party early to help set things up. The party was due to officially start at 8pm, but people began to trickle in at around 7:30. One of the first people to arrive was Toni – she knew that there wouldn’t be many people there if she got there early, and that would mean that she could catch a few minutes alone with Colin before there were too many people there.

Toni got her wish and a few minutes after arriving, Colin grabbed her by the hand and led her out to the back garden. As soon as they found themselves a bit of cover behind a tree, Toni literally jumped on Colin, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him as passionately as she always did. Then, she felt Colin pushing her away from him – something that he’d never done before. When she looked at him, his eyes were cast down at the floor, and she knew something was wrong.

“What’s wr- -”

“You really need to ask what’s wrong with all of this?” Colin interrupted, looking up at Toni and seeing the confusion in her eyes. He hadn’t been looking forward to this and he hoped that Toni wouldn’t get so upset that she’d cry. He hadn’t seen Toni cry before, and he knew it would be hard to watch if she started.

“Colin, I thought this was what you wanted? I thought it was going to be you and me? Please don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind overnight?” Toni said, taking Colin’s hands in hers. She looked into his eyes, but as his eyes met hers, they glazed over as if he was looking straight through her.

“This was never supposed to be easy. You expect me just to let this drop after what you promised me? You said we could move away together – don’t go back on that now, please Colin,” she pleaded, desperately trying to drag Colin back into the small bubble that they’d created over the past couple of weeks.

“Toni, I can’t go through with it now. I’ve got to wake up, I have a son on the way and I want to be a better dad to him than my dad was to me. I owe him that,” Colin said. He’d rehearsed those words over and over a million times in his head throughout the day, and now they tumbled from his mouth almost robotically.

“What we had and what we’d planned was a dream, but that’s all it can and will ever be. I’m sorry Toni.”

As Colin finished, he could see that Toni was trying to fight back her tears and he couldn’t watch it. He loved her, and to put her through that pain felt like stabbing somebody you love.

“So that’s it then, is it? It’s just all over?” Toni said, raising her voice as Colin went to walk away. He turned and looked back at her to see that the tears had come tumbling from her eyes as emotion overwhelmed her. “You can’t just mess around with people like this Colin. It isn’t fair!”

“Listen, I’m so sorry that it couldn’t work out between us, but I have to look out for my son first. Please, just don’t do anything that could ruin what I want to have with my son. If you ever felt anything for me, you wouldn’t ruin this for me. Promise that?” Colin said, turning and walking back to Toni, wiping her tears away.

“I can’t promise that, I’m afraid,” Toni said as hatred flashed in her eyes. “I’ll see you around Colin. Just don’t forget that I can bring you down at any point.”

It had been exactly the reaction that he hadn’t been looking for. Right now, with Dani just a couple of months away from giving birth, if she found out about Colin and Toni it would bring everything down around him. All he could do for now was watch Toni and make sure that she didn’t leave the party to go and tell Dani.

The party continued and Toni never left, much to Colin’s delight. Instead, she hit the drinks in a big way. Toni had noticed that Colin was watching her, and she enjoyed having him in her hold. She enjoyed knowing that she could ruin everything for Colin if she wanted to – and she did want to. He’d hurt her in a big way, and the fact that he could drop their relationship in such an easy way infuriated her.

She still loved him, but she had a burning desire to hurt him – and she couldn’t wait to do it. Toni knew that Colin was panicking about Danielle finding out about their relationship, but Toni had a better idea to get back at Colin. She was sure that she would eventually tell Danielle, but for now she had another idea.

Eventually, it got to 1am and Colin was ready to go back home. He was tired and it had been a stressful night, so he couldn’t wait to get some sleep and try to figure things out with Toni in the morning.

Colin looked around the house for Robert, but couldn’t find him inside. Eventually, his search took him out to the back garden. Stepping out of the back door, Colin found Robert. He had managed to pull, and had his back to Colin with some girls’ arms wrapped around him. Colin had to smile – Robert must have watched his older brother and learnt some valuable moves in pulling girls.

After a few seconds though, Robert and the girl stopped kissing and Colin could now see who it was that his younger brother held in his arms.

As the couple hugged each other, Colin saw Toni’s face appear looking over Robert’s shoulder at Colin. She smiled at Colin and winked at him. The look of jealousy rampaged over his face and that was exactly what Toni had set out to do. The bad news for Colin though, was that Toni’s fun was only just beginning.

**********

Nottingham Forest · August 25, 2011

Stupid, stupid cow . How could she.

Edit: It's not even real but I feel like I'm there. Does that make me sad?

Offspring8 · August 28, 2011

Well whether it makes you sad or not, it pleases me that you're into the story so even if it does mean you're sad, please continue!

Wednesday 15th September

“So you’ve decided to pick up then?” Colin said as Toni finally answered the phone. He’d been trying to get hold of her since the weekend but she had always either been with Robert or just not answered.

“Sorry baby, I’ve just been really busy lately,” she laughed in reply. “Besides, I thought you wanted nothing more to do with me?”

“Don’t try and be funny Toni, what are you up to? Why are you getting involved with Robert?”

“I’m not up to anything. I’ve just always fancied Robert, he always was the hotter of you two. You ended it with me, remember. I can go out with who I like.”

“So you and Robert are actually about to get together?” Colin asked. He still couldn’t quite believe what Toni was trying to do.

“Not yet, but I have a feeling I might be invited over to yours to meet your parents sometime soon, so I can’t be far off the mark.”

As Colin went to reply, the phone went dead on him. He punched his bedroom wardrobe and swore. Getting back at Colin was one thing, but dragging Robert unknowingly into it added a whole new level and it was turning very sour, very quickly. And on top of all of this, the brothers had a match tonight against Swindon Town.

As Oxford fans, the club they hated the most in the world was Swindon Town. As a club, the players that Swindon fans hated the most were Oxford favourites – like Colin and Robert. The pair had become huge favourites with the Oxford faithful, and massive targets to the Swindon faithful.

They would both be in for a lot of abuse tonight at the County Ground, but they were both hoping to deal out some damage to Swindon. For Colin especially, it would be an opportunity to get away from everything going on off of the field. A win over Swindon would improve his mood so much. As for losing to Swindon - it hurt too much to even consider it.

**********

Swindon (12th) vs. MK Dons (2nd) (League 1)

Wednesday 15th September, The County Ground

“You all know exactly what it is that you should be doing today. Remember what I said; if you underestimate these guys, they will hurt you. Now get out on to that pitch, and pick up three more points,” Karl Robinson said, clapping his hands together as the noise in the changing room rose up.

He could sense that his team were high on confidence. That is normally a good thing, but over the past few days through training, he had begun to pick up a tiny vibe of over-confidence or laziness. He was hoping that it was just him being paranoid though – his team had done fantastically well through the opening month of the season and he had no reason to expect that to stop now.

“Rudyard boys; can I just have a quick word with you two?”

Another issue that Karl Robinson had was that of the Rudyard brothers making their first appearance at the County Ground. Even through the warm-up’s the Swindon fans had targeted the brothers and hurled abuse at them and sang songs about them and their beloved Oxford (known as Poxford to the Swindon faithful).

Karl knew that there was a danger that they could get sidetracked from the game and become more involved with the fans – and the likelihood of that was also increased because of their age. They’d never been in such a hostile environment before, and there was no way for Karl to know how they’d react to it.

“Listen boys, I know that Deano has already had a word with both of you, but I just want to say my piece,” the Dons manager said, referring to the club captain Dean Lewington who had had a quiet word with the brothers during warm-ups about the Swindon fans and how they need to focus on the match.

“Those fans out there are going to try and rile you up. They’re going to ruffle your feathers, and they’re going to want to see both of you crash and burn. Every time you get the ball, you’ll be booed and shouted at. Every time you make a mistake, they’ll cheer. Please don’t lose your heads – especially you, Colin.”

It was obvious to everybody that Colin had the bigger problem with holding his temper out of the two brothers, and it was imperative that the Dons won the battle in midfield today if they wanted to collect any points. A sending off for Colin just because he let the fans tip him over the edge was not what they wanted.

The brothers proceeded out onto the pitch and were greeted with a loud chorus of boos as was to be expected. Amongst the boos, Colin could hear some name calling and a lot of swearing as he tried to remember that he had to focus on the match.

As the boys took up their positions on the pitch, Robert looked up at the stands. He met the gaze of the Swindon support and the fans pointed at him and beckoned him to challenge them. They done the same to Colin, and he wished he could jump into the stands and face up to the fans who thought that they could get away with abusing people like that just because they were at a football match.

They put their middle fingers up at Colin and challenged him to respond once again. In the end he couldn’t help but to kiss his finger and then place it on his back-side in front of the Swindon fans, winding them up as he did so.

As the whistle finally went to begin the match, Colin knew that, one way or another, tonight’s match would be eventful.

**********

gavrenwick · August 28, 2011

All jokes aside, Offy, this story has actually progressed superbly since you first began writing all those centuries ago. The writing is easy on the eye, something I wouldn't claim for all that many efforts I've read. Your plots are seemingly well thought out (if they aren't, don't spoil the illusion for me!) and it's pleasing to know that you put the time into it. Here is to a potential underdog for Story of the Year. :thup:

Offspring8 · August 29, 2011

Thanks a lot, Gav. You've obviously seen a lot of stories during your time here so to get a comment like that from you means a lot . As for the plots, I have them all planned out obviously I have to take into account the situations that arise during the game itself, but I think I've been able to mould the storylines around the savegame without too much trouble so far. In-game, I'm a year and a few months ahead of this post (November 2011) and the storyline can still match up with what has happened in the save so that's all good!

Thanks again Gavlan - much love!

Within the first few minutes, the Dons conceded a corner. As had been rehearsed throughout training, both Colin and Robert jogged back to the goal line and each stood next to a post. This gave David Martin more security if he wanted to run out and catch the cross as he knew that there would still be two players guarding the line for him.

The plan didn’t work though. The corner kick was hoofed to the back post, where Swindon’s Scott Cuthbert rose to power a header past Colin and David Martin and give Swindon an early lead. Colin in particular was disgusted; he’d moved to block the header but it had been too powerful for him and the ball was in the back of the net before Colin could really react. Conceding a goal when it’s specifically your task to defend against it is bad, but conceding a goal against Swindon made it a million times worse for Colin, and already he found himself screaming and swearing at nobody in particular.

“Come on Moses, pick your head up son, we still have ninety minutes to play yet!” Dean Lewington said, clapping Colin on the back of the head.

A few minutes later, the Dons had a free-kick from just inside the Swindon half which Colin stepped up to take. As the boo’s rang out, Colin surveyed the field in front of him, desperately searching for a small gap to thread the ball through. In the end, the only pass on was a long pass forward to Robert, who was on the edge of the penalty area out to the right with his back to goal.

The pass skipped along the floor towards him and Robert could feel Swindon’s left back Alan Sheehan holding his shirt. Robert dummied the ball and let it pass through his own legs before turning Sheehan to chase the pass. The Swindon player still had a handful of Robert’s shirt, stopping him from accelerating onto the pass. Robert fell to his knees and raised his arms at the referee, calling for a penalty.

The referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot, infuriating Alan Sheehan. The full-back picked Robert up and pushed him away, claiming that he’d gone down too easily. Luckily for Sheehan, Angelo Balanta had seen that Colin was striding towards Sheehan to protect his younger brother, and the MK Dons striker stepped in and held Colin back, trying his hardest to calm the midfielder down before he squared up to Alan Sheehan.

With Balanta busy trying to calm Colin down, Robert picked the ball up and placed it on the spot. He was young and he was new to the team, but if there was one team that he wanted to score against, it was Swindon. He was taking the penalty, no matter who stepped up to argue with him.

Eventually, Colin calmed down to watch the penalty kick. Celebrating a goal with his brother in front of the Swindon fans at their home ground was the sort of thing that the Rudyard brothers dreamed about as youngsters, and if Robert could tuck away this early penalty, they’d celebrate this goal like they had no other.

Colin stood on the edge of the area as Robert stepped back from the ball. The Swindon fans behind the goal were doing their best to put the youngster off, but Robert remained focused.

The referee blew his whistle and Robert took a deep breath. He could hear his own heart beating and he could feel the adrenaline causing his stomach to do flips. He took two steps towards the ball before striking it hard and low with his right foot to the right hand side of the Swindon ‘keeper, Lucas.

Lucas had guessed correctly and dived down low to his right – but it wasn’t enough. The ball zipped into the inner side netting of the goal and Robert tore away towards the corner flag in celebration, turning around to see where Colin was.

Colin wasn’t far behind his younger brother, screaming and pumping his fists in delight at the goal. He caught up with Robert and put his arm around him, and both brothers stood in front of the Swindon fans, roaring with pride. Colin punched his own chest where his heart was, in reference to the club he loved; Oxford United.

The Swindon fans were furious and a few had to be held back as they tried to get onto the pitch to confront the duo. Then, the rest of the Dons team came between the crowd and the brothers to join in on the celebrations, leading the brothers away from the hostile fans as they did so.

It was Robert’s first goal for the club and he couldn’t have picked a better place to score it. It also made him the youngest MK Dons and League 1 goalscorer ever at 16 years and 54 days old.

The match restarted and the crowd made a lot of noise, calling upon their team to destroy the Dons and the Rudyard brothers. The match turned rough, but chances were still made. Timlin went close for Swindon after being put through one-on-one with David Martin, but the Dons ‘keeper stayed big and made a good save.

A few minutes later, the Dons worked the ball forward to the edge of the area and Steve Marlet hit a ferocious shot which beat Lucas only to crash against the post and go out for a goal kick.

With only 15 minutes played, it was 1-1. Both brothers had been given a tough game, but both had risen to the challenge so far as well. In a match that both brothers wanted desperately to win, both teams were determined to scrap for every yard. It hadn’t shown yet, but it was to be a night destined for a lot of goals.

**********

I<3AFC · August 29, 2011

This really is a fantastic story:thup:

torquayfmer · August 30, 2011

Still as brilliant as ever, keep it up!

Offspring8 · September 4, 2011

Thanks guys welcome to the thread AFC, and good to see you still reading TFM!

20 minutes in, Charlie Austin received the ball just outside of the Dons penalty area on the right wing. He rolled the ball inside to David Prutton, who was under pressure from Colin. Prutton held well against Colin and worked the ball back to Charlie Austin who had ghosted into the penalty area unnoticed.

Level with the penalty spot, Austin let the ball run across his body and looked up to see where David Martin had positioned himself. As Martin moved to claim the ball from his feet, Austin calmly slid the ball between the legs of the ‘keeper to give Swindon the lead once more.

It was a very composed finish and it hurt the brothers to hear the Swindon fans rejoicing again. Once was bad enough, but hearing them cheer a goal twice in 20 minutes was horrible.

A few minutes later, there was a fourth goal. Following a good run from David Prutton into the Dons penalty area, Swindon’s Holmar Eyjolfsson 20 yards out and curled it into the top corner to make it 3-1 to Swindon as Colin berated Stephen Gleeson. Eyjolfsson was not commonly known as a goalscoring midfielder, but he’d been awarded with a lot of space by Gleeson and he’d taken advantage of it.

**********

As Colin followed his younger brother back into the changing room, he heard a big crash. Robert had punched one of the lockers on his way in, frustrated with how the team had been playing so far.

“How about you use that frustration in a good way and get into the game a bit more?” Karl Robinson asked as Robert walked towards his place on the changing room bench. “Sit down and stop acting like a child.”

Robert wanted to answer back, but he held his tongue. It wasn’t in his nature to throw a strop – and everybody was surprised that Colin hadn’t hit a hole in the wall – but there was no team that Robert would rather beat and to be 3-1 down by half time upset him.

“What’s going on out there then?” Karl said after everybody had taken their seats. He received no answer as everybody knew it was a rhetorical question. Karl Robinson and John Gorman had a better idea than most, having been sat pitch-side and the players knew they were about to get a complete run down on exactly what they’d done wrong.

Over the following 10 minutes, Robinson and Gorman took it in turns to address the problems they’d seen evolve through the first 45 minutes.

One of the main problems that John Gorman had picked up on was that the Dons weren’t getting the ball wide quick enough or often enough and if they were to get back into the match, it was imperative that they brought their wingers into the match more. The one time they had used their wings, it had resulted in a penalty kick.

Even though Karl did have a pop at Robert as he came back in, the young winger had been one of the few players who had actually shown some guts.

In all truthfulness, the worst player on the pitch had been the club captain; Dean Lewington. They all knew that Robinson wouldn’t tear into Dean in front of the rest of the team, but he did let the captain know that he needed to improve his match. As the team went out to begin the second half, Karl Robinson asked Dean to hang back for a few seconds. As Colin walked back down the corridor, he heard the changing room door shut behind him, and even as he approached the pitch he swore he could still clearly hear Karl Robinson screaming at his captain. Colin didn’t envy Dean at that moment.

**********

The Dons knew that the next goal was vital. If they could get the next goal, they would have a decent chance of getting at least a point out of the game and the team knew that with a player like Angelo Balanta up front, anything was possible.

Balanta was presented with a chance to score his first of the match after Dan Woodards headed clear a Swindon goal kick back at the home teams’ defensive line. Kevin Amankwaah ended up back-peddling to reach the clearance, but made a mess of the clearance and ended up stumbling over the ball, presenting it to Angelo Balanta 15 yards away from the edge of the area.

The loanee carried the ball to the edge of the area before he was really put under some pressure. He then pulled the trigger but dragged his shot wide. It was an encouraging start to the second half from the Dons and they would be needing more of the same if they were to claw anything back from the match.

Just over 15 minutes in to the second half though, disaster struck once more.

Again, it was Prutton who pushed the ball forward into the penalty area from the centre of the Dons half. He pushed the ball to Dossevi who beat Dean Lewington for what must have been the 50th time in the match before reaching the byline at the edge of the 6 yard box and pulling it back for Charlie Austin to slot home his second goal of the match

As the Swindon players ran off together to celebrate going 4-1 up with their fans, Colin simply stood on the edge of his own penalty area with his hands on his hips, shaking his head, watching David Martin pick the ball out of the back of the net once again.

Colin glanced sideways at Dean Lewington and smiled in annoyance. He should have been calling out to his team, apologising for his mistake but trying to raise people’s heads. Instead, he kept his head bowed and trudged back to his starting position, muttering quiet words to himself.

After that goal, the Dons gave up trying to get back into the match. At 4-1 down with half an hour to go and the way they were playing, the focus shifted to trying not to concede any more goals.

Even in that though, they failed. With 15 minutes remaining, the ball was pinged forward to Swindon’s Joao Silva. Silva turned his man before striking the ball into the top corner to score a fantastic 5th goal for Swindon.

For the Dons; it summed up their game. For Colin; it summed up his last 7 days.

Swindon – 5

Scott Cuthbert (2)

Charlie Austin (19, 58)

Holmar Eyjolfsson (26)

Joao Silva (76)

MK Dons - 1

Robert Rudyard (pen 7)

Man of the Match: Holmar Eyjolfsson (SWI)

Att: 7793

**********

Offspring8 · September 5, 2011

Thursday 16th September 2010

The players jogged miserably around the training pitch, with only a few quiet conversations breaking the silence. A thin layer of fog hovered just above the ground and most players wished that they were still in bed. It was 6:30am, but they’d been made to train early due to their poor performance in the Swindon match the night before.

Colin and Robert had barely spoken to anybody since the end of the match. Both of them warmed down, showered, got changed and boarded the coach in complete silence after the game, and neither of them had spoken a word since arriving at the training ground at 6am.

The 5-1 loss to Swindon had been the most painful loss of their careers so far, and neither of them were quite ready to joke around about it just yet.

Robert had even less of a reason to joke about it. Swindon officials had contacted MK Dons officials late last night and warned them that a £40 bill would be sent their way due to the damaged caused by Robert on one of their lockers after he had punched it during the half time break. That £40 was almost a week’s worth of wages to Robert, and that was a lot of money to a 16 year old.

The players had began their warm-up lap without the club captain Dean Lewington. He’d been called straight to the manager’s office upon arrival and there were a few rumours bouncing around that he could even lose the captaincy after his uninspiring performace during last night’s match.

Karl Robinson was another that hadn’t shown his face so far that morning. According to John Gorman, Karl’s job was to manage ‘Footballers’ and, after last night’s performances, none of them deserved the job title of ‘Footballer’. Instead, Karl Robinson would have a meeting with Dean Lewington before preparing himself for a few interviews from the local papers.

John Robinson and club head fitness coach Matt Hillyer would be taking the training session – or the ‘Beasting’ as most players referred to it. Whenever Matt Hillyer made the plan for the training session, it meant that there would be some gruesome fitness work, which is why his sessions had been named ‘The Beastings’

Luckily for the players, they had another match on Saturday, meaning that they couldn’t overwork themselves during the fitness training because they had to avoid injuries and fatigue if they were to fully prepare themselves for a home match against mid-table Yeovil.

The South-West based team weren’t considered to be anything special and, even after the 5-1 loss, the Dons still sat in 2nd place while Yeovil found themselves in 17th. It was expected that the Dons would be comfortable favourites for the match, but the morale of the squad had taken a massive hit after their last loss, and how many times have you heard the saying: ‘Confidence is everything in football’?

**********

Colin carried his tray of food over to the small round table where his younger brother sat with Angelo Balanta. He placed the wooden tray in the centre of the table before lifting his bowl of macaroni cheese and placing it in front of him.

“What’s happening then boys?” Colin asked in between his mouthfuls.

“Your brother is just whinging to me about his lady problems,” Angelo replied.

Since the beginning of the season, the 20 year old striker had settled in fairly well with his new colleagues, but he’d hung around mostly with Robert and Colin. He got on well with both of the Rudyard brothers – Robert in particular.

Balanta was on a season-long loan from QPR after finding his starting chances there limited over the last few seasons. Earlier on during his teens, he’d managed a few games in the QPR first team and the London-based club had high hopes for Angelo. However, as the years passed, his development slowed and the amount of gametime he was rewarded with reduced.

He spent the second half of the 2008/09 season on loan at Wycombe, scoring 3 goals in 11 appearances during his time there. The following season, he spent all of his time at QPR and was limited to just 4 appearances, scoring no goals. So, when it came to the 2010/11 season, he knew he had to secure a loan move elsewhere if he was to play regular games.

He made the move to Milton Keynes and so far this season, he’d managed 3 goals, 3 Man of the Match awards and 3 assists during 8 impressive performances. Although he hadn’t scored as many as some strikers in the league, he’d been a crucial part of the Dons rise to the peak of the table during the early stages of the season and he’d have to remain in top form if the Dons wanted to stay there.

“Something on your mind about Toni?” Colin asked, trying to sound as unconcerned as he possibly could.

“Well I was just wondering what you thought about her? I mean you seem to know her a little bit so I’m just trying to make sure she is the girl I want to be with,” Robert explained.

“You want me to be honest?” Colin said, looking at his younger brother. Robert nodded in return.

“Well, could you really trust her? It’s just... for me, I’d find it hard. She does seem a little...”

“Easy? Is that the word you’re looking for Colin? Just because I met her at a party on the weekend and now I’m thinking of asking her out, you think she’s a slag?” Robert said, obviously getting a little wound up at Colin’s opinion.

“Well it has only been like, five days or something like that, don’t you think that’s a little fast?”

“Well,” Robert said, standing up from the table, “Perhaps in a few months time, if I play my cards right, I’ll have her pregnant, eh Colin?”

With that, his younger brother walked out of the canteen obviously in a stress. Colin hadn’t been careful enough with his words, but he truthfully didn’t want to see them together. He still loved Toni and seeing her kiss his brother had been hard enough. Seeing her in a public relationship with him every single day would be impossible.

He didn’t want to see his brother unhappy, but he couldn’t let Robert and Toni be together. She had her own hidden motives that Robert was blind to and Colin knew that, even if it made Robert hate him, he had to stop them from being together.

**********

Ceirdiff · September 7, 2011

Just finished reading after three days. Hope you don't go on one of your long update breaks!

Offspring8 · September 7, 2011

Ceirdiff, welcome to the thread and thanks for reading the story so far I hope you found it worth your while. For the past couple of months I've really been 'into' this FM save and this story once again - I've literally had to force myself to stop playing the save on FM because I've been getting carried away so I think, for a while at least, you're safe from having to endure one of my long breaks

“Alright, granddad?” Colin said as he walked into the kitchen to grab something to eat.

“Hey Col, I’m fine thanks. You, on the other hand, haven’t been okay for a while now,” Clive replied, without taking his eyes away from the puzzle that he was attempting. He normally filled his days by attempting crosswords, but Colin guessed he’d fancied a change.

The puzzle that he was attempting was a 10,000 piece puzzle of 5 hot air balloons launching. It had been bought for him by Jennie a few years ago for his birthday, but he’d never gotten round to starting it.

“I don’t want to go into it all too much, but the basic overall picture is that I’ve done something wrong, and now I have a guilty conscience. I’ve tried to right my wrongs and gone as far as I can go without hurting too many people, but I still feel guilty,” Colin said, sitting down opposite his granddad. With his sisters and school, Robert in his room listening to music and his parents out working, he didn’t have to worry about anybody overhearing.

“As you get older, Colin, your conscience will weigh down on you more and more – until you become an old man, like me,” Clive smiled. “I don’t believe that there are many people in the world who feel no guilt. A clear conscience is just a sign of bad memory, so try not to worry about it.”

Colin smiled. Clive always had his own way of explaining things and, most of the time, Colin could understand what he was saying and it made him feel better.

“Early morning for you guys, eh?” Clive said, seeing Colin yawn and rub his eyes.

“It was indeed. It was because of last night’s match. I just can’t wait to get back on the pitch – I hate losing. And I hate early mornings!”

“Well,” Clive answered, throwing another jigsaw piece aside in frustration, “They do say that the early bird gets the worm. But then again, I guess that saying isn’t all that true – especially in the case of mice. The second mouse gets the cheese, after all.”

“Granddad, what on earth are you talking about?” Colin laughed, interrupting Clive’s deep thoughts.

“I haven’t got a clue – that’s what happens to you when you get old... god damn this stupid bloody puzzle!”

Clive, annoyed that he couldn’t find a single matching piece, picked up the board on which all 10,000 pieces lay and threw it back into the box. He then put the lid onto the box before bagging it and dropping it into a bin. Colin could see where he got his ‘sore loser’ side from.

“If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all of the flipping evidence that you tried. I’m going down the pub,” Clive said, blowing his cheeks out as Colin laughed again.

“I will leave you with this though, Colin,” Clive said as he swung his coat around his shoulders. “You won’t feel guilty forever - you will forgive yourself eventually. If you wanna have the rainbow, you gotta have the rain – remember that.”

**********

Saturday 18th September 2010

MK Dons (2nd) vs. Yeovil (17th) (League 1)

Saturday 18th September, Stadium:mk

Robert pulled the hood of his waterproof coat up around his head to protect himself from the sweeping rain that was being carried along by strong winds on this miserable September day. Even sat in the dugout, they weren’t safe. The wind meant that the rain stung when it sprayed your face, and that didn’t improve Robert’s mood.

Karl Robinson had made it clear that Robert hadn’t been dropped – rather rested to be fit for their midweek League Cup match against Liverpool. He hadn’t long returned from his injury and the MK Dons backroom staff still weren’t convinced that he was in peak condition – another thing that annoyed Robert. He felt ready to play and he wanted to be on the pitch, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

Before the game, Karl Robinson had tried to raise his players to be up for the match. It was never going to be easy having just been stuffed 5-1 by Swindon, but even he was surprised by how much it had affected their morale. It seemed that they’d forgotten that they sat 2nd in the league and were just playing because they had to.

Colin was still furious about the loss to Swindon. In fact, he was so angry about it that his main focus today was to put some big tackles in and release some of his frustration. It was selfish, but having lost to Swindon, Colin wasn’t bothered by what his team mates might think.

In fact, in the 26th minute, Colin’s aggression resulted in an injury to a Yeovil player. As Craig Alcock rose to head the ball, Colin jumped up to challenge and went flying into his opponent because of how aggressive his jump had been. He knocked Alcock off balance, who landed awkwardly before going to ground holding his ankle.

Alcock was subbed off and, even though Colin did apologise to him, he was in no mood to swan around feeling sorry for Craig Alcock. Instead, he just wanted to continue throwing himself into people.

In the 38th minute, Colin gave away a freekick mid-way inside his own half. The freekick was taken quickly and Francisco Duran chipped the ball into the penalty area to an unmarked Andy Welsh. Welsh controlled the ball on his chest before side-footing past David Martin to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Colin screamed and punched the air. He knew that he’d given away a stupid freekick and that had resulted in a goal, and it worsened his mood once again. Somewhere outside his thoughts, he could hear somebody screaming their head off at him – it was probably Karl Robinson – but he didn’t care who it was or what they were saying.

Football was supposed to be his getaway from everything that was happening off the field with Dani, Toni and Robert. But even on the pitch, he was now struggling and frustrated.

Colin looked up at the sky but only saw grey clouds as the rain whipped across his face. He could barely open his eyes because of the rain and his legs felt heavy. Inside, he could feel the anger building; unsure as yet of whether that was a good or bad thing.

**********

Offspring8 · September 11, 2011

The second half came around and the weather was still as poor as the home team’s display. Robert found himself jogging up and down the touchline to warm up after Karl Robinson told him that he would be going on soon if things didn’t improve. He hadn’t wanted to use the young winger at all, but a second consecutive loss would damage morale even further – especially with it being a home game.

As Robert applauded the home fans while warming up, Colin gave away yet another free-kick. He’d been told by Karl Robinson to calm down a bit, but he hadn’t listened to his manager at all.

“Colin! Colin! Over here please, fella!” said referee Lee Probert. The Gloucester born official normally refereed at a higher level, but every now and then would drop down outside of the Premier League and the Championship. Colin approached the 38 year old referee and stood in front of him with his hands on his hips.

“That’s the final one now, Colin. Any more, no matter how small and you’ll find yourself with at least a yellow. Calm it down, no more please, thank you,” Probert explained before waving Colin away.

As a result of the final warning, Colin stopped committing stupid fouls. He was still in a terrible mood, but he knew that getting sent off would only make things worse. Even though he did calm down, he still couldn’t get his team moving in the right direction as Yeovil were getting 10 men behind the ball when they didn’t have it and making things difficult for the home side.

With 20 minutes remaining, Robert came onto the pitch. It perked up the display from the home side a little bit, but even with Robert on the Dons were struggling to get in behind Yeovil and through at goal.

10 minutes from time though, Colin finally released his younger brother down the wing with a bit of class. Colin had received the ball on the half-way line facing his own goal and with a man right on his back. He let the pass run through his own legs and then through his markers legs as he turned around the outside of his man and met the ball on the other side, drawing cheers and applause from the home fans.

As he met the ball on the other side, a Yeovil player slid in to beat Colin to the ball, but he couldn’t make it in time. Colin rolled the ball sideways using the studs of his boot and stepped out of the path of the tackle, drawing more cheers from the home crowd as stadium:mk finally came alive.

After that move, Colin chipped a pass towards the corner flag, which he knew Robert would be chasing. Robert chased and beat the Yeovil left-back to the ball, driving a low cross in first time to the near post. Angelo Balanta was the man who met the ball on the edge of the 6 yard box, but his shot clipped the top of the crossbar before flying into the crowd behind the goal.

They’d missed a golden opportunity to equalise but the fans were pleased that their 3 most exciting players had finally come alive. As the clock ticked towards the 90 minute mark, the fans finally started to believe that a late equaliser could be on the cards for the Dons.

4 minutes from time, the Dons came close once again. Jemal Johnson received the ball on the left wing and fired a cross in from deep. The cross didn’t head to the intended area though as it flew at the goal and thumped the post, catching Yeovil’s ‘keeper off-guard.

The ball bounced back towards Robert but the 5ft 8” winger couldn’t jump high enough to head home the rebound from close range and put his hands on the back of his head as the ball flew over his head before being cleared away.

The noise levels grew once again though as the attacking threat from the Dons grew once again. The fans were doing their part to try and get their team moving – now it was just down to how badly the players wanted it as the rain continued to lash down on them and the clock continued to tick by.

With 2 minutes left, Dean Lewington took a throw-in, giving the ball to left-winger Jemal Johnson. Johnson carried it forward before passing inside to Colin, who was just on the outside of the penalty area. Colin turned so that he was sideways on from the goal and his first instinct was to try and curl the ball into the far corner.

As the fans all murmured in anticipation and the sound of thousands of seats folding filled Colin’s ears, somewhere in the background he could hear Jermaine Easter calling for the ball from behind Colin’s left shoulder.

Colin stretched out his arms to gain balance to strike the ball as a shot. One defender flew out at him to make the block. Then, Colin played a brilliantly disguised reverse pass into what he hoped would be Jermaine Easter’s path.

After making the clever pass and drawing loud cheers from the crowd, Colin looked up to see Jermaine Easter running onto the ball and striking it from the corner of the 6 yard box across the Yeovil ‘keeper and into the far side of the net.

The Dons crowd went nuts, screaming as their team finally got the much anticipated equaliser. The players bundled Jermaine Easter beside the goal, who tried to find Colin among the pile of bodies.

The pass had been as good as the finish and – for a few minutes at least – Colin forgot about the whole situation with Toni and the loss against Swindon. For a few minutes, he celebrated what should have been a disappointing draw against Yeovil as if it was a double-figured win.

MK Dons – 1

Jermaine Easter (89)

Yeovil - 1

Andy Welsh (38)

Man of the Match: Andy Welsh (YEO)

Att: 10771

**********

Offspring8 · September 12, 2011

Just a quick note to readers: this is probably my last update for around 2 weeks as I'm going away on holiday in the next few days. I will get it up and running again though as soon as I'm back, that's a promise enjoy the read, see you in around 12 days!

Sunday 19th September 2010

On any normal Sunday, the Rudyard family would be enjoying a roast dinner together. On this Sunday, not all of the Rudyard’s actually enjoyed the meal.

Toni had been invited over by Jennie and Liam to have dinner with the rest of the family after it had become public knowledge that Toni and Robert were now an item. She’d been as charming as ever whilst in front of Jennie and Liam, just as Colin knew she would be.

“Sorry Colin, you couldn’t just pass me the salt over, could you?” Toni smiled mischievously. Without saying anything in reply or looking up at her, Colin picked up the salt and placed it above Toni’s plate as she whispered a ‘thank you’, just about loud enough for everybody to hear.

“I’ve set the spare room up for you already, Toni. Do you have everything you’ll need for the night?” Liam asked as he tucked into his favoured roast potatoes.

“Yeah I’ve got everything packed in my bag – thanks again for letting me stay over, I really appreciate it,” Toni smiled in reply. The news made Colin choke on a piece of his dinner and all eyes turned on him.

“Are you alright?” Dani asked from beside him, patting his back to try and help clear his throat as Colin nodded in reply.

“You’re staying over?” Colin asked Toni with raised eyebrows.

“Yeah, your parents asked me if I wanted to and decided that I’d love to.”

“Is that okay with you, Colin?” Jennie interrupted sarcastically. She’d been embarrassed by Colin’s response and had hoped that Toni wouldn’t take offence from her eldest son’s response.

“I told her she could stay as long as she wasn’t a Swindon fan. Turns out she’s an Oxford fan so she can spend as long as she wants under my roof!” Liam laughed.

“I didn’t know you even followed a football team, Toni?” Colin asked.

“Well everybody has their own little secrets, don’t they Colin?” Toni replied, smiling at him. Colin had no answer and instead looked back down at his food.

**********

Colin woke up coughing once again, putting his hand against his throat. He guessed he was getting some kind of throat infection because it was painful to drink anything. He’d taken some tablets just before dinner and that had helped ease the discomfort in his throat, so he decided to go downstairs and grab a few more tablets.

He picked up his phone as he left his room, pressing a button so that the screen lit up to reveal what that it had just gone 2:30am. He snuck down the stairs, using years of practice to avoid the noisy steps so as not to wake anybody else up. As he reached the bottom of the stairs and walked down the hallway, he passed the spare room that Toni had been using.

Only an hour or so ago, Colin had heard his younger brother leave Toni’s room and come upstairs. He didn’t need too many guesses at what they’d been up to, but Colin tried to keep it out of his head. The thought of his brother being with the girl that he wanted more than any other made him feel angry and sick.

Colin took his tablets and refilled his glass of water to take back upstairs with him. As he turned though, he found Toni standing in the doorway in just her underwear with her arms crossed in front of her and that mischievous smile on her face that Colin both loved and hated at the same time.

“Sorry, I thought you were Robert,” she winked as she took a few steps towards Colin. He hadn’t moved, still unsure as to how he should react. He wanted to take her back into her room and enjoy the night, but he knew that he shouldn’t do that – even the thought of it made him feel guilty.

“Well obviously I’m not, maybe you should go back to your room before somebody else sees you,” Colin answered, still stood in the same spot.

“Maybe...” she replied putting her arms around Colin and pulling his body up against hers. “Or maybe you should join me, and I’ll show you some more?”

Colin didn’t do or say anything in reply at first as he seriously considered the offer. In the end though, there was only ever one thing that he could do, and he leaned forward to whisper into Toni’s ear.

“Or maybe you should get your hands off of me and leave my brother alone, you cold, selfish little sl*g.”

Toni laughed quietly as Colin pulled her hands off of him and stepped towards the doorway. He’d surprised her by resisting, but she could feel that he’d almost caved in.

“I thought I had you then, Colin. Maybe we haven’t seen the end of each other just yet,” Toni smiled.

“You may have everybody else eating from your hands, but I won’t let you take my family on as mugs forever. I’m asking you to break things off with Robert soon. Otherwise I’ll pull you out myself, and that’ll be much less glamorous – I promise you. Leave Robert alone.”

**********

Offspring8 · September 26, 2011

Aaaaand... we're back online again

Tuesday 21st September 2010

MK Dons (L1) vs. Liverpool (17th) (League Cup 3rd Round)

Tuesday 21st September, Stadium:mk

Having endured a slow start to the season, Liverpool travelled south to meet the Dons in the 3rd round of the League Cup. 4 games into the Premier League, Liverpool had won 1 game (Bolton at home) and drawn the other 3 (Man United at home, Everton and West Brom away) and sat 10th in the league.

Colin fired another pass across the field before looking across at the Liverpool players that were warming up. They were doing rotary laps around cones in two separate lines, performing stretches as they came up through the cones before spinning around the last one and jogging back to the start.

Steven Gerrard was not there, much to Colin’s disappointment. During Liverpool’s last Premier League match, Gerrard was sent off after collecting 2 yellow cards against Manchester United at Anfield. With the captain out, Jamie Carragher would be taking the armband for this match while summer signing Arturo Vidal would take up the position that had formerly been filled by Steven Gerrard.

MK Dons Lineup:

David Martin

D Woodards – S O’Hanlon – M Doumbe – D Lewington (c)

R Rudyard – J McEachran – C Rudyard – L Chadwick

S Marlet – A Balanta

Liverpool Lineup:

J Reina

G Johnson – C Hengbart – J Carragher (c) – F Aurelio

A Vidal – Lucas

D Kuyt – Maxi Rodriguez – R Babel

K Miller

**********

The Dons knew that if they were to win, they’d be needing something special from Angelo Balanta or one of the Rudyard brothers. With their crowd behind them, the Dons wasted no time in working the ball to the right wing so that Robert could run at Fabio Aurelio.

Aurelio tracked back with Robert, always keeping his eyes locked firmly upon the ball as Robert pulled off a couple of step-overs and shifted the ball effortlessly between his feet – but Aurelio knew how to cope with this type of wing play, having grown up as a child in Brazil.

Eventually, Aurelio channelled and tracked Robert down next to the corner flag before blocking his attempt at a cross and conceding a corner. To Robert, he’d been reminded of how big the gap was between the full backs that he played against most Saturdays in League 1 and the full backs playing at a club who regularly qualified for European competitions.

Colin slapped hands with his brother as he jogged across to take the corner kick. With it still being early in the match, Colin decided to test the Liverpool defence by drilling the corner low into the near post and see if he could get a lucky deflection to knock the ball into the goal. With the Liverpool defenders still yet to have their first touch of the ball, Colin knew that he might get lucky.

The corner was fired into the near post and Robert was the first to reach it. He made a darting run across the corner of the 6 yard box and tried to divert the hard cross into the net at the back post by getting a glancing touch on the ball with the outside of his left boot.

The ball sped past Reina but couldn’t get past Arturo Vidal, who’d been placed on the line at the back post. Vidal made an excellent goal-line clearance which was helped away by Ryan Babel for a throw-in to the Dons. With just over a minute on the clock, the Dons had come close to taking the lead and the effort was met with great applause and cheers by the home crowd. An upset was a real possibility in this fixture.

Just a few minutes later, Arturo Vidal beat Colin in a header on the half-way line, nodding it across to his midfield partner Lucas. Vidal matched Colin for height and the Chilean had built himself a reputation as a bit of a tough tackler, so Colin had been looking forward to the challenge of playing the 23 year old summer signing for Liverpool.

Lucas worked a pass forward to Maxi Rodriguez who picked it up 10 yards outside of the penalty area with his back to goal. Robert could hear somebody screaming ‘Maxi!’ and looked to see Ryan Babel sprinting into the penalty area from Liverpool’s left wing.

“Woody! Watch your man!” Robert shouted to his fullback, Dan Woodards. Babel had a head start on Woodards though and as Rodriguez turned and played a wonderful pass along the ground with the outside of his boot, Ryan Babel galloped past Woodards and side footed the ball around David Martin to give his team a 3rd minute lead, much to Robert’s anger.

“Woody! Eyes open, for crying out loud!” Robert shouted as Ryan Babel and his team mates celebrated beside him.

“Rob you’ve got to give me a call earlier than that, or you have to track him all the way, one or the other!” Dan woodards replied.

Robert wanted to answer back but instead just turned away to take up his starting position once again. Unlike Colin, he had the self-discipline to hold his tongue and get on with things. Obviously conceding a goal is a setback, especially against a team like Liverpool, but at least it was an early goal which meant that the dons still had plenty of time to get back into it.

**********

mark wilson27 · September 26, 2011

As always excellent work mate, will continue to follow this

Offspring8 · September 27, 2011

Thanks a lot Mark, much appreciated mate!

Over the course of the next half hour, Liverpool showed their superiority to the home team. They stroked the ball around with ease and even though the home team worked extremely hard to close the Liverpool players down, they just couldn’t cope with the obvious gap in class between the two teams.

The Dons’ match so far was typified by Colin. He was up for the game and he was doing a hell of a lot of running, but Vidal was equal to him and was having a fantastic game. Where Colin would normally be the hub of creativity, today Vidal had tied invisible shackles around his ankles and nailed the chain into the ground. Wherever he went, the Chilean would follow and whenever he got the ball, he was under immediate pressure and could rarely get his head up long enough to pick out the killer pass.

Almost half an hour in, Colin was dispossessed just inside his own half once again as Vidal made him eat grass with a brilliantly timed tackle from behind as Colin tried to turn. The £8.75M signing then knocked the ball out wide to Ryan Babel, who played a one-two with Fabio Aurelio and carried the ball to the byline.

Robert came back to double up on Babel with Woodards, but that only meant that Fabio Aurelio was left open to receive the ball from Babel and then lob a fantastic cross into the back post that curled away from goal.

Dirk Kuyt showed the springs in his heels by beating Dean Lewington to the header at the back post to nod the ball home and make it 0-2 to Liverpool.

The stadium went very quiet as the fans began to realise that it was very unlikely that they’d see their team kill off one of the giants of the competition. Coming back from 1 goal down against one of the best clubs in the country was hard enough, but coming back from 2 goals down with the way the game was going seemed almost impossible.

Until Steve Marlet collected the ball deep inside his own half and saw Angelo Balanta in a 1 on 1 race with Liverpool’s Cedric Hengbart. Marlet simply hung up a long ball which dropped in behind the Liverpool back line still 35 yards away from goal.

The noise from the stands perked up a little as the forward raced away from his marker and recovered the ball just 10 yards outside the area. Intelligently, he cut inside across the front of Glen Johnson, who’d tried to make a covering run to fill the hole left by Hengbart at centreback. Johnson couldn’t touch Balanta without conceding a penalty and so decided to let him past and hope that the desperate Jamie Carragher could throw in a last ditch tackle and block the shot.

Balanta pulled back his left book to take the shot on and predictably, Carragher dove in to make the block. Balanta feigned and shifted the ball onto his right foot, opening his body up as Jamie Carragher slid past in front of him. The young forward then let fly with a beautiful shot that curled wonderfully around the outstretched arm of Pepe Reina and into the far top corner of the net, giving the fans something to cheer about for the first time.

It was a brilliant finish and it left Jamie Carragher screaming at Glen Johnson for pushing too far forward and leaving Hengbart exposed to MK Dons’ explosive striker.

However, just seconds later, Liverpool had managed to thread the ball forward to the edge of the Dons penalty area, where Ryan Babel hit a curling shot that thumped against the post before bouncing away for a goal kick. They say that you’re at your most vulnerable just after scoring a goal and the effort grabbed the home team by the ankles and brought their feet back firmly to the ground.

The next goal was vitally important. Should the Dons score it, the momentum would be with them and they stood a real chance of progressing further in the competition. However, should Liverpool be the ones to get the 4th goal of the game, it would be hard to see the Dons getting back into it.

**********

The half time team talk was mainly focussed upon the distribution of the ball from the goalkeeper and the defence. During most of the first half, the Dons had always tried to go through the middle before working it wide. Instead, Karl Robinson wanted the ‘keeper and the defenders to look to Robert Rudyard and Luke Chadwick before they looked to Colin Rudyard and Josh McEachran.

Liverpool’s midfield were bossing the centre of the pitch and the Dons were losing a lot of possession in there, whereas Robert in particular looked to be having a good battle out wide with Fabio Aurelio and had beaten the Brazilian fullback a couple of times during the first half.

John Gorman sat down beside Colin as Karl Robinson continued to address the team on what to do in possession of the ball.

“Colin, are you alright out there? You’ve taken a few hits from that Chilean lad and it’s looking like he’s got your number.”

“I’m fine. He’s hit me a few time but they’ve all been fair. There’s just not enough talking or communication, nobody seems to want the ball when I have it, so I have to try and search for a pass and whenever I try and get my head up, Vidal is straight onto me and I have nowhere to go,” Colin explained.

“Okay well remember to have that quick glance over your shoulder to see where Vidal is as you’re about to receive the ball. It seems to me that you’re panicking a little bit and you’re very tight. Relax, loosen up, and play your game. You have what it takes to dismantle Liverpool if you play like you normally do, so just take some deep breaths and find your feet out there.”

It was good advice and after thanking him, John Gorman moved on to the next player that he wanted to have a private chat with. It was the routine in the dressing room for Karl Robinson to go through general tactics and for John to do the man-to-man talking as that was going on.

**********

torquayfmer · September 27, 2011

Another good effort! Looking forward to the second half and seeing what Colin and Robert can do!

Offspring8 · September 28, 2011

Thanks tfm, great that you're still reading along

The second half got underway and both teams knew that the next goal would be vital. Should Liverpool score their third, it would be a won battle. Should the Dons grab an equaliser, they’d have a fair shout at walking away from the League Cup 3rd round with a positive result.

Within five minutes though, Colin had to throw himself at Arturo Vidal’s feet as the Chilean midfielder attempted to unleash a piledriver of a shot at the Dons’ goal from the edge of the penalty area. He did enough to put Vidal off but also ended up almost taking out his opponent as the momentum of his tackle made him slide straight at Vidal, who had to jump to avoid Colin.

Colin knew that he made no contact with Arturo Vidal, but the Chilean let out a yelp in mid-air before clutching his ankle and falling to the ground.

He wanted to go over and kick Vidal, but instead Colin held his hands up and shrugged his shoulders, trying to tell the referee that he’d made no contact with the Liverpool player. Howard Webb jogged across to Colin and waved his arms in front of him at waist height.

“I saw that there was no intent. Just make sure you keep your cool, I’ve given out no bookings yet and I want it to stay that way,” said Webb sternly. Colin nodded and gave a thumbs-up, but Vidal wasn’t too happy. He’d been watching even though he was still on the floor and as soon as he’d seen that Colin wouldn’t be getting booked, the Chilean sat up and was calling for a yellow card.

“F*ck off mate, there’s no need for that, surely that’s a booking for him isn’t it ref? That’s not even mentioning that it was a dive in the first place!” Colin called out, throwing his hand up in the direction of Vidal who was climbing to his feet. Howard Webb blew his whistle and called both players to him along with their captains.

“Dangerous tackle, no!?! Maybe next time I don’t see him coming and he breaks my leg!” Colin heard Arturo Vidal moaning as he approached him and Howard Webb with Jamie Carragher and Dean Lewington close behind.

“Stop bloody whinging about it, everybody could see I was just trying to get a block in – what am I supposed to do, let you shoot?!?” Colin replied as he reached them.

Webb called for quiet between the two but Vidal still went to answer back to Colin, stopped only by Jamie Carragher putting his hand on his shoulder and telling him to shut up and calm down.

“Right, I’ve already said that I don’t want to book anybody today, but I will if I have to. So far, you two have had a hard but fair battle against each other in midfield today and it would be a shame for me to have to caution anybody,” Howard Webb explained to the players, repeatedly looking from Vidal to Colin and then back again.

“It was a bid-of-a full on challenge though, ‘Ow,” Carragher pointed out to Howard Webb in his Liverpudlian accent.

“It’s been the first of its kind though, it’s not as if there’s been consistent dangerous play. Both of you have been warned – anything else from either of you and you’ll earn yourselves a yellow card, understood? Good, now let’s get on with the game.”

With that, the game got back underway and the Dons continued to push for an equaliser, but to no avail. Liverpool were just too hard to break down and the ball wasn’t being shifted to the wide players quickly enough. Robert desperately wanted the ball early, but it would take an age to reach him and by the time it did, he’d have Aurelio snapping at his heels and Ryan Babel or one of the central midfielders coming back to double up.

No matter who went where though, Vidal never left Colin’s side. In a normal match, Colin would complete over 40 passes relatively easily. Today though, he knew he hadn’t even completed 10 yet and that was because of how well Arturo Vidal was playing. Liverpool also had Maxi Rodriguez dropping back into midfield to help close Colin down, and there was just no way out for him.

Just over 10 minutes into the second half, Carragher easily beat Marlet in the air from a Dons goal kick and sent the ball back at the Dons defence. As Mathias Doumbe stepped up to deal with the ball, Kenny Miller took a punt and made a run in behind the centreback.

Doumbe had stepped too far forward and the players, management and fans alike could only watch on in horror as the ball floated over Doumbe’s head and dropped into the path of Kenny Miller. The £2.3M signing from Rangers knocked the ball forward and carried it into the penalty area.

As David Martin rushed out to try and close the forward down, Miller simply stroked it past him with ease to make it 1-3 to Liverpool. It was a simple finish which had likely ended the Dons’ hopes of a decent cup run.

Almost 10 minutes later, the fourth official flashed some numbers up on his board and Colin saw his number 13 up there. He looked down at the floor and growled in anger at himself before trudging from the field and ending what had been his worst match in years. In total, he’d completed 7 passes from just 10 attempts in almost 65 minutes and it had been a difficult game for him.

“Unlucky Col, it can’t happen for you every time,” John Gorman said as Colin shook hands with the manager and his assistant before taking up his place on the bench to watch out the remainder of the match. Things just weren’t happening for him on the pitch or off of it at the moment.

For Robert though, there was still another flash of brilliance in him. Having worked hard to dispossess Aurelio just inside his own half 15 minutes from time, Robert sped towards Carragher. If there was one type of player that the Liverpool player hated defending against the most, it was somebody who was quick and agile like Robert.

He knocked the ball around Carragher and sped around the other side of him, shrugging off his attempt to body-check him and just about managing to maintain his balance. It was then Cedric Hengbart’s turn to try and win the ball from Robert as he slid in desperately to stop the youngster from closing in on goal.

However, Robert showed his fantastic turn of pace, beating Hengbart to the loose ball and leaving the defender sliding on the floor behind him as he closed in on Pepe Reina’s goal, lifting the home crowd from their seats. He cut in diagonally from the right wing and made it to the edge of the area before he attempted a shot with the outside of his boot.

The ball swung around Reina and towards the far corner before thumping the post and then being cleared by Glen Johnson as the crowd applauded the brilliant solo effort.

It wouldn’t be enough though, as Liverpool saw out the game with a professional finish to progress to the 4th round and knock MK Dons out of the League Cup. For Robert and Colin in particular, with the game being televised live it had been a chance to show the nation what they could really do. Robert had managed to get people to the edge of their seats and had performed well. For Colin though, it had been a difficult afternoon and one that he'd be wanting to forget about very soon.

MK Dons – 1

Angelo Balanta (34)

Liverpool - 3

Ryan Babel (3)

Dirk Kuyt (29)

Kenny Miller (57)

Man of the Match: Jamie Carragher (LIV)

Att: 18000

**********

Offspring8 · September 29, 2011

Wednesday 22nd September 2010

In Robert’s eyes, things were going pretty well. His football performances were improving every week and he’d impressed in the match against Liverpool the night before. He’d also taken a present from the match against the Premier League club and had swapped shirts with Jamie Carragher at the end of the match. Eventually he planned on getting it framed, but for now it sat – unwashed – at the foot of Robert’s bed.

He also had his first real girlfriend sat beside him with her head resting on his chest as they watched TV. He found Toni incredibly attractive – everything from her big, brown eyes to the dimples in her cheeks when she smiled drew him to her and he adored his new girlfriend, even if he could sense that Colin was iffy with her for some reason.

“How’s your course going then, enjoying it?” Robert asked. Toni had only that week started a hairdressing course at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College.

“Yeah it’s good, I’ve met some girls who I really get along with so yeah, it’s good fun,” Toni replied.

“Good, I’m glad you’re enjoying it and everything. Who knows, maybe one day with the money I earn from my football, I’ll help you set up your own hairdressing salon or something?” Robert smiled.

“Yeah, maybe,” Toni said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

Even though Robert had gone all doughy-eyed over Toni, she still had her eyes firmly fixed on Colin and she didn’t care about stepping on his little brother to get to him.

It wasn’t because she found Colin more attractive – they were both fairly good-looking in her opinion – but because she was actually in love with Colin. Toni knew she was good-looking and was bored of having the same old guys throwing themselves at her. If she wanted, she could take her pick of guys at almost every party, but when she saw Colin at a house party earlier in the summer, she couldn’t help but be attracted to his confidence.

He had a way of pressing his authority onto everybody he met. It was almost as if people only had to look at him to see that he was the alpha dog and he had a talent to back it up. Toni had been bored of the same old guy that always tried it on with her – the cocky ones who had good looks but nothing else. Colin was different to everybody else.

Robert also had a lot of confidence, but he was a lot more reserved about it. To some girls, that is more attractive, but Toni knew exactly what she wanted. She knew she had Robert like putty in her hands, and she planned to use that to keep her close to Colin. He’d give in to temptation in the end, Toni was sure of it.

**********

“You just have to relax. It’s just like a driving lesson really, mate,” Sam Murillo said as he sat in between Darren and Colin. They’d gone into Oxford to grab a meal from Subway and have a quick catch-up. With Colin having his driving test on Friday that had been the main subject of discussion, but Sam could see that Colin’s mind was elsewhere.

“Are you alright, mate?” Sam said, snapping Colin out of his daydream.

“Yeah, yeah sorry, I’m fine, what were we talking about?” Colin answered, taking a bite from his meal.

“Are you sure? You’ve been acting a bit weird recently. Any normal person would think that you’d been doing a lot of thinking, but I know you better than that,” Darren laughed. “I’ll be back in a second, just going to get another drink.”

“Col, are you sure you’re okay? Nothing’s happened with my sister, has it?” Sam said after Darren had left the table.

“Yeah seriously, it’s fine. I just have a lot to think about really. December is getting closer and closer so I think a lot about becoming a dad,” Colin answered.

“Aaah, I see. Yeah Dani’s getting really excited as well. She’s noticed that you’re a bit different but I guess it must be kind of scary,” Sam smiled.

He was right; it did scare Colin a bit. But he was also scared that Toni had the power to break up his own little family before they’d even begun by letting slip about what happened between Colin and herself.

It had all become such a mess and he would do anything to get Toni out of his and Robert’s lives, but he feared that she’d dug her claws so deep into Robert that Colin couldn’t tear her out without wounding his little brother in a horrible way.

Either way, he had to get something sorted with Toni before the baby’s due date in mid-December. If he still hadn’t managed to secure Toni’s silence by then, then he knew that he’d have to tell Danielle about the whole thing himself, just so that he didn’t have to continue looking over his shoulder.

**********

Ceirdiff · October 9, 2011

I think I may need to start planning a drive-by...craving the story!

Offspring8 · October 22, 2011

Aha, please don't!! This delay wasn't my fault! As some of you may know, my laptop that this story was hosted on died a few weeks ago. Since then, I have bought a brand new laptop and (with the help of a very intelligent friend) managed to recover a fair amount of the data from my old laptop and bring it over to my new laptop - including my ATOTB story notes file, the actual story document itself (all 400-odd pages of it) and the FM save files related to this story.

So yeah, I'm pleased to say that I can continue writing and posting once again using my new and shiny laptop.

Now where were we.... ah yes:

Friday 24th September 2010

Colin's leg shook as uncontrollably as it always did when he was nervous. He thought the test had gone pretty well but he still wasn't one-hundred percent sure that he'd passed. Both Jennie and Liam failed their driving tests first time but that didn't mean anything to Colin – he needed to succeed in everything he took part in at the first attempt.

“Well,” the slightly overweight examiner muttered from behind his Freddie Mercury-style 'stach. “I'm pleased to say that you've passed with four minors and, obviously, no majors. Congratulations.”

Colin clenched his fist in victory and shook the hand of the driving instructor before hopping out of the car to see his uncle Paul already strolling towards the car.#

“How did it go?” Paul asked.

“I passed, of course,” Colin smiled, walking to his uncle and shaking his hand before they embraced.

“Well done mate, I told you you'd be fine!” with that, Colin jumped back into the car and pulled out his phone to tell his family the good news. He couldn't wait to hear his mum's reaction as he knew that she'd be over the moon.

Colin was right as Jennie let out a little screech of excitement at the news. After telling Jennie, Called Dani and shared the good news with her while Paul was still outside, having a chat with the driving instructor and exchanging various documents, one of which was Colin's temporary driving licence. After Dani, Colin decided that the final person he'd call would be his good friend, Nigel Winters.

Nigel, at 19, was considered one of England's top young prospects and could play anywhere up or down the left hand side. Having been born in London, he was now living out his boyhood dreams of playing for his local club, Fulham FC. He'd first met the Rudyard brothers playing with the England youth squads and became good friends with them almost immediately.

So far throughout the opening 6 games of the Premier League, he'd made 4 substitute appearances and had impressed with his confidence in running with the ball at his feet and taking players on. The Fulham faithful were excited at having such a good young talent at the club and he was rapidly growing popular amongst the fans.

“Congratulations mate!” Nigel said without even hearing Colin say whether he'd passed or failed.

“How did you know?” Colin asked.

“Well I just knew you'd pass, I didn't have to wait for you to tell me... you did pass though, didn't you?” Nigel said, praying to the heavens that Colin hadn't failed.

“Yeah I passed – that could have been a bit awkward though if I hadn't!” Colin replied as both boys laughed.

“I have some good news of my own as well though, Colin. During the flight this morning, the gaffer told me that Damien's injury meant that he'd be out for a few months so he wants to start me in tomorrows match!”

During Fulham's last game, Damien Duff picked up a hamstring injury. Obviously, this was a bad thing for Damien and for the team, but it gave Nigel a chance to get some proper first-team experience under his belt and Colin knew he'd take the chance.

“Congratulations mate, it's Newcastle you're playing tomorrow isn't it?” Colin asked.

“It is. I can't wait to play in front of a packed St. James' crowd, hopefully I can keep them quiet with a good performance.”

“Yeah I'm sure you'll have a good game, you lucky little jeb. Make sure that Mark Hughes has to pick you for the next time though, mate. Let's see if me, you and Robert can make it onto that plane to Euro 2012,” Colin laughed. Even for that trio of players, a full international call-up to a European competition was a little bit ambitious.

**********

Saturday 25th September 2010

Leyton Orient (12th) vs. MK Dons (3rd) (League 1)

Saturday 25th September, Brisbane Road

Robert had been looking forward to this trip to London so that he and the rest of the team could put the recent results behind them and move back into the winning groove. In their last 3 games, the Dons had conceded 9 goals and scored just 3 – including that 5-1 loss to Swindon Town that still haunted both Robert and Colin every night as they slept. Both brothers knew it would be a long time before they forgot about that defeat, but the Don's had to start winning again if they were to continue their good start.

Both of the Rudyard brothers had been named in the starting lineup on this windy September day. For Robert, it was extremely important that he continued to play as many minutes on the pitch as possible. Since his injury just as the season was about to get underway, Robert hadn't shown the Dons fans what he was capable. The only way to find form though, is to play as many minutes as possible.

Perhaps today would see a better performance turned in by the young English winger.

**********

Offspring8 · October 24, 2011

Colin could feel the wind tugging at his shirt as he stood by the corner flag, ready to whip a cross into the box. The opening 10 minutes from the Dons had been fairly poor but they'd managed to get through a few moments of worry and were now beginning to get on the ball a little bit more. Confidence levels were lower than they had been so far this season for the Dons players due to their recent poor form, and they'd discussed the importance of making it through the first 15 minutes without conceding a goal.

It might not seem like a big target but 15 minutes is a long time in a football match and with that target achieved, the players finally had something positive to build upon.

Colin tried to drive the corner in at the near post but it was hacked away by a Leyton Orient defender. The ball looped back towards Colin, who'd moved away from the byline and was now at the corner of the box. As he watched the ball drop towards him, he could also see the outline of a player closing him down quickly.

With a majestic first touch, Colin flicked the ball over the defenders head without letting it touch the ground, drawing 'Ohh's and applause from the crowd. He then focussed all of his energy on striking the ball firmly, but only succeeded in unceremoniously scooping his shot high into the stands as the ball rolled down his shin and off of his boot.

Colin jogged back into position for the goal kick as a chorus of 'wheeey!' rang out around the ground.

MK Dons won possession straight back though as Chris Mavinga rose to nod the ball to fellow centreback Sean O'Hanlon. O'Hanlon then pushed the ball forward to Stephen Gleeson and Robert came alive, pulling right out towards the touchline to receive the pass from Gleeson, leaving him in a one-on-one environment with Orient left back Charlie Daniels.

Having collected the ball just inside his own half, Robert turned to face Daniels with the ball at his feet. He'd done his homework on the Orient defender and knew that he was fairly quick, but Robert was confident that he'd burn him into the ground with his quick feet and raw pace.

From being almost at a standstill, Robert suddenly charged at Daniels, gritting his teeth and clenching his jaw in determination. He knew it was about time that he introduced himself to the Dons fans and showed them what he was capable of. In a way, Robert felt sorry for Charlie Daniels – but there was no way anybody was going to stop him from advancing, whether he'd been facing Charlie Daniels or Philip Lahm.

As Robert closed in on Daniels – who looked shell-shocked at the youngsters incredible turn of pace – he performed a step-over with his left leg before throwing all of his weight to his right and knocking the ball through the legs of Charlie Daniels with the outside of his right boot. Robert surged around Daniels and met the ball on the other side at full pace and really began to open his legs up, putting his foot on the gas and introducing the Dons fans to the little speed demon that he truly was.

Nobody closed Robert down as he glided down the right wing; they knew they couldn't catch him, so their attention turned to marking his target in the penalty area. The only problem with that was that they couldn't keep up with Angelo Balanta, who'd also darted forward with an impressive turn of pace.

Robert knew what he had to do. Without even looking up, as soon as he came level with the 18 yard line, he fizzed a low cross into the penalty area that curled away from goal, causing it to skip right along the edge of the 6 yard box. It was the perfect cross and all Balanta had to do to give his team the lead was make a solid connection.

Balanta slid in and made that connection, deflecting the cross into the goal and giving his team the lead that was so important to them. The first goal of the game was always going to be vital and as the team congratulated Angelo Balanta and Robert Rudyard, Karl Robinson could tell that it was going to be a good day.

**********

“There we go boys, how does that feel to back back in charge of matches? That's how we should be playing!” Karl Robinson announced after all of the players had sat down.

MK Dons were now 2-0 up. Not so long after their first goal, the Dons won a corner kick which was to be taken by Stephen Gleeson punted the ball into the 6 yard box where an unmarked Angelo Balanta nodded the ball back in the direction it came from and into the bottom corner to make it 2-0.

“We're keeping possession well and we're shifting the ball around quickly – Orient haven't got a clue what our next move is going to be and that's exactly how it should be,” continued the manager. “My only problem now is that all I can say is carry on doing what you're doing and don't let up. I honestly have no complaints about that first half so I have no points to make. Well done to all of you – particularly you, Robert – and carry on as you've started!”

Robert's chest enlarged as he was singled out for praise by his manager. In all truth, he knew that he'd played very well through the first half. He had Charlie Daniels laying eggs every time he touched the ball and Robert loved seeing fear in the eyes of his opposing number. Football was all about those little individual battles that happen across the park on matchdays. 99% of the time, the team that won most of the individual battles, won the game.

**********

Murray Park, Auchenhowie, Glasgow – Training Facility of Rangers FC

The rain pattered lightly upon the window of Walter Smith's spacious training ground office as he listened intently to the tug-of-war discussion happening between his Chief Scout, Neil Murray and the club's chairman Alastair Johnston.

“I'm telling you now, Walter; both of these boys have what it takes to be great players. We'd be idiots not to take them now, I think they'll end up at one of the better clubs in England or maybe even Europe,” Neil Murray stressed.

He'd been to watch these particular club targets himself and he was sure that they'd be big hits for the club if they could sign them; now it was just a case of trying to convince the club manager and chairman that they'd be worth the price that the club might have to pay for them.

“Neil, we don't doubt your judgement. We just worry that they'll be overpriced seeing as they've only just arrived at their new club a couple of months ago. We wouldn't get them easily,” Alastair Johnston stated.

“Well, I'm just saying, if it were me I'd make my move to purchase the older brother in January. If we can turn his head with the offer of challenging for cups and playing in Europe, perhaps he won't cost as much as you fear he might. After that, I'm fairly confident the younger brother would follow him here in the summer for an even smaller fee, if you wanted him.”

“Hmm... it's definitely something that needs to be discussed in the near future,” Walter Smith growled, his mouth covered by his hand as he considered all possible options and their outcomes.

“Trust me Walter. If you're reluctant to pay for both then at least buy the older brother – the club could do with a star central midfielder and his game is suited brilliantly to this league. Mr. Johnston; I tell you now that, with the right negotiating in the deal and then the right nurturing of the lad, you could sell him for ten times what it cost you to buy him. Get Colin Rudyard.”

Less than 10 miles away, Lennoxtown Training Centre, Glasgow – Training Facility of Celtic FC

“We have to sign him, John,” Neil Lennon pleaded. “Forget the cost for a second, we're talking about one of the most exciting prospects in football right now. Not only could he take this club to the next level – and then the next level after that – but he could also make this club some serious money.”

John Reid sat back in his chair and exhaled deeply. He'd read the scout reports and by all accounts this kid was a real player. The problems for the Celtic chairman though were that they were talking about somebody who hadn't even turned 17 yet. If he did fork out the money for him, it would be one hell of a risk to pay what would undoubtedly be a fair sum for a player so young. He'd lost count of how many youngsters had been tipped as the 'next big thing' and then, 10 years down the line, you hear of them retiring in their mid-twenties due to financial problems because they couldn't cut the mustard at the highest level.

“Think about what is best for the club in the long run, John. Success often costs money nowadays, but I'm sure this will turn out to be money that is very well spent. Please, put your trust in your staff, and buy Robert Rudyard.”

**********

Ceirdiff · October 24, 2011

The Rudyards at rivals :-D

Offspring8 · October 27, 2011

Perhaps one day

The second half was near enough a non-event as the away team sat on their 2 goal lead and attacked Leyton Orient on the counter. With some quick players at their disposal, this method suited MK Dons extremely well and even though they didn't have as much possession in the second half as Orient did, they still looked like the more dangerous side.

20 minutes from the end of the match, Charlie Daniels carried the ball across the half-way line, dragging Robert back with him for what seemed like the first time in the match. It had been a difficult game for Daniels because of Robert. The young winger had made a point of getting at his man every time he got a chance and he'd repeatedly turned Daniels over with ease.

The battle was typified as Daniels tried to knock the ball past Robert, who turned to face his own goal and got his body between the man and the ball. With Daniels doing his best to muscle past him, Robert put his studs on top of the ball before rolling it backwards between his own and Charlie Daniels' legs and spinning around him to collect it once again.

The crowd showed their appreciation and Robert wasted no time in setting up a counter-attack. He pushed the ball forward to Jermaine Easter on the half-way line. Easter played the ball backwards with a simple first-time five yard pass to Stephen Gleeson, who dipped a pass over Orient's back line for Angelo Balanta to chase down.

The young striker chased well and freed himself from his marker to go through on goal and give himself a good chance of grabbing a hat-trick.

The 'keeper rushed out and Balanta, full of confidence, opened up his body before coolly curling it around him and into the bottom far corner to give his team a 3 goal lead and complete a good hat-trick.

The team congratulated Balanta on his first career hat-trick as the management punched the air from the sideline. They knew it was game over and the three points were now firmly in the bag.

Leyton Orient – 0

MK Dons – 3

Angelo Balanta (17, 23, 70)

Man of the Match: Angelo Balanta

Att: 5509

**********

Colin and Robert both jumped out of their seats as they watched Nigel Winters thump home a free-kick from 30 yards out for Fulham against Newcastle. Nigel had refused to speak to the brothers about the match until they'd watched the highlights on Match of the Day that night. Because of this, the Rudyard brothers knew something big had happened for Nigel in the game but they weren't sure whether it was a good or bad big thing.

It was a fantastic strike that was being dubbed as identical to a free-kick that Cristiano Ronaldo had scored a few seasons ago against Portsmouth, where he'd struck the ball with perfect technique and managed to get dip, curl and power on the free-kick. The goal proved to be the winner as Fulham continued their strong start to the season with a 1-0 win over Newcastle at St. James'.

“We've just seen the goal mate, great strike!” Robert said after Nigel answered his phone.

“It wasn't bad, was it? Better than either of you two will manage this season,” Nigel joked. “I was pleased to get a goal against those Geordies as well. As a true southener, it was always going to feel good getting a goal in front of thousands of Geordies!”

“Tell him that he's not allowed to feel proud until he's scored against the Scousers,” Clive said, hearing Nigel boasting about his goal on loudspeaker.

“Geordies, Scousers – what's the difference, Clive?” Nigel joked.

“Scousers are much worse than Geordies son. They'd have the wheels off a jumbo jet if it flew low enough,” Clive answered, drawing laughter from the young footballers in his presence. He could have sworn he was born 50 years too early and should have been the 3rd Rudyard brother.

**********

Monday 27th September 2010

“I just absolutely love hairdressing, so hopefully I'll be able to open up my own salon sometime in the future – that's my dream,” Toni said enthusiastically.

Jennie and Liam had decided to treat their two sons and their girlfriends to a meal at one of the local restaurants. Ironically, it was the same Pizza restaurant that Colin and Toni had secretly visited just a few weeks earlier where Colin had promised his dirty little secret that he'd move away from England to be with her.

Seeing Toni slowly weedle her way into his family made Colin feel sick. He could easily see that she was using his younger brother just to make life uncomfortable for him, yet he couldn't say anything to anybody – it would simply hurt too many people. He knew that the only chance he stood of keeping all of this from coming out would be to move far away and take Danielle and his unborn son with him before Toni exploded.

“Sorry, I just need to visit the little girls room, won't be a second,” Danielle said, standing up to walk to the restaurant toilets. Being heavily pregnant, toilet breaks were now regular things for Dani.

“You know what; I was just about to say the same thing,” said that voice that Colin had grown to hate. He raised his head to look across at Toni, who was smiling mischievously. He could already tell that she was up to something, even as her eyes tried to hide the malice that was dangerously brewing within her.

Toni followed Danielle to the bathroom with her handbag upon her shoulder. When they were finally alone in the bathroom together, Toni set about her plans to cause trouble for Colin.

“Colin's popular tonight isn't he?” Toni said, trying to sound as innocent as she possibly could as she pretended to re-apply her make-up.

“How do you mean, Toni?”

“Well, did you not see those girls giving him the eyes earlier on tonight? They wouldn't stop staring at him, bless 'em,” Toni laughed. It was a lie, there had been no girls staring at Colin, but Toni knew that Danielle was vulnerable because of the pregnancy. Her hormones would be all over the place and she knew that Dani would be feeling insecure about things, so she just put her finger on that button and held it down.

“I mean, I don't mind it with Robert; he's quite shy so I know I can trust him. Colin's a bit more... 'out there' though, isn't he?” Toni continued. She heard no reply from Danielle and she knew that she was conjuring up images in Danielle's head. With that, she pressed on.

“I'm not saying he's a cheat, but he gets a lot of female attention doesn't he? A good-looking footballer who is popular with everybody that knows him, I think the amount of trust you have in him is really... cute.”

“You think he's cheated on me, don't you?” Danielle said, her voice shaking.

“Well that's not for me to say, babe. But hey, there's no saying he's done anything wrong is there? Just forget I said anything,” Toni said, gathering her things and placing them back in her handbag.

“It's just me and my big mouth. Honestly, I should really learn to keep it shut.”

Toni turned her back to Danielle and left the bathroom smiling. She knew that Dani was stood on her own with thousands of images of Colin being unfaithful running through her mind. She hoped that she'd reduced Danielle to tears and that she'd now constantly worry about Colin.

In Toni's mind, there was only one girl that Colin could be with, and it wasn't Dainelle.

**********

ScottleeSV · October 28, 2011

Lovely girl that Toni. Always said she was.

Nottingham Forest · October 28, 2011

How can you Offspring. The brothers potentially being divided by two problems . Great story still though.

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