Hot Prospect by Cindy Jefferies Page A

play, Dan?”
    Roddy’s dad nodded. “They’ve got a midfielder you’ll need to watch out for,” he told the team. “He’s almost as quick as you, Roddy. But their defence is a bit weak – they allwant to be goal scorers. If you can get past that midfielder, you should be OK.”
    â€œBryn, make sure you back up Roddy, and Ella, more of those long passes would be excellent,” said their coach. “Manor Primary must be good, otherwise they wouldn’t be in the final, but we can beat them if we play our best.” He rubbed his hands together. “Time to go. Good luck, everyone.”
    All the parents, teachers and pupils from the losing teams were making their way over to watch. Roddy pulled his socks well up and checked the laces on his boots. He took a few deep breaths. The Manor Primary team had arrived, and the referee was ready.
    Valley Primary, in red, lined up opposite the Manor Primary players in blue, both sizing each other up. With only ten minutes of football between him and the chance to lift a real trophy, Roddy wasn’t going to let any ofhis team-mates slack off now.
    â€œYou heard Mr Taylor,” he said. “The way to beat this lot is to let them come at us, then strike when they’re exposed at the back. Strong defence and counterattacking, that’s the stuff. Now, let’s show them how to play!”
    From the kickoff, Manor Primary have made their intentions clear, and are really going at the red defence, forcing Jones back to help out his team-mates. But with such a fierce assault, Manor is leaving dangerous gaps at the back, and Jones will look to take full advantage
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    The reds’ goalie manages to hold onto the muddy ball, and launches it over the heads of the Manor team, to where Jones is sprinting into unmarked space. The blues are streaming back to chase him, and gaining on the lone attacker. Jones has run his heart out today, and with the rain beginning to come down,his pace is fading. Just as he shapes to shoot, a blue shirt catches up and clatters into him from behind, clearly with no intention of playing the ball. The ref’s whistle shrills immediately, and he gives the defender a good talking to, but the free kick comes to nothing and the chance is wasted
.
    The reds are back struggling in their own half, unable to play under the constant pressure from the blues. As the first half draws to a close, the reds seem to be cracking. The ball is floated in from the flanks, and Flowers, in the Valley goal, only succeeds in punching as far as the blue midfielder lurking on the edge of the box, who avoids a tackle, and slots the ball into the bottom corner of the net. 1–0 to Manor Primary. The ref looks at his watch, and blows a long blast to signal the end of the half
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    There was a short rest before play began again.
    â€œYou all right, mate?” Bryn asked Roddy anxiously. “That was a horrible tackle. He should’ve been sent off.”
    â€œI’m fine,” said Roddy. “It’s just a pity we didn’t get a goal out of it.”
    Ella Flowers was sitting on her own, blaming herself for the ball she’d let in, but Roddy did his bit to cheer her up.
    â€œCome on,” he said. “One goal will get us back in the game, and they’ll be rattled then. We can still win this!”
    The ref was waving them back onto the pitch, and Roddy’s monologue resumed.
    The reds have left themselves a mountain to climb, but if anyone can inspire a reversal of fortunes, it’s Jones. He plays the ball out to Thomas, in his customary position wide on the right, and moves up the pitch in unison with his vice-captain
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    Thomas splits the defence with a magicalthrough-ball, leaving Jones one on one with the keeper. He runs forward until he can see the whites of the goalie’s eyes. Then, with a cheeky little shimmy, he leaves the keeper sprawling as the ball spins into the back of the net.