Yunis couldn’t reach it, but Will could. His header slammed against the crossbar and out for a goal-kick.
Steve was bubbling at half-time.
‘Great stuff, lads. We’re matching them. Just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ve got a chance to win this.’
Ryan looked over at the Chelsea team. Most of them were sitting down.
‘They’re tired,’ Steve said. ‘If we can hold them off for another forty-five minutes, it’s ours.’
The rest of the team put their hands together in the centre of the huddle.
‘For James,’ Ryan said.
‘For James!’ the rest of the team shouted out.
And the whole United under-twelves team cheered at the same time. Ready for the challenge.
One–Nil
United’s under-twelves went on to the pitch feeling confident, strong and fit. And only a minute into the second half, Ryan found Jake with another pass. Jake made to run down the wing, hoping Yunis would be there for him on the near post. But, as he drew his leg back to cross the ball, he was tackled superbly. The Chelsea player who had tackled him gathered the ball and passed it to his team-mate, who launched it up the pitch.
Suddenly it was four against two. Four players in blue were sprinting towards James and Connor. And with a couple of passes they had cut both defenders out of the game.
Now it was down to Tomasz and his goalkeeping skills.
As the Chelsea striker brought the ball towards him, Tomasz ran out of his goal to narrow the angles and smother the shot.
But there was no shot to smother.
The ball was sailing over Tomasz. A perfect chip into the net.
One–nil to Chelsea.
The way the Chelsea players celebrated was hard to take. And even worse was the way the crowd of four hundred celebrated: they were mostly Chelsea fans.
United trudged back to their positions. They were losing.
But Ryan was in among them.
‘Come on, we can do this. Remember, they’re tired,’ he said to the defenders and then to the midfielders. He was trying to fire the players up. ‘We can be the first non-London team to win it,’ he said. ‘Do you want that?’
Once the game had settled down after the goal, the United players seemed more positive. Soon they looked more like a team that had just scored, not let one in. And Chelsea were playing deeper, defending. Thinking they could win it now by just keeping United out.
And that’s what happened.
United attacked and attacked for half an hour. Everything they tried failed. Jake couldn’t find the space to run down the left because the right-sided defender and midfielder were barely leaving their half. And as much as Chi and Ryan tried to pass the ball up the middle, they couldn’t get through.
There were ten minutes to go.
James glanced over at Steve. He looked frustrated and James knew why. There were no substitutes, no fresh legs. No Craig or Daniel. And Tony – the only other player left – had been injured against Arsenal the day before.
James wanted to start playing long balls into the Chelsea area, but he remembered both Steve and Ryan had said they should stick to their plan: keep playing the ball along the ground, keep passing.
Two minutes later it worked.
Chi collected the ball in the centre circle. He played it to Jake. But instead of running with the ball, Jake did something different. He drew the Chelsea defenders and midfielders towards him and suddenly drove the ball across the width of the pitch to Ben, who was unmarked on the far right.
Ben ran towards the penalty area fast. Very fast.
Jake’s pass had turned Chelsea inside out.
No one had got to Ben by the time he reached the edge of the area. Ben had two players to pass to: Will and Yunis, two strikers hungry for a touch of the ball. But Ben passed to neither of them.
He shot.
A low hard shot that rocketed past three defenders and the Chelsea keeper before they had seen it.
Goal.
The crowd had gone quiet. But slowly, after a few seconds, they began to applaud Ben.
Ben smiled. He looked over at Steve, who was clapping too.
One–one.
After congratulating Ben, Ryan came over to Jake.
‘Great cross, Jake.’
‘Cheers.’
‘Now you’ll have some space to play in. Attack them.’
Jake put his thumb up. ‘I will,’ he said.
Two Minutes
Ryan was right about the game opening up. Jake had loads more space now.
With two minutes to go, Jake took a great pass from Chi. It left Chelsea stretched. Jake touched the ball twice and found himself on the edge of the penalty area.
He had three options.
Pass it into the path of Ben on the far side of the pitch?
Hold the ball up and wait for Yunis and Will to get into the penalty area?
Or shoot?
Without thinking any more, Jake shot.
The ball powered across the face of the goal, past the keeper, towards the top corner of the net. But, just as it looked like it was going to be a goal, a Chelsea defender made it back. He managed to get his head on to the ball and deflect it over the bar.
Corner.
Ben waited patiently for the crowd to return the ball. Eventually they did. They were quieter now that United were back in the game.
Ben lined the corner up.
Jake watched him. He looked nervous with so many people standing near him.
Ryan was calling extra players forward. He knew this was the last chance they had to win the game in normal time.
‘James,’ he shouted. ‘Come up. You too, Connor.’
The ball came sailing over the penalty area. Ben had over-hit it. But Jake was waiting on the left. He trapped the ball and lofted it back into the six-yard box. The Chelsea players had started to move out of the area, maybe trying to get the United forwards offside.
But not quickly enough.
As the ball
