I left the car and approached the manager, his name was Richard Ellis. I reached him and the team, immediately he took me over away from the team and searched through his bag to find the captains armband, he said I was captain! And out the armband in my hand. You might think this is a dream to be captain but I hadn’t even played a full game of football in my life and now I was captain! The pressure was on. I didn’t know what to do so I rushed over to the sidelines and sat down taking a drink from randomly found bottle.
The referee then called over all the players. I stood up and had to take my duty as captain. The parents of the opposing team shouted for their sons “C’mon Shepperton” They exclaimed. The pressure was intense. “Captain” the referee said, I stepped forward and the coin was tossed. I chose heads and heads won. I chose to not kick off first. Why you might ask? Well I didn’t want to start looking like a bad team and I wanted to have a second half advantage if we were losing. The team didn’t react badly so I felt slightly more confident.
My mum walked over to me. She looked at me in the eyes and said quietly “All you can do is try your best”. Immediately I could tell she didn’t have confidence in me. She didn’t even notice the captain’s armband round my arm. This hurt me inside. How would you feel if your mum didn’t believe you couldn’t perform?
She annoyed departed her so I se turned to my team who were warming up. The manager gathered us all in to give us our positions, I was centre back. I walked over to my position and waited anxiously for the game to start. About one minute later he blew the mighty screeching whistle…
The game started with our team with a lot of the possession of the ball and after about 10 minutes we had scored! We were 1-0 up. After this I had a lot of the ball and I was playing fairly well and even clearing a ball off the line from a corner. The half went in a flash and before I knew it the referee blew the whistle for half time. “You’re playing well” the manager said to me. I was determined to finish “Man of the Match”.
The second half began with my team regaining major possession. We substituted keepers and two midfielders which paid off. Cheers went throughout the parents watching, including my mum. We scored again. 2-0.
I set up this goal by clearing the ball from a corner; it went straight to our striker who slotted home. There was only 10 minutes left and I could taste victory. “C’mon Tommy boy!” I heard a few times. I could see parents’ eyes opening as we applied pressure to the opposing team.
Their captain who had been quiet all game had a shot from out side the box. It hit Dom’s hand. “Penalty” I could hear from the opponents and their parents. The referee pointed to the spot. Instantly without time for thought the captain put the ball on the spot and ran up. He thumped it like a rocket into the back of the net. They had scored 2-1.
We kicked off again and with only minutes left, we managed to hang on- just! Their number 8 hit the crossbar from an excellent shot. We were lucky.
The game finished 2-1.
Our team cheered in glory but we had to shake the hands of the opponents. After shaking hands the manager awarded me with the Man of the match I wanted for the whole game. Also I was captain till the end of the short season until I left for a new team. But the best thing of all was in my eyes I had proved my mum wrong. On the journey back it was dead silent but I knew I was right and she was wrong.
By Tom Crossley
