champion godfather

Chapter 38 The Natural Coach

On February 30th, in the No.4 round of League One, Nottingham Forest played against Crystal Palace at home. In the opening [-] minutes, the young captain of the Forest team, Michael Dawson, scored the first goal with a corner kick.The atmosphere at City Stadium was lit from the start.

In the next 9 minutes, Marlon Hellwood scored a goal to seal the victory.Crystal Palace only scored a face-saving goal by Andrew`Johnson in the No.705 minute.This person later moved to Everton after Crystal Palace failed to reach the Super League in the 05/06 season, and then immediately became the top scorer of the Toffees.At one time, there was still hope to compete for the Premier League Golden Boot.But in this game, he had few opportunities under Dawson's defense.

Nottingham Forest, which defeated Crystal Palace 2:1, has won two consecutive victories. Since the gap in the top half of the league standings is not large, the Forest team's ranking jumped to sixth. The advantage of the ball puts the opponent under him.

The sixth in the league is a very morale-boosting ranking, because according to the England Football Association's regulations on the relegation and relegation of the League One, the first and second in the league can be directly promoted to the Premier League, and the third to sixth are eligible to participate in the play-offs , to determine the last place to be promoted to the Premier League.

The No.30 second round match of Nottingham Forest was postponed to April [-], which gave the team a chance to rest and adjust.Tang En continued to implement his tactical thinking of "possessing the ball less and passing it faster" in training. Everyone has seen the results, and no one has any objections to this.

On February 22, in the No.30 third round of League One, Nottingham played against Stoke`City at home.This game left a very deep impression on Dunn, and it also left a good afternoon memory for the [-] home fans.

From the second the referee sounded the kick-off whistle, the game completely fell into the rhythm of the Forest team.

Marlon Halewood became the biggest contributor to the Forest team in this game. After the game, he won the best player in the game. Throughout February, he performed steadily and was also elected the best player of the month in League One. No. In the 13th minute, Harewood received a cross from Andy Reed and poked the ball into the gate of Stoke City, kicking off the prelude to the Forest team's massacre.

No. 204 minutes, 28 minutes, Halewood scored two goals in 4 minutes and completed his hat-trick of the game.

The City Stadium was filled with cheers for the 23-year-old England striker.Even Tang En didn't expect the game to start so smoothly.His fast attacking style of play completely stunned Stoke City and made them dizzy.

I thought that Halewood, who had completed the hat-trick, would take a rest, but he did not expect that in the last minute of the first half, he scored again!

When Harewood scored a goal, Twain suddenly felt his seat shaking. He turned his head and saw that everyone on the bench and the coach's bench jumped up, and Walker was laughing silly at him.

"4:0! Harewood is unstoppable. This is his seven goals in three consecutive games! The Forest team is also unstoppable. After five rounds of embarrassing situation, they have a big reversal and three consecutive victories!"

Stoke City completely lost their fighting spirit, just 8 minutes into the second half, David Johansen added the icing on the cake, and Forest led by five goals.

At this time, Tang En's opponent changed into a very strange number and face - in fact, Tang En saw everyone as unfamiliar, the difference was that he had heard some names of some people.Even the name of the person who came up this time is very strange-Kris`Commons (Kris`Commons).

This may be the only trouble that Stoke City has brought to the Forest team. After Commons came on the field, he was very active on the wing. His breakthrough and cross made Michael Dawson no longer dare to attack casually. Commons' main attack was on the left, and the Forest team's right back Thompson was suddenly lost by him.If it weren't for Stoke City's striker who has lost his interest in fighting, maybe they would have scored already.

Seeing the danger, Twain made adjustments. He replaced Williams and let Cash, who performed well against Wimbledon, play, and used Cash's excellent offense to suppress Commons' assists.Sure enough, soon Commons had to give up the offense and turned back to defense.

The crisis was lifted, the game fell into the control of the Forest team again, and there was no suspense in the remaining time.

No.805 minutes, Ian Jess used a direct free kick to set the score at 6:0 for the team.City Stadium is in a frenzy.

Fans have rarely seen such a hearty game in the past few years. Twain has regained their previous self-esteem and confidence.And this game also pushed Stoke City into the abyss of relegation. At the end of 33 rounds, they only accumulated 28 points, ranking second from the bottom. Before this game, they were still fourth from the bottom.League One stipulates that the last three teams in the league are relegated to the second division.

After hugging, celebrating and encouraging the players, Twain stood on the sidelines. He was no longer as excited as he was when he won the first time.He knows that three consecutive victories are just the beginning, far from the end.

The players of Stoke City bowed their heads and hurried away. Tang En noticed the kid who was replaced in the second half, No. 24 Commons.He bit his lip, and there seemed to be tears in his eyes.He didn't know if the kid was making his first appearance for the first team, and maybe the fiasco would leave him with an indelible memory, but it might be a good thing for him to experience failure.

This kid is very good, but it is a pity that he is not in the Forest team... Andy Reed lacks a good enough supplement. In case of poor form or injury, who should the Forest team start on the left side of the midfield?

Entering March, the breath of spring is getting stronger and stronger. Nottingham Forest seems to wake up from the cold winter, with new branches sprouting from the trunks and buds blooming on the branches.Their progress is still going on.

On March 12, the Forest team challenged Watford away.Before this game, Watford ranked eighth in the league, only three points away from the Forest team.After this game, the Forest team continued to consolidate their fifth position in the league, while Watford slipped to No.[-] in the league.

1:0!The Forest team scored a valuable three points in the away game, although the process did not look so convincing.Because the home team took the initiative from the beginning to the end of the game, it seemed to be a replica of the last Forest team game against Stoke City.But Tang En's gambit for the team before this game was to defend to the death, and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack.He succeeded, and Andy Reid's long-range strike in the No. 608 minute silenced the Vicarage`road`Stadium.

In this game, the Forest team had only four shots in total, two of which were within the range of the goal frame and one goal.For most of the rest of the time, they were pressed in their own half and struggled to defend the opponent's offensive.

John Mortensen, who was in charge of broadcasting and explaining the game, mentioned more than once during the game, "This kind of Forest team still won three consecutive victories. Is it the Forest team that swept Stoke City with six goals in the last round of the league?"

After Reed scored the goal, Twain kept his expression solemn. Walker and Bowyer were also worried that the team's goal would be broken by the opponent at any time.Fortunately, the defense led by Dawson withstood all the offensives, and luck also helped a little.In the end, the Forest team, which was slammed by Mortensen, won four consecutive victories.

No matter how miserable they were on the pitch, these guys could relax on the way back to Nottingham.

On March 4th, another away game.Forest beat Gillingham 1-48 at Priestfield.The performance of the Forest team in this game continued to surprise everyone. It was also an away game, but their performance was completely different from the previous game. In this game, they held high the banner of offense at the beginning, and then in the ninth, nineteenth, 52th, Goals were scored in [-] minutes.Four balls were completed by four people, they were David Johnson, Marlon Halewood, Andy Reid and Gareth Williams.

The hosts only scored a consolation goal in the 82nd minute.

The morale of the Forest team, which has won five consecutive victories, is high. Although their ranking has dropped to seventh due to the lack of a round before and the excellent performance of other teams, it has not affected the mood of the Foresters at all.Now everyone believes that at the end of the season, the team can participate in the play-offs for promotion. If luck is better, maybe they can be directly promoted.

Photos of Tang En directing the game and participating in the post-match press conference appeared in various newspapers and periodicals many times, and he was even named the best coach of the League One in February.Now almost the whole of England knows that Forest has the best manager who has been knocked out by his own players.

This was Tang En's first personal honor. Holding champagne and standing on the coach's bench at the City Stadium, he asked the Corriere della Sera reporter who came to interview him to take a photo of him.

He fulfilled the agreement with the president of Evening Post and accepted their interview at the most suitable moment.

The person in charge of interviewing Tang En was James Robson, the leading reporter of the Evening Post. Apart from a photographer, he also came with Tang En's "acquaintance"——Pierce Bruce, the gentle and gentle man intern reporter.Obviously he came to learn from Robson and gain experience, he is not the protagonist of this interview.

In addition to the recent five-game winning streak, the biggest focus of the interviews was on why the previous Tony Twain was so different from the current Tony Twain.

Tang En had already prepared for this question, so he called Professor Constantine, who hadn't played for a while, to the city stadium in advance, and several people sat on the coach's bench to listen to this old man who is quite famous in the British academic circle. Talking eloquently, he talked about Tang En from mysterious rumors one after another.

James Robson and others heard a lot of interesting stories, some from India, some from the United States, some from Spain, and even somewhere far away in Africa... But they didn't get "what caused Tony Twain to change so much" " best answer.Later, the reporter could only attribute everything to "mysterious natural phenomena that science cannot explain at present" and "that accidental impact".

Tang En watched the other party write these down in a small notebook, and he was very satisfied.I went to Constantine in the first place to prevent this move.It's just that he didn't expect that the person he found was an authority, and his words were so powerful.I introduced Constantine to the three reporters just now, and Tang En knew it from the way they looked at the old man.

The interview was a success, and Tang En was satisfied.There have been many happy events recently, and the chairman is also very happy with the team's performance, and has repeatedly promised him that he will be the head coach of the team next season.He became more determined that he wanted to be a football coach.

The three reporters were sent away, and Constantine returned to the stadium.

Tang En stood on the sidelines of the green grass field, looking at the empty red stands all around. Three cleaners were cleaning the stands. In the distance, there were turf maintenance workers who were mowing the turf to keep it smooth.They are preparing for the next round of the league against Forest at home to Grimsby.

The sun is good, and it is warm on the body.

"Professor. Did you know?"

"Ok?"

"My previous wish...was just to be a youth team coach. Like Paul, I was interested in cultivating young players."

The old professor sat on the coach's bench behind Tang En, crossed his legs, and felt what it was like to be a head coach.

"There are people who spend their whole life until they die, and they may not find out what they are really good at, what they really like, and what they should really do. I am much luckier than those people." Tang En turned and looked back at Constantine looking around, He smiled and asked, "How do you feel?"

"Ah...the field of view is not as good as it is on the top..." Constantine shrugged, "I don't quite understand why I can see the whole situation when I sit here. I sat in the box in the first few games, and there were things I couldn't see place."

"In fact, there will be blind spots no matter what you look at with your eyes." Tang En pointed to his head, "The head coach's overall view is here. If you are smart enough, there will be no dead spots here. Just like you put those cumbersome data , Formulas are all in the mind."

Constantine squinted his eyes and looked at Twain who was standing in the sun for a while, then nodded, "Tony, you are indeed the most suitable person to sit in this position." He stood up and vacated the head coach's seat.

Looking at the rows of seats in front of him, Tang En smiled: "That's right. I like this position, I was born to sit here."

(End of this chapter)