Chapter 62 Meet Millwall Again (Part 1)

The match between Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace was over, and the home team defeated their opponents 2:1 with Rebrov's resurrection, widened the gap between them and the relegation zone.

After the game, almost all Nottingham media reported on this game, and all the players of the Forest team became heroes, especially Rebrov, who was praised by the media. The media praised him for becoming a Premier League player again and regaining his former form.

What about Tony Donn, who directed all this? He found the photo of Rebrov talking alone on the court at halftime and had already made headlines in the newspaper. The reporters interviewed Rebrov, who was the first to be elected in the game after the game, and asked him what coach Donn said to him during the halftime and halftime.

Rebrov smiled and said, "It's nothing. He just asked me to retreat and then let me play football for myself. I saw a completely different world."

"...This is Tony Donn, who has the ability to turn decay into magic. During the game, the TV commentator said that he was a magician, and I deeply agree with this. Look at Collimore's Forest Team, and then look at Tony Donn's Forest Team. Everyone is still the same, but the team is completely different. We got a key three-pointer and restored morale. Listen to the cheers in the city stadium, Nottingham Forest is slowly waking up!"

The driving tram was shaking gently, the carriage was empty, and several old men squinted their eyes and napping. The tram was passing through the suburbs of Nottingham, and there were almost no car whistles outside, and even pedestrians were scarce. It was Sunday morning, and Tang En sat on the tram to the town of Hawkner. Outside the car was a quiet countryside field. He looked outside and looked inside. A passenger opposite held a newspaper that was launched this morning and looked at it attentively. The side facing Tang En had his own photos and large titles:

"Tony Donn is back!"

Seeing this scene, Tang En chuckled softly.  It sounded like "Superman Returns".   He returned to the front page headlines, and it felt really good to be admired and followed...

On this quiet morning, inside the empty tram, it was completely different from the tsunami-like atmosphere of the city court yesterday. Tang En leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes to reminisce about the game just passed.

I'm back, and this time I will never leave easily.

Accompanied by a crisp jingle bell, the tram stopped shaking. Tang En opened his eyes and saw the church spire on the hillside, and his destination arrived.

Jumped out of the tram.   Tang walked towards the church.

He hasn't been here for a while since summer came. Half a year has passed in a blink of an eye, and he is not the unemployed coach Tony Done who was confused and unable to see the direction of his progress.

Because of Gavin, he decided to stay in the Forest team and wait for the opportunity to return to the coaching seat of the city court. Now he is back and leads the team to win again, so he returns here again.

For him, the cemetery behind the gray brick church is the starting point of another journey. When he is about to strode forward, he should return here to re-confirm the direction.

Although it seemed very close, there was still a distance uphill from the tram station to the church. Donne bought a bunch of lilies in a deserted flower shop on the street, held it in his hand and thought about it. He also took out a card from the store, took out a pen and wrote:

——To Nottingham Forest’s most loyal fans, George Wood’s eternal supporter: Gavin Bernard.

A group of children were playing football in the green space in front of the church, and several of them were wearing red forest team jerseys. They shouted and fought for a ball. When someone shot the football through the middle of two piles of clothes, they would imitate the stars to make various celebration moves.

When they were young, Tang En often played like this. But they did not play such a good lawn, but on the dam used to dry the grain in their hometown, holding schoolbags, bricks, broken shoes, clothes, baskets... In short, everything that can be moved is used as a goal, and then a group of children chased a broken ball on it. From Tang En's current perspective, even the best "star" among the people who played the best in the group when they were young was actually very terrible. But everyone was happy to play. Next to the dam is a pond for raising ducks, and people often accidentally kicked football into the lake. The ball was played very badly, but Tang En was good at water and was always the one who went to the lake to catch the ball.

When he arrived in high school, he went to school in the boarding middle school in the city. There were no simple dams and ponds and special courts, but Tang En stopped playing football and only watched others play on the sidelines. The same was true when he arrived in college. Until now, he was used to standing on the sidelines watching others play football, and found a completely different sense of fun and accomplishment from playing football in person.

Tang En stayed by the group of cute children for a while before continuing to move forward. He walked around the deserted church and turned into the path in the forest.

The cemetery is even more deserted than the church. It is surrounded by dense woods, and the temperature seems to be one or two degrees lower than outside. Tang En wrapped his coat tightly and walked straight to Gavin's grave.

He was a little surprised when he saw clearly a bouquet of lilies in front of the tombstone. There were still water droplets hanging on the fresh petals, and the person who placed it here was obviously just leaving. Tang En looked up at the cemetery, and there was no figure.

He lowered his head and noticed that there was also a card in the bouquet, so he picked it up. There was only one sentence on it:

Give to Gavin.

Without the signature, the name of the Gangwen was misspelled. Looking at the crooked and skewed, it was not as good as the handwriting of a primary school student, Tang En smiled.

He put the bouquet down again and carefully placed his bouquet beside him. After doing this, he took out the cigarette from his coat pocket and prepared to take a sip. The fire was fired out, but he was stunned when he looked at the jumping flame, and then took out the cigarette in his mouth and inserted it back into the cigarette box.

He just forgot that there was a child around him.

So he squatted down again and looked at the lines of small words under the tombstone.

When Michael said to him at the bar, "Tony, I won't go to the game tomorrow. I won't go in the future." He looked calm, as if he was talking about someone who had nothing to do with him. At that time, Don En thought his heart would be dead, and even... he no longer loved football, but hated football. Because football took away his favorite son.

When Michael told him that he was going to the United States that day, he was even more determined by Donn's idea. He hated football and wanted to escape.

But when he later saw the small-line character at the bottom of the tombstone, all the impression Michael left him before was overturned in an instant.

He loves his son so deeply and loves football so deeply. He must have buried this love deep in his heart, and then added a lock and never touched it again, whether it was someone else or himself.

Tang En swept away a dead leaf that fell to the front of the tombstone. Then he stood up and turned away from the inconspicuous small tombstone.

The Forest will resume training in the afternoon. Three days later, on December 17, in London, on the south bank of the Thames River, Newden Stadium, where they will challenge the England League Cup quarter-final opponent, Millwall.

That was a game that Tang En could never lose!

In the afternoon, he returned to the club training ground. He went to the reserve team before the team training. On the side of the reserve team's training ground, he saw Gareth Taylor, and the other party also saw him. From his eyes, he seemed to be a little dissatisfied with the young head coach.

But it doesn't matter... If you don't agree, you won't agree, boy. I just need you to score a goal for me.

He waved to Taylor. The reserve coach called the big man down.

Tang En looked at Taylor, who was standing in front of him, slightly taller than him, and then turned around and prepared to leave. “Follow me.”

Taylor didn't move: "Where to go?"

Tang En turned his body halfway, and he turned his head to look at Taylor. He turned back and stretched out his two fingers: "I'm not in a good mood now, so I'll give you two choices: one, follow me and don't ask anything; two, you can continue to stay here until the winter transfer market opens. Choose yourself."

After saying that, Tang En no longer looked at the stunned big man and turned around and walked away.

Taylor didn't expect Tang En to leave so resolutely, and he was stunned for a moment. The reserve team coach patted him gently: "Don't you keep up?"

Taylor, who was awakened by dreams, then trotted and chased after him. Then he followed Tang En silently, and the two walked to the side of the first team training ground. At this time, the players were already on the court ready to warm up.

Done stopped on the sidelines, while Taylor ran to the training ground very consciously, and never dared to ask the head coach with a gloomy face again.

The players were not surprised that Taylor returned to the team. Now there is a shortage of people on the front line, so it is natural for Taylor to return, who keeps scoring goals in the reserve team.

Walker saw Donn, who was standing on the sidelines, pursing his lips tightly, and walked over.

"Des.   See his training performance.  If possible, put it into the team's roster.   We play 451.   He is an important figure in defensive counterattack.    Let the team practice this formation and tactics in these two days." Seeing Walker coming, Don said to him.

Walker nodded, and saw that Tang En was not in high spirits, he walked back. When he returned to the training ground, he blew the whistle in his mouth and shouted loudly: "Okay, guys! We started training. Don't think that you can live a better life if you win the ball! We are all nervous. From now on, you will pay the price for the debts you owe in the past four months! Pay it back desperately!!"

Hearing Walker shouting, looking at the players who jumped up, a smile appeared on Don Eun's face.

In fact, with Nottingham Forest's poor performance in the league, it is really amazing that they were able to pass the hurdles and reach the quarterfinals of the League Cup. Collimore is not useless, at least Don Eun has to thank him for leading the team to this point.

Originally, a week ago, when the Forests changed coaches, major bookmakers were not optimistic about the odds given by the hospitality team Nottingham Forest. But after Tang En led the team to win Crystal Palace and returned perfectly, the bookmaker's goal immediately made an odds adjustment.

Among them, the odds offered by William`hill, the leader of British gambling companies, are the most representative.

Although the Forest team won a game, many people were optimistic about him again, considering their away game and the team's new coach change, the situation was unstable, and it only slightly increased the odds of the away team's victory place.

The odds for the Forest team's away game were from one to three, and the odds for one to two.

Done doesn't bet on football, and he doesn't like to bet on football either. But from this betting odds that have been perfectly integrated into British football, we can still understand the current situation. To put it bluntly, although the team has just won, there are still not many people who are optimistic that they can beat Millwall away. By the way, the odds of winning the League Cup by major bookmakers for Nottingham Forest are also slightly higher than their current opponent Millwall.

What does high odds mean? It means that bookmakers and the public are not optimistic about them.

For example, in a game, the home teams of both parties are Manchester United, and the away team is a debt-ridden amateur team that cannot afford the hotel fee. Then the home team's odds are one point or one, while the odds of the away team's winning odds are one point or one. The odds of the former are low because Manchester United are too strong and there is almost no suspense to win. In order not to lose money, the bookmakers give this odds. Everyone knows that this result is easy to make. Although they invest money to buy and invest 100 pounds, they can only make ten pounds. Although they make little money, the price is stable and not to lose. The latter has high odds. Although you invest 100 pounds, you can get 1,100 pounds if you win, but the probability of such a result is too low. So a team with high odds means that they are not favored.

This quarter-final of the England League Cup is actually the least attractive of the four games. What is the point of playing two teams in the second-tier England League? In the other three games, two Premier League teams fought each other, and in another game, the participating team is the Arsenal team, which is loved by everyone and has beautiful football.

Apart from their respective fans, who will come to watch this quarterfinal?

A cup of black tea with an attractive aroma was placed on the table by the window. The window was cloudy and the sky was dull, and it seemed that it would rain at any time. But this did not affect the leisure and leisure of the cup of tea holding the newspaper in his hand, crossing his legs and leaning against the sofa, and focusing on reading the newspaper. If the weather was clear, it would be a wonderful afternoon tea time.

He put down the newspaper, stretched his waist, then leaned on the sofa, picked up the black tea and turned his head to look out the window. It was leisurely like an ordinary traveler, and the noisy lobby where he was and the people who were busy walking around him were two completely different parallel spaces.

For Nottingham Forest coach Tony Donn, this is a rare pre-game leisure time.
Chapter completed!