Football Spirit, page 7
And with that he disappeared, just as Alan rounded the side of the building.
‘Billy’s delighted,’ he reported, ‘I think he’s going to go around in circles for the whole morning with his new toy.’
‘I hope he doesn’t get dizzy,’ laughed Eoin, before he told him about his visit from Brian.
‘Yeah, and I’ll keep an eye on the Rock till you’re out and about,’ Alan agreed.
Chapter 29
The Ligouri College team arrived just as Alan and Dylan had finished putting in the corner flags. Their coach jogged over to talk to them.
‘The pitch looks fantastic,’ he said. ‘Your groundsman looks like he knows how to prepare a soccer pitch too.’
Alan grinned. ‘Yeah, I’ll pass that on, he’ll be chuffed.’
They agreed that the Ligouri coach would referee, as Alan couldn’t get any of the Castlerock staff to admit they knew the laws of football. Alan himself was one of the named substitutes and was huddled with the others when Eoin hobbled around the corner of the building just as the game kicked off.
Eoin noticed what his friend was wearing.
‘I love your socks, Al,’ he called, pointing to the woolly black and red footwear. ‘They’re impossible to keep up,’ Alan replied. ‘I’ll have to get some elastic for the next game.’
Eoin noticed that there was quite a few of the boys from the younger classes watching, and some even started chanting, ‘Castle-rock, Castle-rock.’
‘I hope Mr McCaffrey doesn’t hear that,’ he told Alan, with a smirk.
The chanting seemed to inspire the Red Rockets as they started to look more like a team than in the first game, although they were punished for a mix-up at the back and Ligouri had a one-nil lead at half-time.
‘We’re going well,’ said Dylan, ‘Just keep it tight in defence and we’ll surely create a couple of good chances for Ernesto as the game goes on.’
Dylan took Alan aside to say he would make a couple of changes fifteen minutes into the second half and to keep the subs doing their warm-up exercises.
Unfortunately, Dylan had to change his plan when Ligouri extended their lead just after the break and Theo took a knock shortly afterwards.
‘On you come, Alan,’ shouted Dylan as Theo limped off. ‘Ronan, can you warm up too?’ he added. ‘I’ll have you on in five minutes.’
Alan took Theo’s place at left back, which wasn’t ideal as he was really only able to kick and tackle with his right foot. But he was always willing to get stuck in with a task, so Eoin had no worries that he wouldn’t acquit himself well.
‘Pull your socks up, Alan,’ Eoin said as Alan next ran past him.
When he next had a chance, Alan stooped and pulled the socks up as high as he could, but they were far too big for him and they slid down his calves almost immediately.
A loose ball ran towards Alan, and he surprised himself at how smartly he was able to trap it and set off on a run upfield.
‘Give it here, Alan,’ shouted Richie, but the substitute saw a gap had opened up and he moved wider down the line. As he reached the left edge of the penalty area he paused before curling a cross into the box. The ball sailed over the heads of the Ligouri central defenders and fell to Ernesto, who picked his spot and powered a header into the net.
The Castlerock crowd erupted, and the players mobbed their South American star. It was only as they ran back to half-way that his team-mates realised that it had been Alan who delivered that perfect cross. They ran to congratulate him too.
‘And that was with your left foot!’ laughed Dylan. ‘That was amazing Al, brilliant ball.’
‘Right, now let’s get the equaliser,’ Alan told them. ‘We have them rattled now.’
Ligouri were certainly rattled, but they were a strong, experienced team and they allowed very little room for the Castlerock midfield to operate. The Ligouri striker hit the post with Charlie beaten, but the margin was still only one goal when the game entered the last five minutes.
The word had spread about Ernesto’s goal and the Castlerock support had doubled – even a few teachers were now looking on, although a couple watched from the windows on the first floor of the senior block.
‘This is amazing,’ said Dylan during a break in play, looking at the huge crowd that had gathered. ‘Let’s give them something to be proud of.’
Richie won the ball in midfield and beat his man. Racing in on goal he saw Ernesto was marked by two defenders so he let fly himself. The ball cannoned off the crossbar to a huge roar of disappointment from the crowd. But they didn’t suffer too long – the ball fell to Alan on the corner of the penalty area. He trapped the ball, took one look at the goal and curled the ball wide and over the keeper’s head into the top corner of the net.
Poor Alan was swamped by his team-mates, and could hardly walk when he finally emerged from under the pile-on. Happily enough he didn’t have long to worry about that as the referee soon sounded the final whistle on a sporting 2-2 draw.
Chapter 30
For the rest of the evening, Alan and Ernesto were mobbed – indeed all the Red Rockets got plenty of pats on the back in the dining hall and around the school. The younger kids all wanted to know when the next game was – and could they join the club.
Dylan had to explain that the football club was for Transition Year boys only, but he suggested they ask Mr McCaffrey.
After dinner, Alan – still in his football kit – ran down to the Rock to check had Brian any messages for Eoin. He was stunned to see he had two other men with him, one in the black and red stripes of Bohs, the other in the famous red shirt with white collar of Manchester United.
‘Hi Alan, sorry to give you a fright there,’ said Brian. ‘But I came across these lads and they really wanted to come and visit you. You might recognise one of them too.’
Alan looked at the men’s faces again, and sure enough he saw something in the face of the Bohs player. The ghost was a lot younger than the photographs in his hallway at home, but his features were unmistakeable.
‘Grandad?’ he asked.
‘I am indeed,’ replied Phil. ‘Delighted to meet you – Alan, isn’t it? – you’ll have to tell me all about your father and how he’s getting on.’
Alan smiled – ‘I think I can guess who your friend is here, too,’ he said. ‘You’re Liam Whelan, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ he replied with a grin. ‘I see you’re wearing a Liverpool shirt – you don’t support them do you?’
‘No!’ Alan replied, ‘I actually support Leeds United, but we have a school football team and I had to wear a red shirt – I borrowed this off my mate Charlie.’
Alan sat back against the Rock and turned to Phil.
‘We only found out all about your football career recently,’ he told him, explaining about his visit to Dalymount and meeting Alfie.
‘Ah, is Alfie still around?’ he asked, ‘He’s a lovely lad, but he must be a fair age by now. A great Bohs supporter and not a bad little player in his day.’
‘We brought Dad to meet him last week, he was delighted to chat to him about you and your football.’
Phil smiled. ‘That’s nice. I never talked to him much about it and he was more interested in cars and books when he was young so I didn’t push it with him. At least there’s one footballer still in the family.’
Alan blushed. ‘Nah, I’m not that good…’ before he paused, and added, ‘well I suppose I’m not bad – I just scored a cracking goal to force a draw.’ The football legends appeared to be impressed as they listened to him describe his score.
‘Well, I hope you keep up the football,’ said Phil. ‘This seems like more of a rugby school, Brian was telling me.’
Alan looked at Brian, before turning back to the footballers. ‘So why exactly did you want to come here?’ he asked.
Liam shrugged his shoulders. ‘We’re not sure, lad. We keep hearing about trouble brewing around our old stomping ground, as well as some talk of history repeating itself. Brian here got involved and told us about your pal Eoin and how you have a habit of solving mysteries like this.’
‘He’s right about that,’ said Alan. ‘Eoin has a knack of meeting the ghosts of famous sportsmen – we’ve met Dave Gallaher, Michael Hogan and William Webb Ellis and a few more. He’ll be delighted to add you to his collection. But they all seem to bring trouble with them…
‘But how did you know to come here?’ he asked the football ghosts.
Phil pointed down. ‘It sounds stupid, but it just came to me in a dream – a message to “follow the stockings”. I recognised them immediately.’
Alan laughed. ‘Dad dug them out of the attic, I think I’m going to have to get mum to sew some new elastic in.’
‘And get your dad to buy you a proper red shirt,’ suggested Liam.
‘I will,’ Alan laughed, as he prepared to leave.
‘By the way,’ Phil asked. ‘We must come and watch you play some time. What did you say your team were called?’
‘Well, that’s a funny story,’ Alan answered, ‘before we ever heard of you we decided to call them the Red Rockets.’
The two footballers stared wide-eyed at the boy.
‘The Red Rockets,’ Liam repeated. ‘There’s a name from the past. Well, it looks like we’ve come to the right place, Phil.’
Chapter 31
A few days later in the common room, Dylan opened his emails to find another message from the FAI, telling him that the Red Rockets had been drawn away to St Osgur’s in the Gillespie Cup quarter-final.
‘Your old buddies,’ he told Eoin. ‘I’d say they’ll be delighted when they see you on crutches.’ Eoin had played several matches against St Osgur’s on the rugby field, and usually came out on top.
‘Yeah, but I should be off the crutches by then,’ said Eoin. ‘I’m going to try to get back playing as soon as I can.’
‘That would be great, but there are no guarantees about your place. We’ve a lot of competition now, and it’s going to be impossible to drop Alan after his worldie against Ligouri.’
‘No worries,’ Eoin replied, ‘I’m happy to fight my way back into the team. I doubt if I’ll be ready for a while yet though.’
Alan joined the pair and suggested they pick the team for the first cup game, arguing that it would be good to play the eleven together against the next-best players in training that evening.
‘Just so they can work out where everyone else is,’ he said.
‘Right so, but let’s do it down the Rock,’ suggested Dylan, ‘that United legend might be back on a visit.’
Eoin hoped so too – he had been a little bit jealous that Alan was the one who was there to meet the footballers, although of course as one of them was his friend’s grandfather he was probably more entitled to be.
There was no sign of the ghosts at the Rock, but while the boys were discussing the make-up of the team, Brian appeared on his own.
‘Hey, Brian,’ said Eoin, ‘no sign of the star players tonight?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ Brian replied, ‘everything has quietened down on that front. I’m not sure where the lads even are this week.’
‘Maybe you need to wear your Bohs socks for them to appear,’ Eoin suggested to Alan.
‘I hope you’re wearing shin guards under those socks,’ Brian said. ‘The last thing Castlerock needs is another injury like Eoin’s,’ he added, nodding at the patient.
‘We might have another excursion to Dalymount once Eoin gets off the crutches,’ Alan suggested. ‘Would you able to come along, Brian? It would be great to see Liam and Phil again.’
Brian said he would see what he could do but again urged the boys to be careful.
Within a week Eoin was free of the strapping and crutches, and the pain had pretty much gone too. He was able to walk, but the school nurse advised him to hold off running for a day or two until he built up a little more strength.
He volunteered to act as linesman for the cup game against St Osgur’s, who were indeed delighted to see he wasn’t going to torment them on the pitch. The game was played in a public park far from the school, so there were no Castlerock supporters present. Mr McCaffrey had allowed them to travel in the school minibus, and he asked Mr Finn to go along to ensure the boys came to no harm.
The Gillespie Cup was designed to give schools that normally didn’t play soccer a chance to try out the game. Although St Osgur’s had been in the competition before, they weren’t very good and Castlerock were soon on top and had a two-nil lead at half-time.
‘That’s great stuff lads,’ said Mr Finn, who joined them in the huddle during the break. ‘But you need to put more pressure on their left back, he’s very unsure of himself.’
Dylan looked a bit puzzled. ‘I didn’t know you knew anything about soccer, sir?’ he said.
‘Well, I wouldn’t pretend to be more than a mere student of the game, but I’ve been supporting the Gunners for more than sixty years. They even used to win leagues and cups along the way.’
Most of the boys jokingly booed his choice of club, except Ferdia who was wearing his own Arsenal shirt.
‘I suppose you’re not used to seeing you team winning two-nil at half time?’ asked Alan, as the Gunners were famous for winning many games by a single goal.
‘I expect you to double the score in the second half,’ said Mr Finn. ‘And if any of you have forgotten my Maths classes from first year, that means four-nil.’
Chapter 32
Mr Finn didn’t get his way, but he was even more delighted as Red Rockets trooped off after beating St Osgur’s five-nil, with Ernesto completing his hat-trick and Richie scoring the other two.
‘That was very impressive,’ Mr Finn told the boys on the bus back. ‘And while Ernesto and Richard certainly took the plaudits, I was most pleased today with the performance of Charles Bermingham between the posts. I always think a goalminder is the most important position on the team and once you have a good one you can build a team from there.’
Charlie blushed, but Eoin was happy that his role had been highlighted – it was a team game and too often the goal-scorers hogged all the credit.
‘Who have we got in the next round?’ asked Cillian.
‘The Osgur’s coach told me we would be playing Springdale Secondary,’ Dylan replied.
‘Did we ever play them in rugby?’ asked Alan.
‘I don’t think so,’ replied Eoin, ‘that Andrew Jacks went there – he was the lad who missed out on the Wolfhounds trip to London after Marcus McCord crocked him.’
‘I wonder will we be at home this time?’ Dylan wondered, and asked Mr Finn if he might ensure they were allowed to host a game if they got a home draw.
‘I can’t see why not,’ he replied. ‘Hasn’t Billy done a great job on the pitch – and once the game is out of school hours there will be no disruption.’
And sure enough, next morning Dylan got confirmation that the semi-final would be staged on a ground of the Red Rockets’ choosing.
‘You’d better go and work your charms on Mr McCaffrey,’ Alan suggested to Eoin. ‘Tell him your ankle’s nearly better and you’re mad keen to get out there kicking the oval ball.’
Eoin grinned. His foot felt a lot better today and he resolved to get some light jogging to see how it had improved. He knocked on the headmaster’s door and was told to enter.
‘Hello, Mr McCaffrey,’ he started. ‘Can I have a word with you about football?’
Sitting at his desk, Mr McCaffrey peered over his glasses and lowered the sheaf of papers he was reading.
‘Football? I don’t know much about football, I’m glad to say,’ he replied.
‘Oh, it’s not that bad, sir,’ Eoin replied. ‘We had our first cup match yesterday – and we beat St Osgur’s five-nil.’
‘Five-nil? So just the one try in the game? That seems very low-scoring,’ he said.
‘No sir, it was football – and five-nil is quite a hammering.’
‘Oh, very good,’ replied the head. ‘Congratulations.’
‘Thank you,’ said Eoin, ‘and that’s why I am here. We’re in the semi-final now and we’ve been drawn at home. I was just checking that it would be OK to play the game here, on the back pitch.’
Mr McCaffrey frowned. ‘Hmmm, I’ll have to ensure we don’t need it for rugby. It’s very disruptive having football games here, so if you do play this here then it will be the last home game. We can’t have parents and past pupils thinking we’re no longer a rugby school.’
Eoin nodded, not keen to get into any deeper argument.
‘Thank you sir, I’ll check with Billy if there is any rugby booked in for that date. Even if we win, the final won’t be here so it will be the last game anyway.’
Mr McCaffrey was still muttering to himself as Eoin left, and went straight to confirm the fixture with Billy.
‘That date is fine, Eoin,’ the groundsman told him. ‘I’ll have the pitch looking like a snooker table by the time of the semi.’
Chapter 33
‘I see Bohs are at home again on Friday,’ Dylan read. ‘It’s an FAI Cup match.’
‘I know,’ Alan replied. ‘But dad is away on business and he really wanted to come. We’ll have to get special permission to go.’
‘I’d say we’ll struggle with McCaffrey,’ sighed Eoin. ‘He’s got a real downer on football, I think he’s terrified everyone’s going to give up rugby just because of the Red Rockets.’
‘That’s mad,’ said Dylan. ‘No one will ever shift rugby in this school. Why can’t he just let us have a bit of fun?’
‘I’ll see if I can catch him at the right moment – again,’ Eoin promised, before they headed off for another yoga session.
