"Boo!" As soon as Joshua's header found the back of the net, the home crowd made their feelings known.
The Teeside players however , didn't care about the sentiments of the home crowd. In fact, Joshua ran to where the majority of them were seated while tapping his head repeatedly. He imitated a diving header which agitated the crowd.
The other players ran over to him from where they were playing. Some of the defenders had to sprint the whole way across the pitch but none of them minded.
It felt good to score three against Manchester Red
The referee basically had to chase them back to their side of the pitch before they ceased their celebrations. He showed Joshua a yellow card for wasting time with his celebration but Joshua didn't mind.
For the seventh time in the span of ninety minutes, the referee blew his whistle and the game continued.
Manchester Red decided to abandon their defensive play and press forward for a fifth goal. Their reaction was expected but Steve seemed to have gotten them all figured out by placing the full backs high up the pitch.
76'
David Gore slipped a pass to Anthony Forson. The latter received the ball in his own half. As soon as his legs touched the ball, Mallory Walkers (Right Back) ran up to him and marked him.
Anthony Forson's leg flashed over the ball. He kicked it slightly to his right then cut back to his left again in an attempt to send Mallory Walkers the wrong way. His attempt did nothing however, the full back was still in front of him.
"Fuck it!"
Without a single care in the world, Anthony Forson kicked the ball behind Mallory Walkers and ran after the ball. Mallory Walkers did the same thing but Anthony Forson got there first.
As a defender, Mallory Forson did everything right. He put the adequate amount of pressure on the attacker, he didn't give him any space for movements. It was just that Anthony Forson was too... fast!
He easily sprinted last Mallory Walkers and he exploited the abundance of space that he had and dribbled all the way to the penalty box. He sent a cross into the box which was met by Emery Williams.
Emery Williams chested the ball and fired a half volley towards the post.
Every single Teeside players had their hearts in their match as they watched the ball sail over to the post. Just when they thought that it was going to enter into the net, the goalkeeper got a firm hand behind the ball and sent it out for a corner.
'What a save by James Lawrence! He keeps Teeside's comeback dreams alive with an athletic save to deny Emery Williams a second of the night!'
'I think that was poor defending there by Teesidd, a glimpse of how the entirety of the first half went. They were lucky there to be saved by their goalkeeper who might've just made the save of the match'
The manager started yelling furiously at the linesman after that. A few moments later; a change was made. Blake Sheldon came in for one of the center backs.
'And it looks like Teeside are pulling out the big guns here. Blake Sheldon is coming in for Conrad Bishop'
'Quality player he is, probably going to add a bit more calmness and organization to the defense now. Manchester Red are going to find it very hard to score a goal now that the big man is around'
82'
Jack won Teeside a free kick at the edge of the penalty box. Omari took the free kick using the curler and his effort was pushed outside by the keeper for a corner.
It took almost all of Omari's self control not to leave his mouth agape after his effort was saved. He could only go and position himself for the corner, at the edge of the penalty box, waiting for any stray balls.
Jack sent the corner into the box with a cross meant for Blake Sheldon. Manchester United's defense got in the way and headed the ball outside the box right to Omari.
Pinpoint Finishing!
Omari didn't even think, he just fired the ball towards the post with all the strength that he could muster in his legs at that moment.
To his astonishment, the ball didn't spiral out of bounds and placed itself nicely at the bottom corner of the goal, just beyond the late dive of the goalkeeper.
He watched as his shot entered the post, slightly deflecting off the bar as it did so.
Omari was about to go on a rampage with his celebration but then he noticed that the linesman had raised his flag up.
"What the fuck?" He muttered, as if he was in a daze. He immediately ran towards the referee and questioned the decision. "How was that offside ref? I was outside the box".
"Calm down kid". The referee said while walking over to the linesman.
"No! Answer my question!" Omari yelled at the referee. "How the fuck was that offside?!"
The referee looked at him for some seconds. "If you keep talking like that then you'll get a card".
"I asked a fucking question, why won't you answer it!" Omari didn't seem to hear the warning of the referee.
The referee fiddled around his pockets for a bit and pulled out a yellow card. Omari sighed and cursed again. Still, he could've continued pestering the referee if Jack didn't drag him away.
"What the fuck man?! Do you want to get a red card?" Jack screamed at Omari as soon as he got him away from the referee.
"I just asked him to tell me how my goal was offside!" Omari said defiantly. "A simple question!"
"He'll tell you after he talks with the linesman. The person that actually ruled your goal out, not the referee himself". Jack said. "Now get back to your position!"
'Looks like Omari was quite feisty there, demanding to know why his goal was an offside'.
'I don't think he had anything to do with that decision, maybe the movement of another player'.
'And the referee's announced the reason. It turns out that Anthony Waller was offside when Omari took the shot and he was right in front of the keeper, blocking his vision'
'Well that's real unlucky for Omari and Teeside. That was an absolute banger of a goal'
For the rest of the second half, Teeside continued to press for an equalizer that never came. At the end, the referee blew his whistle and the match was over.
Manchester Red won. Teeside lost.
A/N: Can't believe that Teeside lost. Really thought I was going to make it a classic comeback story when I started this chapter.
Oh well, it is what it is I guess.