Principles
Principles
Even in England's third-tier team, only a few of the players who had been released by the club agreed to play full-time, and Twain did not promise the opposing club that any player would only play half a match at most. As a newly elected National team, the international results of this team were like a blank piece of paper to Twain, so his current attitude was extremely humble. Even in the media, he did not have any attention-seeking rumors spreading.
After the half-time break, Twain substituted four men at once: James Milner for Joe Cole, Michael Johnson for Mark Noble, Paul Pepper for Ashley Cole who had just recovered from his injury, and James Vaughn for Darren Bent.
Unlike the many substitutions from Twain's side, Martin O'Neill did not make any changes in the starting five minutes of the second half.
"It looks like O'Neill wants to win this game," Twain mumbled from the coach's chair.
O'Neill's thinking was very simple: Nottingham Forest's strongest squad needed to stay on the pitch for a while because his plan was to aggressively attack England's penalty area at the start of the second half to score early. If he made substitutions at the start of the second half, how could they even attack?
So, when the score was still 1-0 five minutes after the start of the second half, he was a little nervous. He got up from his seat and paced back and forth on the sidelines. At the same time, his mind was quickly calculating the possibilities and countermeasures for those possibilities.
If England's goal could not be breached in another ten minutes, then they would have to replace most of the main players to give them enough rest. At the same time, they would also have to shrink the formation, switch into defense, and face England. O'Neill had the confidence that it would be almost impossible to break through to the goal of his team given the weakness of the England team. Even if winning this match on a 1:0 score was below their expectations, at least they would have won.
What if England tied with them? Then he would replace a small number of key players, maintain a relevant amount of potential, and continue to attack. They would try to fight for the lead again.
Differently from the overly distracted Martin O'Neill, Tony Twain had been sitting at the platform with a peaceful mindset. He crossed his legs on the leather chair. England pulled back its defensive line as he had commanded to compress Nottingham Forest's space and time in front of their penalty area, which made Nottingham Forest a little uncomfortable. O'Neill wanted the team to look better in their style of play, so they were making a lot of short passes, especially in the midfield. This was not necessary for Twain, but perhaps O'Neill chose to do so in order to deliberately differentiate himself from Twain.
It was the same situation for another ten minutes; Nottingham Forest still failed to find a good chance to get into the England penalty area, relying more on long-range shots to try to score, but this also caused England a bit of trouble. At half-time, Twain asked the team to take advantage of Nottingham Forest's void, which had opened up due to their assisting side flanks. Yet, after 15 minutes into the second half, Nottingham Forest's two wing-backs did not actively assist the offense, which seemed to be O'Neill's intention. Bale and Rafinha only crossed the center line after the entire England team had retreated to their 30-meter zone.
So, Twain's side flank counterattack tactic could not be utilized.
Fifteen minutes later, O'Neill saw that his team could not score, while Twain's offense was not effective either, so he decided to make substitutions.
He substituted Cohen for Fernandez, Mok for Bentley, Gago for Shahin, and Ibišević for Agbonlahor. He also substituted four players at a time, but he did not change any players on the defensive line. He was very careful, not wanting to give Twain any opportunities.
Twain saw O'Neill's replacement and knew this was his chance.
So, he got up from his seat for the first time in the second half and walked to the sidelines.
Jeers erupted from the stands when the audience saw him get up and begin walking, but it fell on deaf ears. Twain simply shouted the names of the players on the pitch and signaled for them to increase their pressure on the other team.
O'Neill had George Wood to rely upon, so he wanted to turn the present Nottingham Forest into a team that could play beautiful football, a far cry from the fast passing midfield that Twain had stressed before. His efforts had been slightly effective: today, the midfield performance of Nottingham Forest was a lot better in comparison to the team's play before. There were layers on layers of offense as the whole team was coordinated in taking their respective positions in the offense, allowing Nottingham Forest's offense to be as smooth as a flowing river.
But this method of his did not have its desired effect in facing the England team that was heavily emphasizing defense.
O'Neill also decided to make some adjustments.
Forest's only goal in the first half was through a pass from the sideline, and now it looked like he needed to restore the coordinated attacks from both wings. He gestured on the sidelines to get Bale and Rafinha to go forward to support the offense.
This was the signal Bale and Rafinha had wanted to see to most. Due to their offensive mindsets, only attacking would allow them to get a sense of satisfaction.
After Bale passed the ball to Cohen, he did not wait to see the situation at the back to decide whether to attack. This time, he was very determined to step up and overtook Cohen.
As a teammate who worked together with him for several seasons, Chris Cohen also knew what Bale meant to do. Now that the coach had let go of the limits on the wing assistance and with his faith in Bale's attacking ability, Cohen passed the ball forward.
It must be said that the national team that Twain temporarily cobbled together had a big gap in strength as compared to Nottingham Forest. Jack Cook was unable to stop Bale's strike alone, and Ferdinand did not come up first because of their lack of chemistry. The two men let Bale rush past them just like that.
There was a huge cheer in the stands, cheering on Bale's breakthrough. They were eager to see Nottingham Forest score another goal because a 1:0 score was not particularly impressive. Besides, they knew that the opponent of Nottingham Forest was a rubbish team—they were a third-tier team!
Seeing Bale break through made Twain a little nervous. He knew Bale was usually like a little monkey that looked harmless to humans and animals, but he was a complete maniac during games, and his performance was steady and atypical of players in his age group. This was the reason why Twain had valued him initially, but it had also become the reason that he was greatly worried in the moment.
Mitchell would still be waiting in the penalty area; once he passed the ball in…
Twain raised a fist intuitively.
Bale passed a high ball, and this time it was Wheater who saved England and Tony Twain. David, who was 1.9 meters tall, prevented Mitchell from fighting for the header by actively jumping to head the ball out of danger.
The cheers in the stands immediately devolved into sighs.
Twain's fist didn't fall, because he saw another scene that he had been waiting ten minutes for.
Wheater's header did not fall at the feet of Nottingham Forest players but at Delphi's feet, and it was even more opportune that Delphi was playing on the same side as Bale. Because Bale had just gone forward to assist the attack, he was not able to get back to defend.
"Counterattack!" Twain screamed from the sidelines. For a moment, he forgot that he was at the Crimson Stadium playing against Nottingham Forest, the team he had coached for 11 years. His mind only wanted the jeers in the stands to disappear for a while, and the words in the deep red stadium tunnel resurfaced.
"Victory is all that matters. That is my way of life, no matter whether I change my team or not," he thought.
Delphi also noticed this gap, but he did not dribble the ball forward by himself because no matter how fast a person ran, they could not run faster than a ball flying in the air.
He passed the ball to James Vaughan, who only came on in the second half and was Everton's leading scorer who was also running towards the side flank. Although they hadn't previously trained together for a very long time, tactical literacy from his many years as a professional soccer player had at least given him the knowledge to take advantage of gaps in the opposing team's formation during the attack.
He and Delphi thought of this at the same time. He was just about to read the side flank when Delphi passed the ball over.
The wing-back spot was empty, so the center back and the defensive midfielder had to run over the cover that gap.
George Wood was as fierce as ever as he rushed to intercept Vaughan's ball. As a veteran opponent in the Premier League, Vaughan certainly knew what Wood was good at, and he didn't have the arrogance to think he could get away under Wood's drive; the smartest thing to do was to pass the ball before he pounced...
Wood knocked Vaughan over, but instead of whistling to signal Nottingham Forest's foul, the head referee raised both hands towards the attacking direction, indicating an advantage given to the current attacking team—the match continued!
Before Wood reached him, Vaughan had passed the ball to his Everton team-mate, Joseph Baxter, who just pressed forward from the midfield.
Nottingham Forest's center-back was still keeping an eye on the other striker, Fraser Campbell. Due to the assistance on the most recent attack, the Forest defensive strength was not sufficient; other than the two center-backs, there was only George Wood.
Baxter was almost completely unguarded.
Pepe and Tiago Silva made a mistake in coordination at this moment—logically, one of them should have gone up to defend Baxter while the other stayed behind to watch Campbell, but both of them ran forward instinctively when they saw Baxter receive the ball.
At that moment, Baxter passed the ball. He passed to Campbell, who was in front of him but still not offside.
When Campbell received the ball, he was behind Nottingham Forest's entire back line with no one around him.
Silva raised his hand to signal Campbell being offside, but the head and line referees were unresponsive.
Only Pepe turned and lunged at Campbell.
He was too late. Campbell had already broken into the penalty area, and Pepe could only manage trip Campbell in the penalty area as he reached out with his leg.
This time, the head referee and the line referee finally reacted. The line referee raised the flag and kept shaking, while the main referee whistled as he ran to the penalty spot in the penalty area!
"A penalty!" The announcer shouted.
O'Neill glared at this scene from the sidelines as he could hardly believe what he had seen.
The commentator continued narrating about Pepe who had committed the foul, "In the Champions League final he also gave such a penalty to Real Madrid. In this match, he gave another big gift yet again. Was Pepe trying to give Tony Twain a hand? Thinking back to the hug he had with Tony Twain before the match, what were they talking about during the hug?"
The surprised fans in the stands were expressing their dissatisfaction with the referee's decision by boo-ing. Perhaps some were even thinking that this had been Pepe's hidden agenda.
In any case, England got a "lucky" penalty just like that. Vaughan's penalty shot was clean and turned the score to a 1:1 draw.
Looking at his team's goal, Twain did not make the exaggerated celebratory moves on the sidelines as he used to in the past to provoke his opponents. He did not even applaud and simply stood at the sideline like a huge marble statue.
Taking everything into consideration, there was no reason to have a happy expression on his face or any excited actions, which would have allowed the England players to accept him as the new head coach. But Twain gave up this opportunity to deepen his relationship with his players because, deep down, he could not bring himself to celebrate while he was competing against Nottingham Forest.
Even in this moment, Nottingham Forest still was not the enemy to him and would never be, even in the future, because the England national team would hardly have a chance to play against them. They were supposed to be parallel lines that did not disturb each other, but fate had brought them together today.
He had not been mentally prepared to revisit Nottingham Forest so early…
The fans could jeer at him because they had a reason to hate him. He could also lead the team to victory over Nottingham Forest because he could not go against his work ethic. But at least he could choose not to celebrate after the team's goal, which might make his relationship with the fans a lot better emotionally.
But he could not make the reason why he chose not to celebrate obvious to outsiders, so he acted cool with a straight face as if he was disappointed in the team taking so long to even out the score. At the very least, he successfully deceived the commentator.
"Tony Twain doesn't seem to be satisfied with the even score. He still has a straight face even after his team has scored. He is truly a strict head coach. I can almost see the days of those pitiful England stars playing for him, ha-ha!"
Skinny Bill was still next to John as the die-hard fans were jeering to express their displeasure at the concession of a goal, and Fat John did not care about the outcome of the game. He had come here to see Twain, but all he saw was the man standing stock-still in the same position, not even lifting his hands or changing his posture, and John thought back to the past when Nottingham Forest scored. Tony Twain had been a lot more attention-seeking compared to the players who scored. He would do a backflip, slide on his knees, or even be buried under the players' embraces.
Such a scene would be impossible to witness again, huh?
John sighed softly, then turned and left his seat, heading for the exit.
"John? Not watching anymore?" someone questioned him, seeing his unusual behavior.
John shook his head, "Don't want to watch anymore." He slowly moved his fat body and disappeared through the exit.
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Fatty John left the stadium early, so he did not watch the play 20 minutes later during the 80th minute when Vaughan intercepted a bad pass in the backlines of Nottingham Forest.
The stadium was dead silent as if they had just lost the European championship. Those waiting to see Twain make a fool of himself and those wanting to overpower Twain were all shocked into stillness. Their minds were blank, and they did not know what to say. Even Bill had not thought that such a powerful team like Nottingham Forest could be behind on their home field against a third-tier England team.
England's players on the pitch were excited as they embraced, celebrating the goal that put them ahead. But Twain was sitting on the coach seat this time with no expression on his face at all. He was stubbornly respecting his internal principles of not making any celebratory moves for his team in a contest against Nottingham Forest.
But of the 50,000 people in the stands, how many of them could understand his ridiculous "principles"?
"This Tony Twain! This abominable traitor! This incorruptible, shameless Judas! You betrayed us! You betrayed Nottingham Forest! To think you can still look so proud of yourself and act like nothing happened when you are ahead of us, that is simply unforgivable! How do you feel about beating your past team, Nottingham Forest? Do you feel happy?" echoed in the minds of many fans.
They were no happy.
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PS. Today ended a little later – regular updating will be restored tomorrow. There is no choice, and not saving drafts is very difficult… it will be difficult for you guys and me as well. (To be continued… If you want to know what happens next, please log in to www.qidian.com where there will be more chapters. Support the author and support genuine reading!)