‘What if we were playing basketball?’ I said quickly.

The half-time break wasn’t very long. If we were going to play better, we had to think of something fast.

‘That’s the problem!’ groaned Callum.

‘But you don’t always win at basketball, do you?’ I said, my hands on my hips. ‘What happens when you’re losing a game of basketball?’

Callum’s and Angie’s eyes met. I could see new ideas forming in their minds.

‘Well, our coach would make some changes,’ said Angie.

She and Callum started talking quickly, their heads together, arms gesturing.

After a while, they turned to the rest of the team with a new plan. Callum and Angie swapped some of our players around – Angie as centre, and Callum on defence with Mickey and me.

Angie turned to me and smiled. ‘Alex,’ she said, ‘stick to your player like glue.’

I nodded. Then Callum called to the team, ‘OK, let’s do it!’

‘YEAH!’ we all cried, and raced onto the court. We were pumped and keen to win.

My player moved fast. My throat was dry from puffing. My cheeks were burning hot. But nothing could shake me off her. I was like superglue. Wherever she went, I went too.

The changes Angie and Callum had made to our positions were working, and our team’s hope seemed to lift. Before I knew it, Claire had scored. Our team cheered as if we had won. Because now we thought we could win.

Again we scored. And again. Suddenly it almost seemed easy. By three-quarter time, we were only six goals behind. The gap was closing.

Soon we were only five goals down.

With only a minute to go, we were two goals down. We had a chance to win!

But the other team had the ball. They were about to score. Up went the ball, hovering on the side of the ring. But it didn’t fall in.

It fell off the ring, straight into Callum’s hands. Our team cheered!

I’m not sure what happened then. My player was running, trying to dodge me. I was being superglue. As my player ran into a gap, I heard Callum calling my name. ‘Aleeeeex!’

This was it! The ball was flying towards me. I gulped and tried not to close my eyes. A thought flashed through my head.

I have to catch this. I have to –

But the ball didn’t touch my fingers.

Like a cat leaping at a toy, my player plucked the ball from the air. I gasped – not just from surprise, but also because of what it meant.

The ball, the game, everything was suddenly out of my hands.

Before I knew it, the ball was falling through the other team’s goal. Oh no. That was my fault.

With wide eyes I stared at Callum. Would he yell at me for losing the ball? Or worse, would he wish I wasn’t on the team?

But Callum was already running back to his starting position. ‘Never mind, Alex,’ he called.

Behind me Becky called out, ‘Good try, Alex.’

No-one seemed to blame me for losing the ball. I kept my head down and kept playing. The rest of the team were acting as if we could still win. But there was no time to catch up.

Our chance to win was gone.