Jamie looked on from the sidelines as Ollie slid in and won the first tackle. The midfielder instinctively launched a long ball into the channel for Ashish Khan to chase.

Hansard had drilled the tactic into them over and over again. It had worked against Oak Hall in the Semi-Final but, as soon as Ash and the Breswell defenders got into a race, it was clear the Breswell players were just as quick as him. Ash couldn’t get to the ball.

That was a shock. Ash was the second-fastest player in the Kingfield squad. Only Jamie was faster.

The Breswell goalkeeper collected the ball and threw it out to his full-back. Then the defenders began to play the ball between themselves. They had no intention of letting Kingfield get the ball back.

“Let’s get into these midgets!” Dillon demanded angrily.

But it wasn’t as simple as that. The Kingfield players sprinted forward and put as much pressure on the ball as they could but it didn’t make any difference; Breswell just passed faster. They never panicked.

Everything that Breswell did was one-touch. Pass and go. Receive and release. The Kingfield players couldn’t get near them. They were being toyed with.

“This lot know exactly what they’re going to do with the ball before they receive it,” Mike said, nudging Jamie. “That’s the sign of a good team.”

 

Soon fifteen minutes had gone and Kingfield had still hardly had a touch of the ball. Even when they did get it, they just punted it aimlessly into the channels for Breswell to reclaim.

“Work harder!” Hansard yelled at his team. He was going red in the face and was getting more frustrated by the second.

Jamie smiled ruefully to himself. The sad thing was, he knew how to make things better for his team. If he could get on that pitch, he could change things; turn the game around.

But, even though he was only standing on the touchline, he may as well have been standing on the North Pole. That’s how far away from the action he felt.

Jamie had his face pressed up against the window of the game. Even if he shouted at the top of his voice, no one would hear.