Jamie stared at his own thumb, rubbing it softly against his finger. Then he raised his hand to his forehead to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun. He was trying to look for his dad in the stands but he couldn’t see him.

Jamie’s mum was there, though, and she thought he was looking for her. She started jumping up and down and waving back to Jamie. She even blew him a kiss. So embarrassing.

“Look at that!” said Mike, elbowing Jamie in the ribs. “Breswell’s right back has just swapped positions with their central midfielder – that’s what you call total football!”

Jamie nodded but he wasn’t scared of them. Even though Breswell were by far the best team Kingfield had come up against, he still felt sure that he could cause them problems with his pace.

“Eh, and I’ll tell you something else,” said Mike, nodding towards the Breswell goal. “Their keeper – have you noticed anything about him?”

“No, why?” said Jamie.

“He never kicks the ball out; always throws it to one of the full-backs. That’s because they’re trying to keep it on the deck.”

The Breswell keeper had the ball in his hands. Jamie studied his movements. He watched the keeper bounce the ball once on the ground and then again, waving the outfield players forward as though he were going to kick it.

But Mike was right – he didn’t kick it. Instead, he quickly bowled the ball out to the right full-back, who had dropped deep to collect it. It must have been something that they’d worked on in training.

Jamie wondered how long he would have taken to notice that tactic if Mike hadn’t pointed it out.

And, more importantly, he wondered whether Hansard had spotted it at all.