Chapter 62 Meet Millwall Again (Part 2)

With a tingling sound, a dense sound of footsteps came from the direction of the elevator. Tang En, who was sitting near the window of the lobby, turned his head back.

The players who had a short rest were coming out of the elevator, and some were still yawning. Des Walker quickly walked out of the players, then turned around and looked at the elevator, urging loudly: "Hurry up, hurry up! Don't look like you haven't woken up, it's not tea time now!"

Since determining the goals and directions of the team's struggle this season, the man has also recovered his passion for work overnight.

Tang En looked down at the watch on his wrist. At 13:55, the team set off at this time. It was just right. He put the teacup in his hand back on the table, folded the newspaper on his knees and put it back on the newspaper stand next to his seat, then got up and walked towards the hotel gate.

It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon on December 17th, and they were at the Scotton Hotel in south London. A red bus with the words "Nottingham Forest" and the Forest Team logo was quietly parked at the door, waiting to take them to their destination Newden Stadium.

Seeing the head coach standing by the door and saying nothing, the players unconsciously trotted and seized the time to get in the car. Some players didn't understand why the head coach was unhappy when they just defeated their direct competitor Crystal Palace in the league?

Since training on the second day of the game, almost no one has seen Coach Tony Donn laugh.

All the team members got into the car, Walker walked to Donn and said to him: "Tony, everyone is here."

"Well. Where are the people from the coaching staff?"

"They left first, with equipment."

Tang En nodded: "Okay, let's go too."

Just as he was about to step onto the car door, he suddenly heard someone calling him behind him. “Mr. Tang En! Wait for a moment! Mr. Tang En, wait for a moment!”

"Ah, Bruce." Donn turned his head and saw a small black leather notebook in his hand. Pierce Bruce, a reporter from Nottingham Evening Post who ran out of the lobby panting. "Is there anything wrong?"

Bruce ran to him in one breath, supported his knees, bowed his waist and breathed heavily. After a while, he got up and looked at the bus, and said to Tang En intermittently: "I'm very...sorry, can't I let me take the bus?"

This request surprised Tang En. “Let the reporter get on the team’s bus…Bruce, your request is really… different from others.”

"Really, I'm really sorry... I've slept and my colleagues have all left. He... they must have thought I'm going to set out first." Bruce explained at a loss and embarrassedly.

"You can go and call a taxi." Tang En pointed to the street outside.

"I... my wallet was put in my bag. It was taken away by my colleagues..." Bruce said with a red face.

Tang En sighed, looking at this poor and unlucky guy, thinking that he has often spoken good things to him in the newspaper. Now he has difficulties and cannot be convinced that he doesn't help.

Walker got into the car and found that Done did not follow him. The players turned their heads and looked out the window again, so he jumped out of the car. "What's wrong? Tony..." He saw the evening post reporter standing next to Done. "Bruce, it's not the time for an interview."

"Mr. Walker, I'm not an interview..."

Don Eun interrupted him and said to Walker: "He is a poor ghost who was abandoned by his companions. Now he wants to take a ride."

Then he waved to Bruce: "Get in the car! You have to be glad that you are not a woman..."

There are some taboos in professional football that cannot be ignored in any country. For example, one is that women and players are absolutely forbidden to ride on the same bus. That would be regarded as an unlucky omen of failure. That is why Tang En said so. If Bruce is a female reporter, then even if Tang En agrees, the rest of the team will firmly oppose letting a woman get in the car and go to Newden Stadium with them - before important games. Everyone will become very sensitive and superstitious.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Tang! And Mr. Walker, thank you..." Bruce thanked the two coaches gratefully, and wanted to come up and shake hands. But Tang An slapped him into the car.

"Stop talking nonsense! We have been delaying for a long time. If you want to thank you, continue to speak nice things to us in the newspaper!"

"It must be..." Bruce stumbled into the car and saw a group of players looking at him with curious eyes. He waved hello with a little embarrassed look. "Hello, hello everyone...I, uh, I..."

Just when he didn't know how to say his shameful reasons, Tang En came up from behind and pointed at him and shouted to the players: "This guy is an unlucky Evening Post reporter who overslept and is penniless!"

"Woo——" A gloating boo and laughter suddenly sounded in the carriage.

"Mr. Reporter, tomorrow's front-page headline of Nottingham Evening Post must not be the news that we advanced to the semi-finals of the League Cup, but you!" Some players shouted loudly, which caused even greater laughter among the players. Even Donn smiled on his face, and he patted Bruce on the shoulder and signaled him to sit down beside him.

"No matter what you see or hear in this car.  I don't want to see it in the newspaper the next day.  I just asked you to take a ride.   I'm not allowing you to interview."

Bruce nodded: "Don't worry. Mr. Tang. I know what I should say and what I shouldn't say."

"That's good. I asked you to take a ride because I trust you." After saying that, Tang En stood up and raised his arms, shouted loudly, "Drive! Let's go to Millwall's home court to have those bastards!"

"Oh-!!" the players waved their fists and echoed in unison, and their sleepiness that had just gotten up from the bed was swept away.

Bruce secretly wiped his sweat. No wonder Don't let him post what he saw and heard in the newspaper... These things may only be disclosed when he retires in the future when he intends to write a private biography about Nottingham Forest or Tony Don't, or his own private biography.

The red buses pass through the crowded traffic on London highways. At this time, any road leading to Newden Stadium is estimated to have high traffic. Others do not pay attention to this game, but the Millwall fans living nearby pay great attention to it. They flock to Newden Stadium from all directions to watch the League Cup quarterfinals. Millwall has been half a season. She is still in the middle of the league standings. It is difficult to get promoted in this season under this situation, so they will put more expectations on the "unpopular hotbed" League Cup and FA Cup.

Along the way, you can see cars carrying Millwall fans passing by the Forest Team. When those fans wearing blue and white Millwall jerseys see the red Forest Team bus, they will poke their heads out of the window, wave their fists at them with porcelain teeth, raise their middle fingers, and shout swear words that can understand the meaning only by looking at the shape of their mouths.

When he saw these people, he would think of Mark Hodge. The middle-aged man who usually looked kind. Once he arrived in the stands, he would become an abominable beast once he was touched with alcohol. But even so, he was still far behind Millwall's football hooligans.

After Gavin's accident, Don Eun never heard the name of the man again, nor did he go to the Robin Hood bar where football hooligans gather. Maybe Hodge has left football, just like Michael; maybe he is still active in the stands. But he is an ordinary fan; or maybe now he is leading his men in a corner where cameras and police cannot take care of him in a corner in a metropolitan city in London, where cameras and policemen won't take care of them last season, and went to war with Millwall football hooligans who defeated them on the "battlefield" last season, for their glory...

These people are not only in football, but also in the entire British society, and are almost impossible to eradicate. No matter how the government attacks them, football hooligans who come from grassroots and are rooted in it will continue to develop the sport, just like the shadows under our feet. Maybe some people will sympathize with them, understand them, just like they were originally selves. There will even be people who support, envy, and want to join them. Become a new football hooligan, wave their fists, and fight for the honor of their own clubs and teams with enthusiasm.

Since the 21st century, domestic football hooligans in the UK have shown signs of recovery. They have learned to gather teams on the Internet to discuss strategies for fighting hostile societies and routes to their destinations, which has left the police unpredictable. Don Eun is not a saint who loves everything in the world, nor is he able to stop these young people whose minds are filled with a mixture of muscle and alcohol. He just hopes that tragedy like Gavin will not happen to him again. Last time he regrets not stopping the fight in time. Now he does not allow anyone to hurt his friends and everyone in his life.

Tang En, who came back from his meditation, suddenly found that the scene he saw outside the window had not changed for a while. He turned his head strangely and looked at the front and then behind.

The car stopped, and the surroundings were full of cars that stopped like them.

"Des, what's going on?" he asked Walker in front.

Walker turned around and shrugged at him: "I don't know, we're stuck here."

Tang En stood up and looked in the carriage. The players seemed to have not noticed something strange yet. They were all busy with their own affairs. Listening to music, closing their eyes to rest, making phone calls or chatting with teammates.

So he sat down again. He didn't know what happened before, but it was a traffic jam. Now there was no way, so he could only wait patiently. I hope it's just a temporary moment, and don't delay the start of the competition for a while.

He turned his gaze out the window again, and the traffic flow could not see at first sight, and at first sight. There were cars in front, back and left and right, and even if he wanted the driver to turn the car out, he couldn't find another way out.

The anxious car horn sounded more and more frequently outside the car, and Tang En was disturbed by these sharp and harsh sounds. A sense of ominousness suddenly appeared in his heart, just like the dark clouds in the sky, accumulating more and more.

When the bus driver couldn't help but honk the horn in anger, the players in the car gradually began to notice the situation outside. Some people stood up and looked around, some took off their headphones and pointed at the window and talked with others, while others opened their eyes from the nap and looked strangely at the stagnant traffic outside the window. Tang En noticed the little commotion in the car. He looked back, then waved his hand and pressed down, and said loudly: "Sit down and continue to do your business!"

The silence in the car regained its silence, but the puzzled and surprised expressions on the players' faces were unwittingly wiped away by Don En.

The dark clouds in his heart were gradually gathering because of the continuous whistle of cars outside and the traffic flow that showed no sign of moving forward again.

He looked down at his watch and it was half past two.

The game kickoff time is three o'clock!

At this moment, Walker's cell phone and Bruce's cell phone rang at the same time.

Walker looked at the number and said to Donn: "It was brought by the coaching staff..." and then pressed the answer button.

Bruce also looked down at the number and said to Don En apologetically: "It's my colleague..." Then he got up and walked to the front of the car to answer the phone.

"Hey? You're all here...we're still on the road..." Walker looked up at the street view outside the car window. "The traffic jam is... it's very serious! Yes, why? They're all warming up?" His voice became anxious, and he looked at Don Eun at the same time.

Tang En looked down at his watch again. One minute passed, and there were only twenty-nine minutes left before the start of the game!

It's so damn! He cursed in his heart.

On the other side, at the front of the car, Bruce's voice changed from small to large: "...Yes, yes, sorry, Mr. Robson, I've slept... I'm now? I'm in the same car with the Forest team, I've taken their team car... No, I think we're stuck in a traffic jam. What? Car accident!?" Bruce couldn't help but screamed loudly, then he turned his head and looked at Donn apologetically, hoping that he wasn't angry. "Are you sure, Mr. Robson? I'm sure... Uh, I don't know if I can..." He looked at the players who all stood up and didn't continue.

The players in the car could no longer be quiet at this time. They stood up in panic and looked around and whispered.

Tang En no longer asked them to be quiet, but in fact he could not ask for such a request. He turned his head and looked out the window, and the sound of horns that made people feel more anxious were endless. He forced himself to calm down in this environment. At this time, everyone in the team turned their attention to him, hoping that it was all about him. He was the team's head coach and the person everyone would choose to trust in emergency moments. He must not show any panic.

Suddenly he saw a building similar to the entrance of an underground pedestrian tunnel on the street ahead.

He got up from his seat and walked to the driver. He asked: "How far is we from the stadium?"

"About five miles, sir." The driver looked at the map shown by the GPS satellite locator on the car and replied.

Tang En nodded: "Please open the car door!"
Chapter completed!