36 First Start (2)

After that chance, both teams upped there attack as they seeked to score the first goal of the match.

West Brom actually had two good consecutive chances, but the Man City goalkeeper was in good form as he saved the two attempts.

Around the 30th minute Tony finally had a chance for himself. He intercepted a pass from the defensive midfielder of West Brom as he began to run towards one of the central defenders in front of him with the ball.

He took the ball in his strides as he ran with the ball towards the 18 yard box. He looked up and chose the best channel he felt had would have a better attacking angle and ran towards it.

A central defender came running towards him to intercept the ball as he threw his leg to hit the ball while regaining his standing posture.

Tony who was moving fast saw the swing of the leg and easily dribbled the player as he nudged the ball a little to the side of the player while also moving with the ball and dribbled past the player with simple and sharp movement.

That simple movement disstabilized the posture of the defender as he wanted to hurriedly try and regain his position but lost his balance and fell down.

Tony went past him without any delay as the other defenders were now trying to collapse and cover the space between him and the goalkeeper.

Tony was still moving fast as he rushed towards the goalkeeper before the defenders could close down the space, he was now close to the penalty spot.

He knew he either had to pass the ball or shoot it soon before the other defenders all enclosed the space around him.

He raised his right leg to shoot the ball but saw a defender already in his front as he used the inside of his right foot instead to carefully and sharply move the ball towards his left foot.

The defender that was directly at his front found himself in no man's land as he had already lunged his legs towards Tony's right foot to try and prevent a shot. But Tony had changed his footings and was positioned away from the flaying foot of the defender.

Tony now had ample space to take aim at the post with his left foot while the other defenders were still trying to close in on him.

He used the edge of his boot were his big toe was positioned on his left boot to hit the ball towards the top left corner of the net.

The ball immediately went off the ground as it flew towards the net as the goalkeeper flung his hands as he tried to block the shot.

The ball hit the net as Tony scored a goal. He ran towards the corner flag before he slid on his knees when he was close to the flag with his hands spread wide and stayed in that position as his teammates rushed him.

All this actions seemed to have happened over a long time but they had actually happened in a few seconds as everything was done in a very fast speed. From the time he robbed the player of the ball and when he scored the goal, everything was done at a quick pace.

His teammates also ran towards him to celebrate the goal with him. The first player that got to him dove flat on him while the other players also jumped on each other as they layed vertically on each other on the ground as they created a human pyramid while shouting and celebrating.

This was the opening goal of the match and the players were really happy as they had opened the scoring. After a while they finally stood up one after the other and began to go back to there own half of the pitch to resume the game.

As they walked back they congratulated Tony and slapped him on the shoulders or shuffled his hair.

"Focus back on the match and pay attention to defence, good job." Coach Taylor's voice could be heard from the sidelines clearly as he commended the players and gave them further instructions. The West Brom fans had a momentary silence as they brooded over the conceeded goal.

The game resumed as the West Brom players supported by there fans moved with urgency as they tried to quickly get back a goal.

Without having possession, Man City payed more attention to there defense for several minutes as they tried to frustrate the attacks from West Brom.

Time moved slowly as the game went back to a stable rhythm. Both sides tried create good chances for themselves as they tried to score a goal.

Man City had wasted some chances too, as the West Brom players were now more careful with there defense. Most of the chances from both teams were Longshots as both teams crowded the boxes when they were not with possession.

Around the 40th minute Tony saw a chance and tried to close down on one of the midfielders to take possession of the ball, he stretched his right foot in other to hit the ball but the midfielder was very clever and sharp. As the defender shifted the ball further and used his body to shield the ball from Tony.

Tony had already lunged his legs towards the ball and couldn't retract it fast enough as he ended up hitting the player's foot and colliding with the player.

Both of the players fell on the floor as the referee immediately rushed towards Tony and issued him a yellow card.

This was his second yellow card of his short career, he got his first yellow card in the match against Everton where he had removed his shirt to celebrate a goal.

If he got 3 more yellow cards he would get an automatic suspension for a match. He wanted to avoid unnecessary fouls as he knew that there would be times where he would really need to foul players in other to stop attacks.

The leagues rule was that a player that had 5 yellow cards would get an automatic suspension from a game, And 10 yellow cards would get 2 match suspensions.

He didn't want to miss matches so he wanted to avoid doing things that would result in him getting disciplinary actions. Since he wasn't a defender or defensive midfielder it wasn't his major duty or responsibilities to usually stop attacks by any means necessary, he would just assist in defending when necessary and only risk cards when he was sure the chance could lead to a goal.