35 First Start

The trip to West Brom was peaceful and there was no trouble along the way as the players and staffs all did what they wanted on the bus till they got to West Brom.

When John and Tony were tired of talking during the trip, he removed his ear piece and plugged them into his ears as he listened to musics till they got close to West Brom's stadium.

The team alighted and went to an hotel to relax as they still had some extra hours for the players to refresh themselves a little before the time for the match.

Tony and John got the same room just like the previous away match against Wolves. They stayed in there rooms as they tried to regain there freshness.

The hotel room was also of a simple and cheap design, it wasn't luxurious with two single beds in the room and a Television.

The academy funding and the first team could not be compared, as they usually found ways to minimize cost on the academy teams.

When it was about an hour to the match they all moved to the stadium in the team bus.

West Brom under 18 academy stadium was just like most academy stadiums with a seating capacity of about 3000.

The fans present in the stadium for the match where over a thousand. Tony felt this was going to have a feeling of a real away match as the thousand or so fans were already cheering the West Brom players occasionally even before the match had started.

This was considered a really good atmosphere for the home team as there fans showed the zeal and desire for there team to win.

The Man City players all warmed up on the pitch in there training kits until it was time for them to go back to the away locker room and change to there uniforms.

"Keep calm and just play as if it were a serious training match, control your nerves and try to drown out the noise from the fans as this atmosphere is nothing compared to those you will face in an away game of the first team." Coach Taylor tried to calm and prepare the players for the match.

One of the most terrifying stadiums in the game of Football was the Anfield stadium of Liverpool. The atmosphere the fans created for the players were surreal, they were really the fabled 12th player in a match.

"Your journey is to get to the first team and not just academy matches, so let's go out and make sure we get the three points" Coach Taylor shouted while clapping his hands, the players immediately joined him in shouting and clapping as they felt inspired.

Tony was also motivated as he knew the atmosphere of this match was nothing compared to a first team match. He hyped himself up with the players as they matched up to the stadium tunnel that led to the pitch were the West Brom players were already waiting.

He used the system scanner on the West Brom players and discovered that there were mainly of average and most of there skills were of the C grade.

He saw some few skills of B grades and checked the conditions to copy them.

He decided on a player he saw had a skill of Strength B+. It had the match condition of scoring a goal in the match to copy the skill.

Tony felt the condition to copy the skill was really good, as he wanted to make sure he at least scored a goal or had assists in the match.

After a while, the match officials asked them to move on the pitch for the match formalities.

The fans of West Brom were roughly more than a thousand but they ensured that they cheered on the West Brom players, as there voices could be heard clearly on the pitch singing different songs.

After the match formalities the captains went for the coin toss to determine who kicked off the match. The captain of Man City was a central defender who Tony had since noticed had a rare leadership skill of B-, but he had not yet fulfilled the condition to copy his skill yet as he didn't see it as being urgent.

After the coin toss, Man City was to kick off the match as Tony and his team's striker went to the middle of the pitch.

Tony was really pumped for the game as this was his first competitive start of a game. He knew he really had to show his abilities to convince the Coaches that he could be a regular starter.

After waiting for some seconds the referee checked his watch once more before he finally blew the whistle to begin the match.

The striker passed the ball to Tony who then passed the ball to the players at the back to kick off the game.

Both teams passed the ball around when they were in possession of the ball as they tried to get into a rhythm for the match.

The West Brom fans were really passionate as any time there players had the ball they cheered and if they got a chance or half chance, they cheered and clapped for them to encourage them.

Man City also had some half chances in the game as they tried to take the lead. Tony was determined to leave his mark on the game as he tried to make chances for himself and his teammates.

Around the 13th minute he created a very good chance for his striker, as he attracted the attention of the defenders before he released a forward pass to get the striker one on one against the Everton goalkeeper.

The movement of the striker was very intelligent as he carefully positioned himself just onside before the pass from Tony cut through the space.

The striker ran with the ball towards the keeper who was now coming off his line to make the shooting angle more narrow.

The striker got close to the keeper and used the inside of the right foot to hit the ball towards the bottom right side of the net.

The keeper spread his legs and hands in an attempt to block the possible angles the ball could use to easily get into the post.

Unluckily the keepers left foot blocked the ball, as he pushed the ball away from the net towards the touchline for a throwing.

The Man City players sighed heavily at the missed chance to score the first goal of the match, but were encouraged at the signs of things to come as they had already created some half chances and a very good chance in the first 15 minutes of the game.