As an outsider, Tang En did not know much about the feud between the two teams that had lasted for nearly a century and a half. He was more willing to turn this rivalry into Notts County's jealousy of Nottingham Forest's achievements. After all, Nottingham Forest had won two of the highest honors in Europe and had been in the top tier of the domestic league for a long time. They had won more honors than Notts County.
In Nottingham, Notts County had always represented the people of the lower class. The black and white jerseys, the club's finances that had never shaken off the financial crisis, and the fact that they played in the lower leagues … all of these were very much in line with the image of the miners. Just like the two teams in Madrid, Real Madrid and Atlético Madederi, Nottingham Forest represented the wealthy middle class in Nottingham, while Notts County was the spiritual support of the poor.
Once football was elevated to the level of class struggle, Tang En could completely imagine and understand the fiery scenes during matches …
Reality proved his conjecture.
The tickets for the match had long been sold out. There were no tickets even if one came two days in advance, let alone on the day itself. When Notts County entered the third round of the FA Cup and were about to meet Nottingham Forest, the tickets were all sold out.
To Notts County, it did not matter if they could win the FA Cup in the end. Even if they lost to a team that was weaker than them in the next round, they had nothing to complain about — as long as they could beat Nottingham Forest in this match.
As for Nottingham Forest, they did not have a strong obsession with this match. If it was not for the feelings of the fans, Tang En would have sent out a combination of the youth team and the reserve team. Not many of the Nottingham Forest players had a deep hatred for Notts County. Most of them were "migrant workers" and had no interest in a derby where both teams were not on the same level.
The preparations for the match went on as usual, and the players did not care about their opponents. To them, the league tournament was more important, and the UEFA Europa League was more important.
In the end, five minutes into the match, Notts County gave Nottingham Forest a show of strength. They hit the goalpost with a long shot!
When it came to the "derby match", the English fans were ranked in the top three of the world's fans. At the start of the match, whenever Notts County had the ball, the City Ground would be filled with boos. But now, there were two seconds of silence in the stands. For the Forest fans, the victory of the game was a matter of course, and there would be no surprises.
As a result, Notts County's first shot almost scored a goal for Nottingham Forest. They were unable to react in time.
In the last round of the league tournament, Newcastle United also wore black and white striped shirts. At that time, the fans treated that game as a rehearsal and preview for today's game. The Newcastle United players lost their composure amidst the deafening boos from the Forest fans.
However, this tactic seemed to be useless against Notts County.
In the first half, Notts County was not at a disadvantage at all. They were evenly matched with Nottingham Forest. Notts County's players were not as good as Nottingham Forest's, and their overall strength was not as good as Nottingham Forest's. However, they were clearly more motivated than Nottingham Forest's players. They were more willing to run and fight. This kind of fighting spirit made up for their various disadvantages.
The score in the first half was 0: 0. Both sides fought for 45 minutes without much technical content, but it was very effective for Notts County.
During the break, Tang En warned his men not to treat this match as a normal match against a lower-level league team. He believed that he did not need to explain the meaning of a derby. They had to take their opponents seriously, especially their nemesis from the same city …
With the mentality of "this is a very important match, we have to give it our all", the Nottingham Forest players who returned to the field were not something that Notts County could withstand.
At the start of the second half, Notts County held on for less than ten minutes before they finally lost their goal.
Albertini took a direct free kick from 28 meters outside the penalty area and beautifully drilled into the Notts County goal. This goal ignited the City Ground and also pushed down the invisible wall between the two teams.
In a football match, it was more often the case that one's ability spoke. Spirit could control a moment, but it could not control the entire match. Notts County was unwilling to lose, but the difference in ability between them and the current Nottingham Forest team was too great.
When they were one goal behind, they still struggled to fight back, intending to equalize the score.
However, five minutes later, the ruthless Nottingham Forest team scored another goal. Ribéry finally scored his first goal for Nottingham Forest. With his ability, this goal came a little too late. The price he had to pay was that his assists ranked first in the Nottingham Forest team.
Against the Notts County players who were obviously weaker than him, Ribéry put on a good show on the sidelines. He dribbled the ball past several Notts County players, then shot the ball into the opponent's goal from the corner of the penalty area.
The difference between 2: 0 and 1: 0 was not just a difference of one goal. Notts County completely collapsed.
Tang En stood at the side of the field after the start of the second half. The Nottingham Forest players thought that their coach was supervising them and did not dare to slack off. In the end, when the 90 minutes of the match ended, the score on the electronic scoreboard was fixed at 6: 0. An intense derby had turned into a one-sided massacre. Tang En was the biggest "hero" behind the scenes.
Seeing the Notts County fans giving him the middle finger, Tang En knew that the conflict between the two teams would only worsen while he was in charge of Nottingham Forest. Perhaps they would not have the chance to meet on the field again, but this 6: 0 was enough for them to remember for the rest of their lives …
He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and smiled as he turned around and walked towards the press conference.
It felt good to be hated by the enemy.
※ ※ ※
"… We played a very exciting match. I am proud of the performance of my players. They did not underestimate their opponents just because they were weaker. Our performance was in line with the spirit of sportsmanship. I believe that the Notts County fans would agree with this. They would not have any regrets even if they were defeated by an opponent who had gone all out … "
"Bullsh * t! Who likes to be defeated by you?! "A Notts County fan cursed angrily and threw the Nottingham Evening Post on the ground. "We would rather you send your youth team to lose to us!" He looked at the Forest Team manager, Tony Twain, who was smiling happily in the newspaper. He stepped on him and spat on Twain's face as if it was not enough.
(To be continued. If you want to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
