April 21st, Round 44 of the Premier League. Nottingham Forest faced off against Burnley in a home game.
"There are three rounds left in the Premier League. The rankings of the top six teams have changed after the last round of the Premier League. Because fourth-placed Reading lost to Forest by one goal at home, they have been overtaken by Wolverhampton Wanderers and dropped to fifth place. The points for fourth to sixth place are 71, 70 and 69 respectively. Look at these points! It really makes people look forward to the remaining three rounds of the Premier League! After two consecutive away games, Tony Twain and his team return to the City Ground stadium. What will the score be on the electronic scoreboard after 90 minutes? "
After 90 minutes, Twain stood on the sidelines in high spirits and shook hands with the away team's manager out of courtesy, a bright smile on his face. Diagonally above him, the electronic scoreboard at the top of the stands showed the final score of the half-time match: 2: 0. According to international practice, the home team was first and the away team was last.
Nottingham Forest won their second consecutive match. Even though all the teams in the queue had won, there was no change in the standings. This did not affect Twain's good mood. Because his team had already secured a place in the promotion play-offs two rounds in advance.
April 26th, Round 45, second to last round of the Premier League. Nottingham Forest faced Rotherham United in an away game.
Rotherham was very similar to Forest's previous opponent, Burnley. They were both in the middle of the table, with no worries of relegation and no hope of promotion. They lacked the fighting spirit for the last few rounds of the Premier League. Perhaps these players' minds were now filled with thoughts of where to go on vacation or to use the summer transfer period to better teams. Such a team as Nottingham Forest's opponent was simply like a kid delivering pizza.
The Hungry Forest team scored a beautiful 2: 0 against Rotherham in the away game. The team's top striker, Marlon Hailwood, raised his league goal tally for the season to 24, and his forward partner, David Johnson, also scored his 20th goal.
The final stage of the Premier League was quite perfect for Twain. Now there was only one opponent left.
He looked at the calendar. Eight days later, on May 4th, there was a line of small print under the red circle. That was the name of their opponent: Millwall.
May 4th, 2: 57 in the afternoon. City Ground
A vivid lion raised its front paws and roared. As the fans waved their hands, it looked as if it would jump down from the blue flag at any time and bite its prey.
More than a hundred away fans gathered outside the stadium and slowly marched towards the City Ground stadium. Most of the ordinary Forest fans consciously took a detour when they saw the blue formation. As a result, they didn't encounter any obstacles along the way.
Of course, there were also those who were not afraid of death. On both sides of this group of Millwall fans, there were also about a hundred fans in red Forest jerseys shouting and cursing loudly. They made many insulting gestures at the Millwall fans. The Millwall fans retaliated with words and gestures, but the two sides did not rush forward to fight.
Because between the two groups of fans, there was a large number of British police in bright yellow vests. They were armed to the teeth, staring warily at the fans on both sides.
For the city of Nottingham, today was their weakest and most stressful time of the year. The Millwall fans had arrived.
Millwall was perhaps one of the few clubs in the world whose fans were more famous than the team itself. As a small team in South London, they didn't have many achievements and honors to show off, and they didn't have any big-name stars. But they had the most valiant fan group in the whole of Britain, and even the world.
Millwall had the most notorious football hooligans in the whole of Britain.
At a crossroads, this group of lions stopped and the police surrounded them. They needed to wait here for the Forest bus to pass. Even though they stopped, they were still in full swing with the Forest fans on the periphery.
Three car horns sounded in front of them, and a red bus slowly drove into the sight of these people.
Immediately, the blue Millwall fans abandoned the Forest fans on the periphery and aimed their insults at the Forest players sitting on the bus. There were even some people who were so agitated that they wanted to bend over to find a brick to smash the bus. At this time, the two rows of police officers surrounding them played their role — trying their best to push back the fans who wanted to cross the line.
Even though the bus was soundproof with its tightly shut windows, Tang En could still hear the voices coming from the Millwall fans outside. Their mouths were curled up, and one look was enough to tell that they sounded like an "F". They kept raising their middle fingers, their expressions ferocious. Having led the team for half a season, this was the first time Tang En had seen such ferocious fans. It felt like they were not here to watch the game, but to pick a fight.
In order to go against the Millwall fans, the Forest fans who had gathered together also began to use vulgarities to retaliate. This attracted Tang En's attention. He easily found a familiar face in the crowd — Mark Hodge.
This middle-aged man, who usually looked somewhat polite, had his neck flushed red with blood. His expression was ferocious as he gritted his teeth and roared at the other side like an angry bulldog.
"Football hooligan …" Tang En muttered the word that Walker had told him that night in the bar.
Beside him, Walker noticed that Tang En had noticed the situation outside. He stuck his head out to take a look, clearly used to it. "Tony, this is child's play now. When we get to the stadium and the game starts, I guarantee you'll have an eye-opener."
Tang En looked at him.
"When the time comes, we'll even need to shout to communicate like this." Walker laughed and used his hand to measure the distance between them. "And you'll have to shout right next to my ear."
As they spoke, the bus had already driven away from the crossroads filled with suppressed, violent emotions and turned into the team's parking lot. Tang En turned back and could only see a few fluttering flags and blurry red and blue figures. The singing of the Forest fans had disappeared. Tang En knew that this group of people must have started cursing at each other again.
Tang En felt that through his limited contact with Mark Hodge, he could more or less understand the thoughts of these football hooligans: to insult their opponents for the team they liked, to fight with the fans of the team they liked, to fight for the team they liked, to die for the team they liked.
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.
