retired_loubou

absolute class nick. This is one of the best story's I read in a whole time on this board.

So get out of her bed and start writing again :p

retired_charlene

Afterwards we just lay there for a while, not really sure what to do next. No matter how much we had wanted it to happen, it still felt a little bit awkward being there with Jen, knowing what we’d just done together. Jen was lying there, puffing away at the cigarette she'd just lit up. I did for a while think about telling her not to, reminding her that she's been supposedly giving up smoking for the last couple of years, but in the end I didn't bother. I didn't really want her throwing me out given the slight state of undress that I was in...

However, I knew that someone had to say something sooner or later, just anything to break the silence that was hanging over us, and it might as well have been me.

"So... What do we do now?"

"I don't know... Get dressed?"

"No, I meant...you know, about us."

"Oh," she said nervously. "I though you..."

I forced a nervous laugh out. "Yeah, I know... It was alright for us to that though, wasn't it?"

Jen took the cigarette from her mouth and looked at me. "Of course it was. We both wanted it, right?"

I nodded. "Well yeah, of course I did... And if I was to ask if you, erm, wanted to do it again, you'd say you would, wouldn't you?"

"Jesus Nick," she said, rolling her eyes, "we've only just finished for God's sake! I'm not a bloody machine..."

"No, I meant..." I looked at her, a cheeky grin spread widely across her face. "Oh, you're going to be like that, are you?"

She laughed. "Sorry, I just couldn't resist. And yes, I would be honoured if we could express the feelings we have for each other in a physical manner at some point in the future, but not right away, yeah? I mean, you know I haven't really ever had a proper boyfriend, and I don't want to miss out on all the stuff that happens at the beginning."

"Like what?"

"Oh you know, like going out on a date together, getting to know each other better, and all that sort of stuff."

"But we already know each other about as well as we're ever going to, don't we?"

"Yeah I know, but still... I just want this to be right, to be perfect, yeah? I don't want it to just be about sex. Well, not yet anyway..."

"OK, we'll do this slowly. Can't say I particularly fancy diving head first into a serious relationship or anything..."

"Ooh, a relationship? Is that what this is?"

I gave her a confused look. "Well yeah, unless I've got all this wrong or something..."

"Nick, I'm just teasing you! Jeez, you're too easy, you know that?"

"Sorry, I'm just a bit...you know..."

"Yeah, I know. How about this then? You get dressed and go off home or wherever, and think up what nice places you can take me next weekend for our first date, yeah?"

"...And why do I have to do it?"

"Because I'm going to be busy gossiping to all my friends about how good or bad you were, aren't I?"

Suddenly I became very worried about what she'd just said. "...You're not really going to, are you?"

"...Nah, I won't tell anyone. Well, obviously I'll mention it to Beth...unless you don't want her to know."

"Well, she knows pretty much everything else, so I don't see why not. Just leave all the...gory details out, yeah?"

She smiled. "Yeah, OK then. This can be our little secret for now. It'll be more fun this way."

"Yeah, I guess," I said, slipping my shoes on as I spoke. "I'll see you later then."

"Yeah, later Nick. And get thinking about next weekend, yeah?"

Get thinking about next weekend? I could barely stop thinking about it...

retired_charlene

English Second Division vs Rushden & Diamonds (h)

However, before the big date there was that little matter known as my football career to take care of. Four defeats on the bounce had left us sliding down the table, and if we wanted to keep up the pace set by the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton we’d have to buck up our ideas and get back on track as soon as possible, starting with the visit of Rushden. They were struggling to come to terms with life in the Second Division, and were lying in a lowly 16th, just a handful of points above the relegation zone. We were determined to make the most of this opportunity to regain our form, and with a fully fit squad to pick from, we probably weren’t ever going to have a better chance either.

It wasn’t long until we carved out a decent opportunity to end our goal drought. I got the ball thirty yards out and shaped to hit the ball, but instead played it into the path of Leon Constantine. He took a superb first touch and found himself one on one with Rushden keeper Billy Turley. Unfortunately for us Turley was equal to the challenge, and pulled off a great save to deny Constantine, saving a low, well-hit shot with his legs. However, he was helpless to stop my follow-up shot as the ball ricocheted off a defender, fell right into my path and felt the full force of my left foot, flying into the back of the net to a massive cheer from the stand behind the goal. After over six hours of play without a goal, it was certainly a very welcome sight to see our fans celebrating a goal for once.

However, Rushden knew that it was possible to score goals against us, as the previous matches had proved, and set about getting an equaliser. First of all there was a well saved header from Paul Hall. He met a well struck Stephen Cooke cross near the penalty spot, and although his header certainly had a lot of power behind it, the direction was severely lacking as it went straight into Paul Smith’s hands.

The visitors came even closer to an equaliser midway through the first half. Paul Underwood swung in a corner from the left which was easily headed pout by Kevin O’Connor, but the striker could only clear as far as Marcus Bignot, who was lurking on the edge of the area. He controlled the ball well and hit a shot which Smith initially seemed to have covered, but got a touch from Philippe Christanval on its way through and forced an excellent save from the keeper low to his right.

Rushden continued to search for the equaliser, but we dealt them a heavy blow just second before the half time whistle. Martin Rowlands and Michael Dobson combined on the right hand side, with a clever one-two allowing Rowlands to get to the by-line and get a good cross in. Turley came racing off his line to punch the ball but never got anywhere near it, leaving Constantine with an empty goal to aim at, something that even he couldn’t miss, and we were two up going in at the midway point.

The second half was a bit of a non-event to be honest. Rushden never looked as threatening as they had in the first half, and seemed to lack a bit of belief, a feeling we had become all too familiar with over the last few weeks. We were perfectly happy to sit on our lead, soak up any pressure that they applied to our defence and to spring into action on the counter should the chance arise. Constantine, buoyed by his goal, looked quite dangerous and nearly added a third when I sent him clean through. As Turley came out to meet him, the striker lifted the ball nicely over the keeper, but just over the bar as well.

In the end it didn’t matter. We got the win that we desperately wanted, and a decent performance to match had got us back on our feet, and our attention could again focus on the automatic promotion places, and next week’s derby at Loftus Road, something that everyone was looking forward to. I, however, had something else to look forward to in the mean time...

Final Score:- Brentford 2-0 Rushden
Team:- (3-5-2) Smith 8; Roget 7, Christanval 8, Marshall 6; Naysmith 8, Dobson (c) 8, Fullarton 8, Rowlands 8, Greenan 8(1); Constantine 7(1), O'Connor 8.

retired_charlene

“Thanks Nick, I’ve had a really lovely time,� Jen said as we stopped by her front door.

I looked at her and smiled. I wasn’t quite sure whether she was telling the truth or not, given the evening we’d had. I’d always thought that even I couldn’t make a mess of a date as simple as a trip to the cinema followed by a pizza, but apparently I was wrong.

First of all Jen had insisted that I keep all my plans for the evening a secret from her, which caused two main problems. The first was that since Jen had no idea where we were going, she had no idea how to dress for the occasion, and in an insane bout of optimism she’d decided that we were going to be going somewhere a good deal more upmarket than the local cinema. This probably explained the look of surprise on her face when she opened the door wearing a dress, whilst I stood there in an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt...

The second problem was that I had to guess which film she wanted to see, which was never going to be very easy. I liked films where people had fights, people had guns, and people had fights with guns, with as much destruction of property on the side as humanly possible. Jen, however, liked films with Hugh Grant in them. In a perfect world there would have been a film which marries these two different genres, ideally ending with Hugh Grant being blown into very small pieces, but that wasn’t to be. Instead we had to settle for a romantic comedy, which was contrived to say the least. Jen did seem to pick up on my boredom about halfway through the film, but as she seemed to be somehow enjoying it, it didn’t really matter.

But that was only the beginning of the fun. Despite booking almost a week ahead of the night, my local Italian restaurant apparently had no record of a reservation made by a Mr Greenan. They did have a reservation made by a Mr Greenman, but not by a Mr Greenan, and despite my protests that it was a simple spelling mistake, they insisted that they could not give us the table, as the mythical Mr Greenman may arrive and take his non-existent business elsewhere, meaning we had a half hour wait for a table, where we could wait for another half hour before actually being served the wrong meals. It was a good thing for them that I was in a reasonably pleasant mood, and could just about see the funny side of our first date going slightly wrong, otherwise I may have been forced to strangle someone with a piece of tagliatelli...

“You mean that? I know it didn’t all go that well and everything, but...�

“Hey, it doesn’t matter that the film was rubbish and that the meal was nasty. What matters is that we got to spend some time together, as a couple, which was all I wanted.�

“I guess so... I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?�

“Yeah, OK... Oh, and just before you go...�

For a moment she just stood there and looked into my eyes, before planting a quick kiss on my lips.

“Thanks Nick.�

She smiled at me again, opened the door and went inside, closing the door behind her.

“That’s OK. It was my pleasure...�

retired_charlene

“I still can’t believe it happened...�

I gave Beth a funny look. “What do you mean?�

“Well, you and Jen. I mean, you two are so bloody hopeless when it comes to things like this.�

“I am not hopeless!�

“Oh yeah? How many girlfriends, and I mean proper ones, have you had before Jen?�

“I...� There was a pause while I desperately tried to think of a decent response. Beth smirked, knowing she’d been proved right. “OK, so I am hopeless. What’s your point?�

“Well, I’d started to give up hope. I thought you two were going to sit there going ‘Ooh, what should I do?’ for the rest of your lives...�

“I probably would have done if you hadn’t told me to go and talk to her. Thanks for that.�

I smiled at her, and she smiled back at me. “No problem Nick, that’s what friends are for. And speaking of friends, when are you going to tell the guys?�

“...We’re not. Well, not yet anyway.�

Beth stared at me for a moment. “You’re kidding me?�

I shook my head. “No, we’re going to try and keep it as quiet as possible for now.�

“Even though Joe and Al will still take the pÃ*ss out of you for not having a girlfriend?â€�

“Well, they still take the pÃ*ss out of me because I haven’t...you know...even though I have. Twice. Anyway, we’re trying to take things as slowly as possible, keep it low-key, you know? If we go and tell everyone they’ll get all excited like you have, and make out that it’s a lot bigger, a lot more serious, than it is at the moment, and we don’t want that. We want to take things at our own pace, get to know each other again now that we look at each other differently, and then when we feel we’re ready, we’ll tell everyone.â€�

Beth smiled at me.

“What?�

“Oh nothing...� she said. “It’s just... I wish I could find a guy who’d ‘take things slowly’ with me. As soon as guys see me they’re only ever after one thing. I guess I ask for it though...�

“How do you mean?�

“Well, the way I look, the way I dress, the way that as soon as they look at me nicely I’ll throw myself all over them.�

“Hey, that’s just the way you are.�

“What, a slag?�

“No, you know what I mean. Just because you like to have a bit of fun and you don’t dress like a nun or something, it doesn’t mean guys should be able to expect to...get off with you straight away. You look hard enough and you’ll find the right person for you, the one who’ll treat you right. I think I have...�

“You know, Jen’s a lucky girl. Just don’t do anything stupid, you hear me?�

Me? Do something stupid? I don’t know what would have given her the idea that I’d do something like that...

retired_charlene

English Second Division vs Queens Park Rangers (a)

You could tell that this was going to be a big match right from the off. We got to the ground at about the same time as the television crews, who were broadcasting the match live, which was something of a new experience for me, while the quite impressive stadium was already beginning to fill up nicely, although many were keen to grab a quick pint before getting here just ahead of the lunchtime kick-off, another novelty for us.

This was a match we really wanted to win. Apart from just the local rivalry, QPR were also up there with us at the top of the table, and a win here would show everyone we were serious contenders for promotion, and not just a team on a good run of early-season form who’d disappear come Christmas.

We were pretty well prepared for the match, a decent return to form against Rushden had been followed by a few good days on the training pitch, and we were confident of being able to get a decent result. However, our confidence took a dent when Paul Smith twisted his knee in the pre-match warm-up, meaning he was unable to play, meaning Alan Julian got his first start of the season between the posts.

The match itself started pretty ferociously, with tackles flying in right from the off, with my slightly over-zealous challenge on Tommy Williams earning me a yellow card after just a couple of minutes. Jamie Fullarton also found his name in the book early on, which meant he’d miss our League Cup match at Norwich through suspension.

When the game calmed down the home side started to take charge of the midfield, and created a couple of decent chances. Richard Langley hit a couple of efforts from close range free kicks wide if the mark, while Andy Thomson wasted a good chance to head Rangers in front when he nodded wide from a few yards out just before the end of a goalless first half.

However, the second half was almost an entirely different match. We were far more direct, far more to the point, and it paid off ten minutes after the restart. Martin Rowlands played a good ball over the top of the defence to set Kevin O’Connor free on the right, and his low cross found me near the penalty spot where I struck a low shot past Nick Culkin to give us the lead.

Things got even better just two minutes later. Gary Naysmith took a quick free kick on the left, and knocked the ball towards me on the left corner of the area. When I looked up and realised there was no-one even making an effort to join me in the area, I cut outside Clarke Carlisle and hit a vicious shot with the outside of my left foot. The ball sailed towards the far post, swerved back towards the goal at the last minute, hit the post and went in, much to the disgust of the home fans behind the goal, something I only just managed to notice before running off towards our fans to celebrate with the rest of my team-mates.

QPR didn’t know what had hit them, and never looked like getting back into the game. In fact, if anyone was going to score it was us, with Leon Constantine thwarted by Culkin after being put clear by Eddie Hutchinson, who replaced me with a quarter of an hour left, something which wasn’t complaining about.

When the final whistle came with the score still at two-nil, our fans let out an almighty roar which echoed around the rapidly emptying ground, with a vast majority of the home fans deciding they’d seen enough well before the final whistle. It was a great result for us which sent us back into the top two, as well as sending out a message to the rest of the division that we weren’t here just to make up the numbers, and were serious promotion contenders.

Final Score:- QPR 0-2 Brentford
Team:- (3-5-2) Julian 7; Roget 6, Christanval 7, Marshall 8; Naysmith 8, Dobson (c) 6, Fullarton 7, Rowlands 8, Greenan 8(2) (Hutchinson sub 75, 6); Constantine 7, O'Connor 7.

retired_charlene

I knocked on the door. As soon as I noticed my reflection in the window, and how more messy than normal my hair looked, I started to run my fingers through it in a poor attempt to make myself look halfway presentable before the door in front of me opened and a friendly female face greeted me. It just wasn’t the one I was expecting...

“Hi Nick.�

“Lauren...?�

I wasn’t quite sure if it was seeing her that had surprised me the most, or the fact that she was wearing next to nothing, although that in itself wasn’t at all surprising. Lauren was very unlike Jen in many many ways. Although they were physically very similar, you did get to see a lot more of Lauren, something that she didn’t care about but annoyed Jen greatly, mostly because the vast majority of any potential boyfriends that Jen had brought home had either been scared off by Lauren, or she’d got in there first.

However, one thing they did have in common is that they were very bright. Jen was attempting to follow in her sister’s footsteps by going to Cambridge, which was where Lauren was supposed to be, studying day and night for her final year exams coming up in a few months, instead of skiving off at home. However, the chances were that she’d do perfectly fine without doing very much at all as she did seem to get a lot of help from her friends, who were mainly male, were mainly geeks, and pretty much did anything she wanted if she so much as spoke to them. In fact, she always used to joke that the only reason she got into Cambridge in the first place was by offering to sleep with the admissions tutor once she started there, although given some of the things Jen had told me about her you wouldn’t have put it past her.

“Come to see my sister have you?�

“Yeah...�

“I’m just getting Mum to do some washing for me. It’s easier if I get her to do it for me.�

“Yeah...�

I’d completely forgotten what I was doing there by now, and just stood there staring at her.

“OK, do you want me to go and get Jen, or would you like to carry on staring down my top?�

“Yeah... Oh, I mean I wasn’t... I didn’t... I...�

“Don’t worry about it Nick, I don’t mind.� She moved a bit closer to me, and grinned. “Perhaps I could let you have a closer look later on?�

I laughed nervously. “Yeah, I don’t think Jen would be too happy about that, would she?�

“I wouldn’t be too happy about what?� Jen said, appearing over Lauren’s shoulder at the foot of the stairs.

“Jen!� I said hurriedly. “Hi!�

“Yeah, hi Nick. Do you wanna...?�

“Yeah, yeah,� I said, frantically nodding my head before following her up the stairs.

“I’ll be in the front room if you want me, OK Nick?� Lauren said behind me.

I stopped, turned round and looked at her nervously. “Erm...�

“Lauren!� Jen said sharply.

“OK, I’m just having a bit of fun. Jeez, you need to lighten up...� Lauren then marched off towards the front room. I looked back towards Jen to see her slowly shaking her head.

“I’m going to kill her one of these days...�

BarryLFC

relentless

retired_charlene

Cheers guys.

I'm Not Ruud - unfortunately not . Still, I can dream, can't I?

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“So,� Jen said as she sat down on her bed, “what do you want to do then?�

I sat down on the end of the bed and faced her. “Well, I wasn’t really doing anything, so I thought we could just hang out or something. You know, just like we always do.�

“Yeah, that sounds alright to me. Got a few albums the other day that we could listen to if you like.�

“Oh God, nothing too depressing I hope...�

Jen gave me a funny look. “And when do I ever listen to anything depressing?�

“Erm, there’s that little band you like called Radiohead. You know, the ones on the posters on these walls?�

“Radiohead aren’t depressing! It’s just that their music can evoke an emotion inside you that can make you reflect on some of the more negative aspects of life.�

I looked at her for a moment. “...So they’re depressing?�

She gave me an angry glare. I didn’t really expect anything less. “You wanna listen to these albums or not?�

“Yeah sure...�

She leaned over towards her stereo and started playing around with it in an attempt to get it to play something.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I hear congratulations are in order.�

Jen looked over her shoulder with a puzzled expression on her face. “What for?�

“You know, getting that interview for Cambridge. Beth told me all about it earlier.�

“Oh yeah. Thanks.�

“...What’s wrong? You don’t seem to be all that pleased about it.�

“Well yeah, of course I am. It’s just that almost anyone can get an interview. The hard part’s going to be actually getting through the bloody thing and then getting all the grades I need, and that’s if they don’t tell me to get lost straight away.�

“Hey, you’ll do fine. You keep on doing all the work you’re doing now and you’ll ace all your exams.�

“...Maybe.�

“Yeah, you will. And the interview’ll be a piece of cake. I mean, if you turn up and be yourself, how will they possibly be able to say no to you?�

“...Thanks Nick,� she said as she smiled at me, ever so slowly edging her way across the bed towards me, before finally moving even nearer to kiss me.

“Hey Jen, I’m just gonna...�

As soon as Lauren had opened the door Jen seemed to leap halfway across the room and started to stare aimlessly out the window, playing with her hair as she looked out into the back garden.

“I’m sorry, was I interrupting something?�

Jen looked back at her. “No.�

“You sure?�

“What, are you trying to say that me and Nick...?� She laughed really loudly and falsely, probably not realising how utterly put on it sounded. “You’re just being silly...�

“Yeah,� I said, trying to help Jen out, “come off it Lauren. I mean, we both know that you’re the only girl for me.�

Lauren looked at me for a moment. “Yeah, you wish...�

“Oh but I do!� I said sarcastically. “I dream about you night and day. I dream about your beautiful, long brown hair, your gorgeous eyes and your perfectly formed, wonderfully pert bre-�

“Look,� she said, interrupting me, “I’m going over to Ben’s house to get some stuff. If Mum asks, I’ve gone shopping, right?�

“Sure,� Jen said. “If Mum asks, you’re out getting stoned. Got it.�

“Jen!�

“Hey, calm down. I’m not going to tell her, am I?�

Lauren glared at her for a few more seconds. “...You’d better not, OK? See ya.�

“Yeah, see you sis.� She waited for a moment for the door to close before she turned back towards me, grinning cheekily. “Now where were we...?�

retired_charlene

Oh right, I was wondering what that rustling in the bushes outside was

------------------------------------------------------------

English League Cup Third Round vs Norwich City (a)

So, after a big win away to QPR at the weekend, we had a nice and simple trip to East Anglia to face Norwich in the League Cup, and there was probably never going to be a better time to play them. After yet another defeat that had left them languishing in the Division One relegation zone, manager Nigel Worthington was given the sack, and probably a farewell cake, by Delia Smith, and Michael Skibbe, who was previously part of the German coaching set-up that got the team to the World Cup final, was appointed just a day later. We would be his first opponents in his new role, and we weren’t particularly keen for him to get off to a good start.

We had a couple of changes to make to the lineup. The good news was that Paul Smith was able to take his place in goal again after injury forced him out of the QPR game, and Alan Julian was back on the bench again. The bad news was that Jamie Fullarton picked up his fifth yellow card of the season on Saturday, and was therefore out of this match through suspension. Eddie Hutchinson took his place in central midfield.

The fact that we were only five league places below Norwich showed in the opening exchanges, as there didn’t seem to be a great deal of difference between the two sides. We worked hard and attempted to hit them on the break, using the pace of our attack to expose any gaps they had in a severely demoralised defence, while they tried to get the ball up to Iwan Roberts as quickly as possible and feed off any scraps he could win them.

At first, our game-plan seemed to be a bit more successful when we possibly could have taken the lead. Gary Naysmith hit a longish ball into the left corner for Leon Constantine to chase, and when the striker got to the ball ahead of Neil Emblen, he whipped in an excellent cross towards Kevin O’Connor whose header forced an excellent save out of Robert Green, with Craig Fleming tidying up just before I could pounce on the rebound.

However, with some big guys in their lineup, Norwich were causing us problems from set pieces. Roberts came close with a header after twenty minutes, and in the closing minutes of the first half Adam Drury swung in a dangerous free kick which, although the main targets missed it, found Paul McVeigh, who controlled the ball well, turned and fired a shot just inches wide of the far post.

Despite their supposedly better players, Norwich weren’t really causing us too many problems. In fact, if you had to say who was on top, you’d probably just about go for us, which gave us the belief that we could go on and cause another upset here, which was what our defence was probably thinking about when we went behind just after the break. Phil Mulryne went across to take a corner from the left and played the ball into the completely unmarked Steen Nedergaard, who headed the ball in from close range without so much as a challenge, much to the delight of the majority of the crowd.

We now had to pick ourselves up and try to get an equaliser, something that was far easier said than done. Constantine wasted a decent opportunity when Michael Dobson crossed after good play down the right, and while Martin Rowlands had a fair amount of well struck shots from distance, none of them ever looked like really troubling Green.

Our best chance by far of the match came with twenty minutes of the match remaining. Rowlands picked the ball up in the centre circle and immediately hit a ball through the middle of the defence looking for O’Connor’s run. Green came racing out of his area but was never going to get there before O’Connor, which left the striker with the seemingly easy task of just playing the ball past Green, but make a complete mess of it and gave it straight to the keeper, who couldn’t believe his luck as he hoofed the ball into the stand.

That miss seemed to knock the stuffing out of us. We weren’t likely to get a better chance than that, and as Norwich kept defending resolutely, we never looked like creating any chances whatsoever. Even the introduction of a third striker in the shape of Mark Peters, who came on for Scott Marshall, and Mick’s orders that everyone was to get in the penalty area for any set pieces we might have failed to create even a half chance, and as the clock ticked by, we knew we were getting closer and closer to the end of our League Cup campaign, which was finally put out of its misery to the sound of the referee’s whistle, followed by the cheers of the home fans, happy that their new manager had got off to a winning start. We weren’t particularly pleased about how the game had gone, but then again we never expected to get this far, and I guess it was fun while it lasted.

Final Score:- Norwich 1-0 Brentford
Team:- (3-5-2) Smith 6; Roget 7, Christanval 7, Marshall 8 (Peters sub 87, 7); Naysmith 8, Dobson (c) 6, Hutchinson 6, Rowlands 7, Greenan 7; Constantine 7, O'Connor 7.