Godfather Of Champions

At the 89th minute, Forest team’s Andy Reid brought about what might have been their last attack in the second half. A beautiful two-on-one passing coordination in front of the penalty area. While David Johnson and Marlon Harewood attracted the attention of almost all Grimsby Town players, Eugen Bopp unexpectedly popped in and emerged in the penalty box. Then he received Reid’s straight pass and faced the goalkeeper alone!

All the Nottingham Forest fans stood up and waited for the miracle to unfold!

This included Tang En, who stood motionless. He too had rushed from the technical area, hoping to celebrate a goal.

But, Eugen Bopp’s power shot went out of the goal.

“Oh—!” The fans made one huge sigh of disappointment.

Tang En threw his jacket to the ground. He did not hide his inner frustration and disappointment at all, even though the failure of the match was largely caused by him. The only thing he could think was—When I get back, I’m going to make Bopp practice his shooting!

The photojournalists on the sidelines saw Twain’s impulsive display and got excited. They had been waiting for this moment. Their fingers quickly pressed on the shutters again to capture Twain’s impetuous reaction.

“This was their best chance! But Eugen Bopp wasted it! Hear the sighs in City Ground… the miracle did not happen again; Manager Tony Twain’s luck has run out!”

In that instant, when Tang En had just thrown his jacket to the ground, the Grimsby Town manager jumped up. His team had survived the raid, and victory was close at hand. He did not expect to gain three points for this match. Perhaps these would be the precious three points that would determine whether they ended up staying in League One, or if they would be relegated to League Two this season.

Bopp, who missed the crucial ball, laid down on the ground in disappointment with both hands covering his face. He dared not even look at the fans’ angry and disappointed faces. For him, he lost a great opportunity to be a team hero and to have all the fans fall in love with him overnight. And the opportunity would not appear for a defensive midfielder like him the next time.

In the wake of Bopp missing the goal with his power shot, the Forest team also lost their confidence and will to fight. For the rest of the match, they seemed to be distracted, as if they longed for the match to end early. Harewood spread his arms helplessly in the opponent’s field with no one to pass the ball to him. Although he had scored a goal in this match, he was unable to save his team.

Tang En picked up his jacket from the ground, walked back to the technical area, and sat down.

“Des, you know what? Yesterday I was just here to teach a snotty kid, to warn him not to underestimate professional football, otherwise he would be punished. Now I’ve made the same mistake as him,” he muttered gloomily in a low voice. “I’m entirely to blame for this match, I’ve lost… I have nothing to say to that.”

Des patted Twain’s shoulder to comfort him. “Tony, it’s good to win successively, no doubt about that. But no one has ever not experienced failure. Cheer up a little.” At that moment, he was like a veteran coach, and Tang En was just a player being brought off and deeply disappointed in his performance.

A minute later, the referee blew the full-time whistle. The Forest team, which everyone had high hopes for before this match, lost 1:2 to the league’s bottom ranked Grimsby Town on their home ground. To others who did not understand Twain, this was not the first match defeat of the Forest First Team under his coaching. But to Tang En himself, this was his first defeat. He still insisted he had won the FA Cup match with West Ham and only lost to the referee.

Hearing the whistle, Tang En got up from his seat. The players passed beside him and walked into the players’ corridor with their heads lowered. Walker comforted them one by one. Their disaster was over, but his own… had only just begun.

He looked at the media crowded on both sides of the corridor. This was a tough game, and he had to keep his spirits up to deal with the harsh media. Those people were waiting to mock him.

After the match, Teng En went in the City Ground press conference room.

It was not Tang En’s first time there. He recognized some of the reporters interviewing him from the crowd. For example, he saw Pierce Brosnan again.

Sitting next to Tang En was his opponent for this match, the Grimsby Town manager, 37-year-old Paul Groves, who was just three years older than he. He’d led his team to victory, so his mood was very good, and he smilingly accepted the reporters’ questions. But the focal point of this press conference was not him.

After answering a few very common questions, he was left out in the cold. Almost everyone’s firepower was focused on Tony Twain.

“Manager Tony Twain, everyone thought that it would be easy to win before this match, but it ended in failure. Do you have anything you want to say to that?” The Nottingham local media was most dissatisfied with this match, so the questions they asked were sharp and merciless. It did not matter that they had praised Twain as the best manager, they immediately changed their tune once the match was lost.

Tang En glanced at the unfamiliar-looking reporter who asked the question. He could tell he was from the Nottingham local media, because the reporter spoke with a thick Nottingham accent. “I have nothing to say. Lost means lost. The Grimsby Town manager did well, and his team deserved to win.”

The routine answer was clearly not enough to satisfy the media, so someone else stood up and said, “But you and your players were full of confidence before the match, and there was someone who guaranteed the team would continue their winning streak during an interview…”

“Sh*t!” The curse word suddenly burst from Tang En, and everyone was astonished. “Whoever said that, go look for him. I’ve never said on any occasion that we could easily win, and that we could achieve six consecutive wins. Are you an idiot?” Tang En stood up, leaned over with his head extended out and said, “How could I have known the outcome and mentioned anything about a consecutive win when the match hadn’t even started yet? Don’t you know anything about football?”

That reporter did not expect Twain to suddenly flare up. He stood still and stared blankly for a while, not knowing what to say or do. Tang En sat back down again, shifted in his seat, crossed his legs and said, “OK, next.”

Pierce Brosnan, who had followed Robson in his interview with Twain, thought twice about being embarrassed by Twain. He still regarded this person in front of him with a journalist’s fair and objective point of view. There were advantages and disadvantages to this. As for the swearing during the press conference, he thought the reason for it was due to Manager Twain being under too much pressure after the loss. Having interviewed him before, he thought he understood his motives better than anyone else, therefore Brosnan decided to turn this awkward scene around. So, he stood up.

“Ah!” Tang En, without waiting for Brosnan to speak, spoke first. “James Bond has something to say.”

There was finally some laughter on the spot and the awkwardness was wiped away.

Brosnan did not mind the nickname that Twain gave him. He smiled and asked, “Pardon me, Manager Twain, how will the loss of this match impact the team’s promotion plan?”

This was a reasonable question. Tang En liked these kinds of questions. He did not need to be provoked into a fight with the press. “There will be an impact, but it is uncertain as to whether it will be good or bad. Just like we won’t know what the final score is when a match hasn’t started. The season is not over yet, so we don’t know what the impact of this failure will bring.”

Tang En was tired of this media siege. In fact, he did not know what other tricky questions he would continue to be asked. He was not good at countering the media’s collective attack, so he passed the football to the winner next to him.

“Gentlemen, I think you’re mistaken. It’s Grimsby Town that won this match, not my Nottingham Forest. The winner should be the focal point, right? So… Ask Mr. Groves if you have any questions. I’m sorry, I have to go.” After saying that, he ignored all the surprised looks, turned to walk off the platform, and quickly left the scene.

Brosnan stood on the spot, looked at the back of Twain getting away in a hurry and shook his head with a wry smile.

When he returned to the locker room, Tang En found that the team was all there, no one had left. Looking at the dejected players, Tang En smiled. His mood suddenly changed for the better.

He recalled the halftime break at that match they lost to West Ham two months earlier. That scene right then was what made Tang En happy. A team of unhappy players, after losing a match, was a team with a future. It was contrary to a team that was still smiling, as if nothing had happened after losing a match. At that time, Tang En reckoned he would grab a chair and smash the locker room.

“All right, lads. Don’t be so down. We’ve only just lost a match. We didn’t lose the entire season. Wait till we lose this season before you start crying.” Tang En clapped his hands, which implied that he was back.

As captain, Michael Dawson stepped forward. He wanted to apologize to the manager who trusted him for the failure of the match. But before he could open his mouth, he was stopped by Tang En’s gesture.

“The responsibility for the failure of this match completely rests with me. I have no problem with any of you, you did very well. That’s all I want to say. Now board the bus, go back to the hotel, take a hot shower, change into clean clothes, and just do whatever you want to do.” When he realized that no one made a move, Tang En sighed. “Okay, no one can leave the hotel tonight, and everyone goes to bed on time at 10 o’clock. There will be no break tomorrow, the team will be sealed off for one week’s training, until the next match… uh no, until you win a match.”

“What?!” The players finally reacted. They did not expect such a punishment.

Tang En grinned. “Since you don’t want it to be like this, hurry up and get on the bus!”

The group of players quickly sprang from their seats and rushed out of the locker room. Dawson still wanted to apologize to his manager as he passed by Twain on his way out, but Tang En pushed him out instead. “Keep your apology, Michael. Have a good holiday and then come back to train for the match.”

Very soon, there were only three people left in the locker room.

Tony Twain, Des Walker, and Ian Bowyer.

“Tony, I think you seem to feel better?” Walker was very concerned about his friend. “What happened at the press conference?”

Bowyer shook his head. “When he stepped through the door just now, I could see that he still did not look too good. Did you feel better because of the team?”

Tang En nodded. “We only lost a match. I do not care about dwelling on such things. The key is I saw good signs in these players, and this defeat was just an accident. We are not off track; the team is still on a fast track to the Premier League. Come on, don’t think about the past matches. Let’s go to Burns’ bar tonight for a drink and unwind for a bit.”

After the door was locked, the three men walked side by side to the bus outside the stadium.

After five consecutive wins, the Forest team suffered a defeat. But for Tang En himself, it was just another starting point to a five-match winning streak.

When faced with failure, some people would be resentful or downcast, be fearful as if the world was coming to an end. And some people were still able to find what they needed in the face of failure. So, the former would expect one failure after another, whereas the latter would welcome a new victory.