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practice pitch, it was brilliant, better than almost anything he’d played on before. He wouldn’t be able to blame the field if he made a mess of things. But Roddy didn’t feel as if he would make too many mistakes. Now he was kitted up, he felt really positive and itching to go.
    Both teams lined up in a standard 4–4–2 formation. Roddy glanced to the touchline and saw Mr Jenkins watching. He told himself to play like he always did, and not to let the nerves show.
    The time has come for Jones to show the world what he can do. The ball comes to him early and he looks up to see where his teammatesare. An opponent is closing in on him fast, but he skips past him with ease and plays a simple ball out to his right, cutting another opponent out with the precision of his pass. Good solid stuff, but nothing spectacular. He’s going to have to do more than this to impress the selectors
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    Roddy’s team lost possession, and he made up a lot of ground to tackle and win back the ball. It was important to show he was hardworking as well as talented, and Roddy was sure he could see Mr Jenkins writing something down in his notebook. Again, under a lot of pressure, he was forced to play a simple pass. Then, just as the ball was knocked back to him, a sliding tackle from an opponent made contact with his injured ankle.
    â€œOw!” For a few moments Roddy was in agony. He didn’t fall, but he stood bent over for a couple of seconds until the pain faded.He wiped his watering eyes, started to hobble, and then upped his pace to a run. To his relief, the kick didn’t seem to have done any lasting damage, but the ball was way up the field now and he had some real work to do to get back into the game.
    Roddy wanted an opportunity to run with the ball, to show what he was really capable of. But most people were being a bit selfish. It was natural to want to show what they could do, but one girl on his team was repeatedly holding onto the ball for too long, and then losing it when she should have gone for an easy pass. Roddy wondered whether he should have a word with her about it, but then something else grabbed his attention.
    And it’s Jones with the pass out to the left wing. Richards is running down the touchline, looking to get the cross in, but a horrendous tackle floors her and the ref blows a furiousblast on his whistle. Richards isn’t getting up, and appears to be in a lot of pain. Medical staff are rushing onto the pitch. It looks like her part in today’s action is over
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    Roddy stared with horror at his team-mate on the ground. She’d been tackled by the boy who had kicked Roddy’s ankle just a few minutes before. Mr Jenkins was already there, speaking urgently to Jason, the ref. After a few moments, Jason jogged away from the scene of the accident and called everyone over.
    â€œSarah Richards won’t be able to carry on,” he said. “So the game will be halted until she’s off the pitch. You can all take a break.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” gasped Keira, trying to catch her breath.
    â€œWe won’t know until the doctor has arrived,” said Jason seriously. “She’s had a bad knock. But you guys don’t worry about it – you need to keep focused on the trial. Use this timeto discuss tactics. One team is a player down, and both teams need to work out how they’re going to handle the change.”
    Everyone was very subdued, and the atmosphere was even worse when an ambulance arrived. Once the girl was loaded in and the ambulance had left, Jason signalled everyone back onto the pitch. Before they started playing again, Mr Jenkins spoke to everyone.
    â€œThat was a nasty accident,” he said. “But you have to try and put it out of your minds and play on as normal. Footballers get injured all the time. The good news is that I’m sure she’s going to be all right. Now, some of you were really impressive before