The match between Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace came to an end, with the home side beating their opponents 2-1 thanks to Rebrov's resurrection, and the gap between them and the relegation zone was widened.

After the game, almost all Nottingham media covered the game, and all the players of the Forest team became heroes, especially Rebrov, who was praised by the media. The media hailed him as a Premier League player back in form and back to his former form.

And Tony, who directs it all. What about Donn? Photos of him finding Rebrov talking alone on the pitch at halftime have long made newspaper headlines. Reporters interviewed Rebrov, who was voted the man of the match for the first time, after the game, and asked him what head coach Donn told him about him on the pitch at half-time.

Rebrov smiled and said: "It's nothing, he just told me to pull back and then let me play for myself. I saw a completely different world. ”

“…… That's Tony. Don has the ability to turn decay into magic. The TV commentator at the game said he was a magician, and I couldn't agree more. Look at Collymore's Forest, and then look at Tony. Donn's Forest, the people are still the same, but the team is completely different, we got the crucial three points and regained morale. Listen to the cheers inside the City Stadium, Nottingham Forest is slowly waking up! ”

The moving tram swayed gently, the carriage was empty, and several old people were squinting and napping. Trams run through the suburbs of Nottingham, and car horns are barely audible outside, and even pedestrians are scarce. It's Sunday morning, and Donn is sitting on the tram bound for the small town of Hocknar, with the tranquil countryside outside. He looked outside, and then inside, and a passenger across from him held up a newspaper that had been on the market this morning, and read it intently. Just on the side of Don has his own photo and a large caption:

"Tony. Don is back! ”

Seeing this scene, Don laughed softly, and it sounded like "Superman is back". He's back on the front page, and it's nice to be adored and watched...... On this quiet morning, the empty tram was completely different from the tsunami-like atmosphere of yesterday's city stadium. Donn leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes to reflect on the game that had just passed.

I'm back again, and this time I'm not going to leave easily.

With a crisp jingle bell, the shaking of the tram stopped. Don opened his eyes to see the church spire on the hillside, and his destination had arrived.

Jumped off the tram and stretched. Donn walked towards the church.

He hadn't been here in a while since he came once in the summer. Half a year has passed in the blink of an eye, and he is not the unemployed coach Tony who was at a loss and couldn't see the way forward. Don is gone.

Because of Gavin, he decided to stay with Forest and wait for the opportunity to return to the City Stadium coaching box. Now that he's back and leading his team back to victory, he's back here again.

For him, the cemetery behind the gray masonry church was the starting point for another journey, and he should return here to reorient himself when he was about to stride forward.

Even though it may seem close, there is some uphill distance from the tram stop to the church. Don bought a bouquet of lilies at a deserted little flower shop down the street, took it in his hand and thought about it, then he took out a card from the shopkeeper, took out a pen and wrote on it:

- To Nottingham Forest's most loyal fan, George. Wood's Eternal Supporter: Gavin. Bernard.

※※※ There was a group of children playing in the green space in front of the church, and several of them were wearing red Forest jerseys. They shouted and screamed for a ball. When someone shoots a soccer ball between two piles of clothes, they imitate the celebratory gestures of the stars.

As a child, Don used to play like this a lot. But they took school bags, bricks, broken shoes, clothes, and baskets not on such a good lawn, but on the dam used to dry grain in their hometown...... In short, everything that can be moved is used as a goal, and then a group of children chase a broken ball on it, and in Donn's current eyes, even the best "star" in the group of people when he was a child is actually miserable, but everyone has a good time. Next to the dam is a pond where ducks are kept, and it is not uncommon for people to accidentally kick a football into the lake. The ball was played badly, but Done, who had a good surname, was the one who went down to the lake to catch the ball every time.

In high school, he attended a boarding high school in the city, where there were no simple dams and ponds, and there were special courts, but Donn stopped playing football anymore, only watched others play on the sidelines, and the same was true in college. Until now, he has become accustomed to standing on the sidelines and watching others play, and has found a completely different sense of fun and accomplishment from playing in person.

Donn lingered for a moment in the company of cute little children before continuing on, skirting the deserted church and turning into the forest path.

The cemetery is even more deserted than the church, surrounded by dense woods, and it seems that the temperature is a degree or two cooler than outside. Don tightened his coat and walked straight to Gavin's grave.

He was a little surprised when he saw a bouquet of lilies in front of the tombstone. There are still droplets of water hanging from the fresh petals, and the person who placed it here is clearly just gone. Don looked up at the cemetery, and there was no one in sight.

He looked down and noticed that there was also a card in the bouquet, so he picked it up. There is only one sentence on it:

To Gavin.

There was no payment, and Gavin's name was misspelled. Looking at the crooked handwriting, which was not as good as the handwriting of an elementary school student, Don smiled.

He put the bouquet back down, carefully placing his bouquet next to him. With that, he pulled out a cigarette from his coat pocket and prepared to take a puff. The fire was all out, but he was stunned when he looked at the jumping flames, and then took out the cigarette from his mouth and inserted it back into the cigarette case.

He had forgotten that there was a child beside him.

So he crouched down again and looked at the small line of writing under the tombstone.

Michael said to him at the bar, "Tony, I'm not going to the game tomorrow." I won't go in the future", with a calm face, as if talking about someone who has nothing to do with him. At that time, Don thought that his heart must be dead, and even ...... He no longer loves football, he hates football. Because football has taken away his favorite son.

When Michael told him that he was going to the United States that day, it strengthened Donn's thoughts, he hated football, and he wanted to escape from football.

But when he later saw the small line at the bottom of the tombstone, all the impressions that Michael had left him were overturned in an instant.

He loves his son so much and he loves football so much. He must have buried this love in the depths of his heart, and then put a lock on it, never to touch it again, whether it was anyone else or himself.

Don swept away a dead leaf that had fallen in front of the tombstone, then stood up and turned away from the small inconspicuous tombstone.

In the afternoon, the Forest team will resume training. Three days later, on December 17, they will take on Millwall, their League Cup quarter-final opponents, at Newden Stadium on the south bank of the River Thames in London.

It was a game that Don couldn't lose!

※※※ Donn, who returned to the club's training ground in the afternoon, went to the reserve team before the team practiced. On the sidelines of the training ground of the reserves, he saw that Gareth. Taylor, the other party also saw him, and from the look of his eyes, he seemed to be a little dissatisfied with his young head coach.

But it doesn't matter...... If you don't accept it, you won't accept it, boy. I just need you to score for me.

He beckoned to Taylor, and the reserve coach called the big man down.

Don looked at Taylor, who was standing slightly taller than him in front of him, and then turned to leave. "Come with me."

Taylor didn't move: "Where to go?" ”

Don turned halfway around, he turned his head to look at Taylor, turned back again, and stretched out two fingers: "I'm not in a good mood right now, so I'll give you two choices: one, follow me and don't ask anything; Two, you stay here until the winter transfer market opens. The choice is to put. ”

After saying that, Don didn't look at the stunned big man anymore, turned around and walked away.

Taylor didn't expect Don to be so resolute, and he was stunned for a moment. The coach of the reserve team patted him lightly: "Still not to follow?" ”

Taylor, who woke up like a dream, trotted after him, and then silently followed Donn, and the two walked all the way to the sidelines of the first-team training ground, by which time the players were already on the pitch ready to warm up.

Donn stopped on the sidelines, while Taylor consciously ran onto the training ground, not daring to ask the gloomy head coach a word again.

The players are not surprised that Taylor is back in the team, and now that there is a shortage of people in the forward line, it is natural that Taylor, who has been scoring non-stop goals in the development team, will return.

Walker saw Donn, who was standing on the sidelines and pursed his lips tightly, and walked over.

'Dees, look at his training and put him in the squad if he can. We played 451, defended on the counter-attack, and he was an important man. Let the team practice this formation and tactics on these two days. Seeing Walker coming over, Donn said to him.

Walker nodded, and seeing that Don was not in a good mood, he walked back again. Back at the training ground, he blew the whistle in his mouth and shouted, "All right, guys! It's time to train, don't think you'll be better off if you win! Nervous about it, from now on you're going to pay for the debt you've had for the last four months! Let's pay it back!! ”

Hearing Walker shout this, and then looking at the players who jumped up, a slight smile appeared on Donn's face.

Actually, with Nottingham Forest's poor performance in the league, it was really amazing that they were able to make it all the way to the quarter-finals of the League Cup, Collymore was not useless, at least Done has to thank him for leading the team to this point.

Originally, a week ago, when the Forest team had just changed their manager, the major bookmakers offered odds for this game quite unfavorably on the away team Nottingham Forest. However, after Donn led his team to win Crystal Palace and returned perfectly, the bookmakers immediately made odds adjustments.

One of the leading British bookmakers is William. The odds offered by William 'Hill are the most representative.

Although the Forest team won a game, many people were optimistic about him again, but considering that they played away from home and the team's new manager, the situation was unstable, and it only slightly improved the odds of the away team winning.

The odds for Forest to win away from home have changed from three to one to two to one.

Don doesn't gamble, and he doesn't like to gamble. However, from this betting odds, which have been perfectly integrated into English football, it is still possible to get a general idea of the current situation. To put it bluntly, although the team has just won, there are still not too many people who are optimistic that they can win away at Millwall. By the way, the major bookmakers are also offering Nottingham Forest the odds to win the Carabao Cup a little better than their current rivals, Millwall.

What does high odds mean? It means that neither the bookmaker nor the public is optimistic about them.

For example, in a match, the home team of the two participating teams is Manchester United and the away team is a debt-ridden amateur team that can't even afford the hotel fees, then the odds for the home team to win are one to one, and the odds for the away team to win are one to eleven. The former has low odds, because Manchester United's strength is too strong, there is almost no suspense to win, and the bookmaker offers this kind of odds in order not to lose money, and everyone knows that this result is easy to come out, although it is easy to invest money to buy, invest a hundred pounds, and only earn ten pounds. Although you earn less, it is more important than stability, and you don't lose money. The latter has high odds, although you bet 100 pounds and if you win, you will get 1,100 pounds, but the probability of such an outcome is too low. Therefore, a team with high odds means that it is not favored.

This English League Cup quarter-final is actually the least attractive of the four, with two teams from the second tier of England playing each other, what's the point? Two of the other three games were between Premier League teams and one against each other, and one was played by the favourites Arsenal.

Who, apart from their respective fans, will be following this quarter-final?

※※※A cup of black tea with an attractive aroma is placed on the table by the window. Outside the window, the sky was overcast, and it looked as if it was going to rain at any moment. But this does not affect the leisure and leisure of the person who enjoys this cup of tea with the newspaper in his hand, leaning on the sofa with his legs cocked, and concentrating on reading the newspaper. If the weather is nice, it's a great tea time.

He put down the newspaper, stretched, and then reclined on the sofa, picked up the black tea and turned his head to look out the window. Leisurely as if he were an ordinary traveler, and the noisy lobby he was in, and the people who were busy walking around him, were two completely different parallel spaces.

For Nottingham Forest manager Tony Toni Brown. For Donn, it was a rare pre-match free time.

(To be continued)