When the referee blew the final whistle, a burst of enthusiastic cheers immediately rang out at Forest Green's home ground on the outskirts of the small town of Nailsworth.
This stadium, located beside a country road leading to the small town of Nympsfield, could only accommodate a little over 4,000 people, with only 2,000 of those being seats. Even so, it still could not stop the wild celebrations of the New Manchester United fans who had travelled from afar.
The large red scoreboard displayed the final result of this match: 0-3. As usual, the home team was listed first and the away team second.
Playing away from home, New Manchester United secured their fourth victory of the season!
The home side, Forest Green, set up in an attacking formation right from the start, bombarding New Manchester United's defense. They hoped to use their home advantage to overwhelm New Manchester United in one fell swoop and take 3 valuable points from this newly promoted side, whom they believed relied more on luck than strength.
But who would have thought that despite playing away from home, New Manchester United were just as unwilling to back down, uncharacteristically choosing to play attacking football.
Among the five attacking players, Žigić, Crouch, Krzynówek, Darren Lyons, and Juninho, four were future players in Europe's top leagues. Even Darren Lyons, who would have the lowest career achievements among them, had been in excellent form recently.
Looking at the defense, the lineup made up of Poulsen, Evra, Distin, Gary Turner, Steinsson, and Schmeichel was not inferior to the attacking lineup at all. It also featured five future players in Europe's top leagues.
Although Forest Green had invested a lot of money this season and brought in several capable players, most of them came from amateur leagues, so the improvement in strength was limited. This was why they had suffered heavy defeats in the previous three league rounds. With an attack that had only scored 1 goal in 3 league matches, trying to break through the goal guarded by Schmeichel was truly quite difficult.
In the 12th minute, Žigić used a corner-kick opportunity to score with a header at the near post, officially sounding the horn for New Manchester United's attack.
Then, in the 31st minute, Darren Lyons scored directly from a free kick, changing the score to 0-2!
In the second half, after the teams changed ends, New Manchester United's attacking momentum remained undiminished. They pinned Forest Green in their own half and bombarded them for nearly 20 minutes. Finally, in the 78th minute, Crouch scored another goal after receiving a headed flick-on from Žigić.
While taking 3 points away from The New Lawn, New Manchester United also received news from their competitors.
In the matches played at the same time, Kidderminster won 1-0 against their opponent, while Morecambe suffered an unexpected defeat. This allowed New Manchester United to overtake Kidderminster again, moving top of the table with 12 points from 4 straight wins, while Morecambe ranked 3rd with 9 points from 3 wins and 1 loss.
After winning 4 in a row, New Manchester United enjoyed the treatment of a dark horse. Almost the entire National League was surprised by the strength this team had shown, especially the players New Manchester United had brought in this season. For example, the young Serbian-Montenegrin Žigić, who had scored 6 goals in 4 league matches, attracted considerable attention as the 19-year-old "Super Tank."
Four consecutive victories were a great joy, but behind the happiness, there were also many regrets. For instance, Juninho's performance was as poor as ever.
Regarding this Brazilian star's performance, everyone at New Manchester United, from top to bottom, had given him great support.
It had to be acknowledged that whether on the training ground or on the pitch, his attitude was very diligent and professional. His work ethic was beyond doubt, but his performances had indeed become serious enough to affect the progress of the surging New Manchester United.
For example, in the first round against Rushden & Diamonds and the third round away against Dover, it was only after Juninho left the pitch that New Manchester United began to play well. Once Juninho was on the pitch, not only did he fail to show his strengths as a playmaker, but even the individual ability expected from a Brazilian player was rarely seen.
To continue trusting this Brazilian core, Bruce even went as far as sacrificing the team's attacking power, playing a one-striker setup with two defensive midfielders. Even so, Juninho's performance was still very poor.
Should they continue to trust him? Or should they use players in better form?
After the fourth round of the league, a major discussion arose within New Manchester United, and even the coaching staff began to take this issue seriously.
On August 21, in the fifth round of the National League, New Manchester United challenged Leek away from home.
This team came from the same town as Leek CSOB, the opponent New Manchester United had encountered in the first round of the North West Counties League Division Two. However, unlike other teams from the same town or city that became bitter rivals and played derbies, the relationship between Leek and Leek CSOB was merely one of mutual non-interference.
Leek's current situation was also not optimistic, with 2 draws and 2 losses from 4 league matches, and they had yet to win a single game. However, perhaps influenced by New Manchester United's excellent previous performances, Leek very humbly adopted a defensive approach for this match.
New Manchester United's starting lineup changed slightly. The forwards were still the duo of Žigić and Crouch, with Juninho and Karl Marginson paired in midfield. The left and right wide midfielders were Richie Wellens and the young Hleb, respectively. The defense from left to right was Evra, Abidal, Distin, and Steinsson, while the goalkeeper was changed to Almunia.
The combination of two tall strikers should have been awkward, but because of Crouch's excellent technique and Žigić's physical strength, the duo actually looked very compatible. In this match against Leek, both scored 2 goals each, bringing another victory to the team.
Although it was a 0-4 rout, 3 of the goals came in the final 30 minutes of the second half. It was not until stoppage time in the first half that Crouch used his individual skill to score a goal. Other than that, New Manchester United's performance throughout the first half was much worse than Leek's.
And the trigger for this big win was Juninho leaving the pitch.
After this match, there was no longer any controversy within New Manchester United over whether to use Juninho or Poulsen. Even Scarlett from the Manchester Evening News specifically wrote a commentary, arguing that while it was indeed a pity to drop Juninho, for the sake of the team's results, Poulsen was clearly more suitable for the current New Manchester United.
As if to confirm this viewpoint.
In the sixth round of the league, New Manchester United hosted fourth-placed Boston at home. Bruce still stubbornly chose to start Juninho alongside Poulsen. The two wide midfielders were still Krzynówek and Hleb, the forwards were still Žigić and Crouch, and the defensive line remained unchanged, except that Schmeichel returned as the goalkeeper.
But with this combination, they were almost torn apart by Boston at home. Fortunately, Schmeichel displayed the level of a world-class goalkeeper, making save after save to help New Manchester United scrape a 0-0 draw against Boston at home.
After this match, Boston's head coach complained a lot, believing his team deserved a victory.
It was also this match that forced Bruce to consider the opinions of the rest of the coaching staff.
In the seventh round of the National League, New Manchester United challenged Woking away from home, which was considered the highlight of this round.
Woking were a strong team in the National League. Although they had not achieved promotion in the past ten years, they were able to steadily secure a play-off spot in the National League every year. Such a team was undoubtedly quite difficult to deal with.
In the first six rounds of this season, Woking had 3 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss, totaling 11 points and ranking 6th. However, it was worth noting that they had only played 3 home matches this season and had won all of them, while their other 3 away matches had resulted in 2 draws and 1 loss. This showed how difficult their home ground was to play at.
To deal with this match, Bruce and the coaching staff spent a considerable amount of energy studying Woking.
On the day of the match, Bruce announced the starting lineup in the dressing room. Žigić and Crouch were still the forward duo, Krzynówek and Hleb served as the left and right wide midfielders, Poulsen and Karl Marginson formed the central midfield, and the defense used the combination of Evra, Abidal, Distin, and Kevin Evans, with Schmeichel still in goal.
When Juninho did not hear his name from Bruce's mouth, his already dull eyes became even more lifeless. Although he had been mentally prepared, after all, his performance in the last home match had been very, very poor, the truth was that when he learned he had been left out of the starting lineup, he still felt deeply hurt.
He had come to England to play football, to make a name for himself, and then to play for a giant club. He firmly believed he had that kind of ability.
But once he truly experienced English football, he discovered that in this environment, he could not even display a third of his usual strength.
Although New Manchester United had considered everything they could for him, such as going through great trouble to find a restaurant with a Brazilian chef, preparing a house for him as soon as he arrived in Manchester, and currently working hard to bring his family to Manchester.
But in reality, he still was not used to life here. He did not like the weather, and he liked the style of football even less. Because of this, he always felt troubled, to the point that over the past month, he had hardly had a single good night's sleep.
At the moment Bruce announced that he had been left out of the starting lineup, an extremely strong urge suddenly surged in his heart. He wanted to escape Manchester, escape England, and return to Brazil. This urge was so strong that it was not at all weaker than his original desire to escape the Brazilian league.
Maybe I should never have come here at all! Juninho thought dejectedly.
Bruce did not notice Juninho sitting on the bench thinking about returning to Brazil. He was focused on the players' performance on the pitch.
Although Woking were strong, New Manchester United's players were no pushovers. As it turned out, being tormented by Boston in the last home match had only been a small accident for this newly formed team. So in this match, New Manchester United pulled themselves together and once again neatly took down Woking 2-0 away from home.
But while everyone at New Manchester United, even the players on the bench, were celebrating another hard-fought victory, Juninho was looking up at the sky. It was gloomy, without even a single ray of sunlight to be seen.
He wanted to escape this hellhole!
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)