Godfather Of Champions

As an outsider, Tang En did not understand much of the rivalry that spanned close to one and a half centuries between the two teams. He was more willing to attribute it to Notts County\'s jealousy of Nottingham Forest\'s achievements. After all, Forest had twice attained the highest honor within the European clubs. Furthermore, they had also maintained a long-term position in the first group within the domestic league. The honors they had gained were so much more than those of Notts County.

Within Nottingham, Notts County had always represented the citizens of a lower tier. Black and white jerseys, a club that never managed to escape the clutches of a financial crisis, playing around in the lower leagues… All these were compatible with the image of poor miners. It was just like the two teams in Spain\'s capital, Madrid: Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. While Nottingham Forest represented the well-off middle-class citizens, Notts County was the ideological prop of the poorer, lower-classes.

Once soccer was elevated to a height of a class-struggle, Tang En could visualize and understand the heated clash that was bound to occur.

Reality proved his speculations.

The tickets for the match sold out early. It was not just on the day itself; the tickets were sold out two days before the match. When Notts County had successfully advanced into the third round of the English FA Cup and was scheduled to meet with Nottingham Forest, all the tickets were quickly snatched up.

To Notts County, whether they could become champions of the FA Cup was of no consequence at all. Even if they lost to a less worthy team in the next round, they would not be too upset. However, this was only true if they beat Nottingham Forest this round.

On the other hand, Nottingham Forest did not have any particular obsession with this match. If not in consideration for the feelings of Forest\'s fans, Tang En was considering sending out a combination of the Youth Team and Reserve Team. There were hardly any players from Nottingham Forest that held a deep grudge against Notts County; most of them were "migrant workers." Faced with a derby game in which teams came from different levels, there was just not that much interest.

The pre-match preparations progressed as per usual. Forest\'s players did not care much about their opponents. In their eyes, both the Premier League and UEFA Europa League were much more important.

Just five minutes into the match, Notts County gave Forest a taste of their prowess, sending the ball slamming into their goalpost with a long shot from afar!

When it came to passion for "Derby games," England\'s fans were in the top three.

Once the match had begun, so long as Notts County had possession, the entire City Ground would be blanketed with loud jeers. But now, there were at least two seconds of silence that filled the spectators\' stands. For the Forest fans, they saw the victory of this match as a given; there would not be any incident.

Yet, Notts County\'s first shot had almost scored them a goal. Forest was momentarily stunned.

In the previous round of the league match, they had played on their home grounds against Newcastle, who were also in black and white jerseys. The fans had taken that match as a rehearsal for today. Playing amid ear-deafening jeers, the players from Newcastle were completely discombobulated.

But this technique seemed to have no effect on Notts County.

In the first half of the match, Notts County was not at all disadvantaged and was fighting with Forest Team on even grounds. Though neither the abilities nor overall stamina of their players were on par with Forest team, they clearly had a greater fighting spirit than Forest\'s players. They were more willing to run and give their all. This attitude made up for whatever else they were lacking.

The first half ended with 0:0. Both teams fought a bland battle for 40 minutes. Although there was not much technique involved, it was still effective against Notts County.

At half-time, Tang En told his players not to view this match as a simple match-up against a football team from a low-level league. The concept of "Derby" did not need further explanation from him. They had to face up properly to their opponents, especially their arch-rivals from the same city.

Forest\'s players who returned to the field with the attitude of "this is an important match, and we have to do our best" were no longer as easily dealt with by Notts County.

After just ten minutes of resistance from Notts County in the second half, their goal finally took its first hit.

A direct free kick from Albertini 28 meters outside the penalty area shot beautifully into Notts County\'s goal. The goal ignited City Ground and, at the same time, demolished the intangible wall between the two teams.

While spirit could influence a moment or two, it could not influence the entire match; on the soccer field, it was still concrete ability that spoke the loudest. Although Notts County was unwilling to lose, they knew that the difference in their abilities with the current Forest Team was too great.

A point behind Forest, Notts County continued struggling to retaliate with the intention of equalizing the score.

But five minutes later, the merciless Forest team scored another goal. Ribéry finally scored his first goal for Forest. Based on his capabilities, this goal came indeed a little too late. However, in exchange, he ranked first within Forest Team for his offensive assists.

In facing Notts County\'s players who were evidently weaker than he was, Ribéry put up a good show of a tremendous struggle in the wing, dribbling past numerous Notts County players with the ball, and finally took his shot at the opponent\'s goal from a corner of the goal area.

The difference between 2:0 and 1:0 was not merely a single goal. What followed was the complete collapse of Notts County.

Throughout the whole of the second half, Tang En stood at the sidelines. His action made Forest\'s players think he was supervising them; they did not dare to slack off.

At the end of the match after 90 minutes, the electronic scoreboard stopped at a score of 6:0. What was an intensely ferocious derby game transformed into a one-sided butchering thanks to Tang En\'s work "behind-the-scenes."

Looking at Notts County\'s fans giving him the finger from the spectators\' stand, Tang En knew that the differences between the two teams would continue to intensify in his period of management of Forest Team. While there might not be an opportunity for them to meet again on the field, the score of 6:0 was enough to sear it into their minds for a lifetime…

He shrugged and smiled as he turned to walk towards the location of the press conference.

Being hated by his enemies felt good.

※※※

"…We played a brilliant game. I am very proud of my players\' performance. They didn\'t take their opponents lightly simply because their abilities were less than ours; they displayed great sportsmanship with their performance. I believe that the fans of Notts county will agree with me on this. They will not regret being defeated by an opponent that did their best…"

"Dog-s**t! Who likes being defeated by you guys?!" A Notts County fan spat in fury and threw the Nottingham Evening Post onto the ground.

"We sure would rather you serve up your Youth Team to lose to us!"

Looking at Tony Twain\'s happy, beaming face on the newspaper, he stomped on it. As if it was not enough, he spat on it again, right onto Tony\'s face.