Connections

41

*

Match day -1

"Anyone actually managed to find your favourite coffee shop yet?" Eva asks me during breakfast, "nope" I smile, "and I doubt they will anytime soon, unless they have help" I add, looking at the translator and then around the room.

"They all seem pretty baffled to me" she says, "they do indeed" I reply, "which is why I have enlisted the help of my sisters teammates Alessia Russo and Lotte Wubben-Moy, who also happen to be friends with our very own Ellie Roebuck and Georgia Stanway.

They are to go through town and get coffee with my sister at several shops, including our favourite haunt, posting their exploits on their InstaStories which I am sure at least Georgia and Ellie will see" I explain, "that way, the girls will have a list of shops to work with and hopefully I'll have winners by game-time tomorrow" I finish.

"Smart plan" Eva replies, nodding her head approvingly, "anyone remotely close yet, even a tiny little bit?" she asks.

"I think Steph and KB have inklings about where it might be" I reply, "but as yet, they haven't got it right" I add, looking up to see Patri coming over for a word with Eva and nod over her shoulder; "you got incoming" I say, a mouth full of toast.

She smiles at me and then turns to acknowledge Miss Guijarro, conversing with her in Spanish for a while before looking back to me.

"Patri wants to talk to you about something" Eva says and I nearly choke on my toast, I don't know why when I'm assistant coach and it's not unusual for my players to talk to me; "oh ok, let's erm... let's go somewhere a bit quieter".

Eva nods and we stand up before I lead the two of them out of the breakfast hall and down the corridor to an empty conference room. I shut the door behind the pair and then turn to face them, "what is it you wanted to talk about?" I ask Patri through Eva, "I..." the youngster starts and I can tell she's trying really hard to do this.

"I know coffee shop" she manages with an accent and I stop dead.

"Wait what?" I ask, "I know coffee shop you go with sister" she adds and then it hits me, she's worked it out! Eva and I break out into smiles, "really?" I ask, "I was going to help you out today with some clues but if you've done it all by yourself..." I ramble and Eva has to translate for a confused Patri.

"Sorry" I reply, waving my hand at the midfielder, "too fast" she says and I nod, laughing; "yes too fast".

Pulling out my phone, I pull up a picture of the coffee shop online and show it to Patricia, "is this it?" I ask, slower now and hoping she'll understand. She nods and turns to Eva, explaining through the translator how she found out about it, saying she thought she recognised a shop we saw in town the other day from a photo. She double checked it on a photo from Lily's Instagram and it turned out to be the exact one as I'd shown her on my phone.

"Bravo" I say when Eva's finished talking, "well done Patri" I add.

"Now what to do about your team. Did they have an idea about which shop it might be, that you even knew?" I ask, again through Eva and she shakes her head.

"10/10 for ingenuity though" I nod, "and for that, I think you've just won your team and the other two teams, the chance to come and see my sister with me" I explain as Eva translates, a confused expression falling on Patri's face.

"Don't worry about the competition, I was going to take you all anyway" I smile, "it was just a bit of team bonding so that you and the new girls felt a bit more at home" I add. Her face lights up again when Eva tells her the news and she smiles, "thank you" she replies slowly.

"It's alright, I'm glad you're feeling happier and hopefully you now know the girls a bit better".

*

Telling the girls that their teammates had worked it out on her own, without her team and that the competition wasn't real, didn't go down very well but once everyone had got over it; I told them the good news.

"At the end of the tour and not depending on the results, I will still take you to meet my sister" I say as they start murmuring between each other.

"I know, I know that Patri figured it out by herself and I know that some particular people" I add looking at KB and Jill, "may be annoyed that they didn't find it due to their competitive nature, however I believe that you are now all closer than you were at the end of last season and I think we have a good chance of going into the game tomorrow and winning" I finish.

The girls go back to talking between themselves and look across to Patri who is trying to understand what Steph is saying to her about Stephen, but I suppose it's harder with her accent.

I have my suspicions about how the midfielder knew about but I'm going to let them lie until the end of the tour.

"Charlotte. Meetings about to start" Twadds says, sticking her head around the door and indicating for me to follow her. I leave the girls in peace and walk with Julie down to another conference room, opposite the stairs, following her into the room and closing the door behind me.

"Alright, now we're all here" Nick says as I take a seat at the table, "I would like to address who we will be playing in tomorrow's game" he adds. "Goalkeeper?" the manager asks Chris, who is sat to the left of me, "I think Ellie. This will be good experience for her against a team she faced before. It will be interesting to see how she gets on" he replies and I agree.

Nick walks over to the board and writes Ellie in goal, "ok defensively Charlotte, who would you go for?" he asks me.

"Changing our style of play and formation effects who and how we play, taking into account the opposition of course" I start, "I think we should go Mathilde, Steph, Aoife and Demi across the back. Fidalgo and Mannion have proved themselves this week and haven't stopped working hard since they started" I add.

"Midfield?" the head coach asks as he writes my decisions on the board, "Katie Bradley, Caroline and Patricia Guijarro" I reply, "Katie deserves the start and I think it will be good for her to be alongside Weir and also Patri for her first team experience" I explain.

"And forwards?" Nick says, "Hemp, White and Coombs" I say.

"Good. Now Paul Riley likes them to line up in some unconventional formations, mostly in what looks like a 4-2-2-2 but is actually a 4-2-4. He likes to use his outside 'midfielders' to play on the wings, leaving two players to get up from the middle joining the forwards" he explains.

"Confusing" Chris says, voicing exactly what I was thinking.

"I'll show you" Nick says, pulling over a new piece of paper and drawing out their formation, "I believe he'll go with Stephanie Labbé in goal and then we'll call it the 'midfield four' that's Sam Mewis and Denise O'Sullivan and either Debinha, Zerboni or Crystal Dunn to run the wings leaving Mewis and O'Sullivan in midfield. Riley favours Hamilton and McDonald so I think they'd be his preferred pairing for this game" he adds.

"Any planned substitutions?" I ask and he nods, "Wullaert for Katie Bradley at half time and then Janine or Lisa for Ellen during the second half" Nick replies.

"Everyone clear with that?" the manager asks and we nod, "ok, Charlotte I presume the girls are still together?" he says. "Yeh in the other conference room" I reply, "ok, go and break the news and we'll talk tactics with them".

*