Hot Prospect by Cindy Jefferies Read Free Book Online

the incident, let’s keep it up!”
    The boy responsible for the tackle was taken aside and spoken to, but he was allowed to play on. In spite of the girl’s injury, Roddythought it was the right decision. The tackle had looked more misjudged than malicious, and with everyone going all out to impress, accidents were almost bound to happen.
    The ref signalled that play should resume. The mood had perceptibly altered and, despite Mr Jenkins’s words, everyone was definitely playing with a little less vigour than before.
    It could have been me
. The words kept echoing round his brain. Roddy told himself to concentrate on the game, but it wasn’t easy.
    With their numerical disadvantage, Roddy’s side began to struggle, and shots started to pour in on their keeper, a Swedish boy called Tom Larsson. But Tom played a blinder in goal and, incredibly, they made it to half-time without conceding. Roddy was sure that the tall goalie would get a place at the school, but his own performance so far had been nothing to shout about.
    During half-time, there was very little talking, with everyone’s minds still on the horrible accident.
    Then Roddy decided to speak up. “We’re a player down, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play well and still win,” he said. “They’ll be pushing for a goal, so let’s aim to get something on the counterattack and make them pay. We can still show the coaches what we can do!”
    From the kickoff it was pretty much as Roddy had predicted, with the other team swarming all over their defence, led by Keira, who was running the game for them. She was picking out pass after pass to play to her forwards. Eventually, Roddy’s side managed to hold onto the ball for more than a minute, and he found himself with an opportunity to run at the defence.
    Jones is off on one of his mazy dribbles,and look, he’s going past defenders as if they weren’t there, leaving them standing like training dummies! As he reaches the area, he draws back his foot and shoots … but the ball crashes off the inside of the post and spills out into the box. Perotti is there, and pounces on the free ball, sending it scudding into the goal. Geno Perotti has put his side in front against the odds, but the credit surely has to go to Roddy Jones for that scintillating run!
    Roddy glanced at the sidelines to see if Mr Jenkins had taken note of his flash of inspiration, but was shocked to see that he wasn’t there! Then he realised that there were three other matches going on, and that there were plenty of other coaches who would be scouting for him. Still, Roddy wished the junior head coach had seen it for himself. There wasn’t much time left, and with most of it spent helping out the defence, Roddy didn’thave any more chances to shine.
    At the end of the match, Roddy and Geno headed for the changing room together.
    â€œSo, what do you reckon?” asked Geno.
    Roddy shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s impossible to tell how much they noticed. I don’t think Mr Jenkins was even looking when I made that run.”
    â€œIt was a good cross you made later on,” said Geno. “And they definitely noticed that. I saw one of the assistants making a note.”
    That cheered Roddy up. At least they’d noticed
something
good that he’d done. “You scored a great goal,” he told Geno.
    â€œI
had
to score at least one,” said Geno. “I’m a striker. I can’t expect to get picked if I can’t deliver. You did most of the work for it though.”
    â€œBut you put it in the net,” said Roddy loyally. “That’s what counts.”
    â€œPerhaps,” said Geno with a frown. He pulled his shirt over his head and went to take a shower.
    Roddy didn’t really want to take the Stadium School strip off. While he was wearing it, he could pretend to himself that he’d already got his place at the