Roy of the Rovers A New Beginning Week 12 In the sitting room of his apartment, Trevor Brinsden was reviewing

g a short memorandum, it had been sent to all four of his laundry depots: Staff council, volunteers wanted. That should tempt our spy! Trevor was desperate to identify John Lucas mole, but all he knew was that he was male. Surely he would apply to be on the staff council, the memo made it clear that the councillors would have monthly meetings with senior staff including the owner. This was another of David Roths ideas, So Trev, where are these applications? Trevor passed over the dozen or so one page statements. Roth divided them into two piles, This should be easy; there are only two men, Gary Richardson and Javier Acosta. Trevor interrupted, Its not Gary, Ive known him for years, hes a mate, been on the firm since the beginning. David quickly read through Acostas statement, Trust Lucas to use the poor and weak. Hes only been in the country a year. Hes from Colombia and thinks hes best to represent the low level staff because hes new he can see all the problems. Trevor brought up Acostas employment record on his laptop, Twenty-two years old, been on the firm four months. So his probation is up in two months, how much damage can he do in that time? Roth answered, That depends on your current practises. You use casual workers, better get them on zero hour contracts that will secure that side. Send another memo out demanding that all workers wear the correct protective clothing and that line managers will be conducting spot checks. Trevor was grateful again for Davids advice, Id move the accounts department too, that way everything will be up in the air for a few weeks. Lucas will definitely try to hack into those. But he cant do that if theyre unplugged and in transit. Once theyre moved, move them again. Youve got four district offices make use of them all. Lucas has great resources, remember that report, weve got to play a defensive game here Trev! Trevor stood up and eyed a large team photograph of the 1972/73 Melchester Rovers squad, Thats not the Rovers way, Dave! Id rather attack, let him worry about us. Hes going after me, hes going to find something, he has to.

Trevors house phone started ringing, caller-ID showed an international number +1, thats the States, he picked up, HelloRocky! Ive some bad news, mate Trevor explained everything that had been going on with Lucas. The once famous son of the even more famous father was not amused, Im out here to be anonymous. I coach a college soccer team and work on MLS TV. Dont let him do this to us. If the wife finds out, my marriage will be finished!

*** Roy Race sat in his favourite restaurant in the city centre of Melchester waiting for his dinner companion. Roy adored Greek cuisine, he developed a taste for it after taking Rovers on a preseason tour to Crete in 1980. Since then he and the family had often holidayed on the islands, eventually buying a large villa with its own private beach in 1993. Roy had spent the majority of the previous three years living there enjoying the pleasant climate and great food. Roy! Sorry Im late old man, Roy stood to greet his guest, a tall figure, still with a shock of dark hair, reached out a big mitt and shook hands vigorously, No worries Johnny! You looking forward to tomorrow? The Hard Man, Johnny Dexter, was now manager of his club, Danefield United, the opponents of Melchester Rovers on Saturday. Danefield had been underachieving for the past eight years, since winning the European Cup for the second time in 2005. Thats why Dexter was brought home as manager, he would not tolerate underachievers, this United side would be tough and play with passion and desire. I cant wait, Roy! Were on good form, seventh in the league, just two defeats, to Portdean and Kelburn. Rovers are indifferent really, but it will be a tense game I can promise that. Ive made sure were difficult to beat. Dexter had been in the job for just over a year now, having made his name as a manager at Castlemere, who he had established as a mid-table Premier League club. In his first season he had led Danefield to third place, their highest place for six years. I like the look of your forwards; you signed two genuine world-class players to play with Berchesi. Theyre the best front three in the country, in my opinion. Roys compliments were not for the benefit of his old friend, he really believed that Danefield could challenge for the title. Its only a matter of time before your team gels. The defence is solid and improving, your new goalie is playing really well, I rate him. When the defence is settled and that forward line firing consistently, you will have a real top side. I have to say Im jealous. Our squad at Rovers is very thin. Vernon has to be really strict with tactics at the moment, just to try to get them playing the Rovers way, but some just arent up to it. Harry Jacobs is out this week too. Hes been impressive, cant be far away from an England call-up; although hes competing with my man Newton for that left-wing position. Newtons been on superb form, the leagues top scorer with eight. Dexter was glad Roy had invited him to dinner, they had not seen each other socially for over four years. Many outsiders falsely believed that they did not get on. That was just not true. Johnny had no time for Roys son, Rocky, that was no secret. But the Hard Man had always called on Roy for advice throughout his managerial career. Remember Ben Argent, Racey? Cant believe I paid you two million quid for him! He was a real wally. Roy did recall the young midfielder, he had hoped he would develop into a Jimmy Slade or Terry Spring, but he had a bad attitude, Some players are beyond help. I wouldnt even blame the fame or money with Ben. He just never grew up. I hoped the move to Castlemere and your tough approach would straighten him out. Dexter had tried his best to force Argent to realise his potential, I went in hard to start with, but he wasnt a tough guy. He just melted away from me and stopped coming to training. Softly, softly didnt work either. He then did what he wanted, getting into trouble again. We had some good match-ups in the late 90s though. You really transformed Castlemere into a good Premier League side, that takes some doing. Now youve got the big job, your dream job. I wish you all the best, after this Saturday of course!

Fabrice NDiaye's late penalty gave Melchester victory over Holverton and lifted Rovers to eighth in the Premier League.
Frustrated for long periods, the hosts were relieved when NDiaye finished after Ahmed Mohalehbi handled. NDiaye had earlier been denied by Holverton keeper Steve Stringer, while Drew Powell hooked over the bar. Tommy Stone volleyed over in the first half but the visitors were increasingly pressed back and were ultimately undone from the spot. Until then, it looked like Holverton's five-man defence would thwart a Rovers side that appeared to lack the guile to create goalscoring opportunities. But, when Mohalehbi was adjudged to have used his arm to block Jean-Paul Lamidel's cross 10 minutes from time, NDiaye slotted his third league goal of the season. It was perhaps apt that this contest between the lowest goalscorers in the Premier League's top half was settled by a sole goal from the spot, but that will serve as little comfort to a Holverton team that could justifiably argue they deserved a point. Hampered by injuries and the suspension of on-loan Portdean midfielder Jack Hartson, Whites boss Steve Robertson was forced to make six changes to the side beaten by Melboro last week.

Holverton were set-up to contain, an objective they fulfilled successfully for much of the first period. Besides the set-piece that gave Powell the space for Rovers' best chance of the half, the hosts were mainly restricted to long-range efforts from Wesley King, the lively Jake Cheetham and Freddy Van Den Broeck, recalled for his first league start since early August in place of Curtis Blunt. But Holverton were also able to counter and make chances of their own - Georgie Mann and Nicolas Sagna forced home goalkeeper Nathan Daniels into action, while the excellent Stone fired over on his return to the club with whom he spent eight years. The Whites, though, found attacking opportunities harder to come by as the game wore on and Rovers applied more pressure in the second half, particularly after the introduction of Harry Jacobs. When Richie Lyons fed NDiaye, the Frenchman was well-placed to break the deadlock only for Stringer - making his first league start for the Whites because of an injury to Ally McSweeney - to dive low to his left and palm away. With that chance gone, Holverton looked increasingly likely to get away with a draw until the penalty decision went against them. There was still time for Rovers to suffer a twin scare, first when Lyons took a heavy fall into the crowd and then from a Stone free-kick with the last action of the match. Lyons was knocked unconscious but got up to finish the game, while Stone shot wide.

***

Roy Race sat in his lounge reviewing the Premier League table on his laptop. It was clear already that there was a massive gulf in quality between the top sides (Melboro and Kelburn) and those in the bottom half, let alone the two already stranded at the bottom (Oldfield and Deans Park). What worried Roy most, however, was that Melchester Rovers had already played against three of the weaker sides (Deans Park, Oldfield and Redstoke), but had only picked up one win. They would need to play much better when the tough games against the top two came along back-to-back at Christmas. But Roy liked to look for positives; Rovers were only two points from fifth, the minimum placing unwisely promised by Vernon Eliot. And they were already seven points clear of the relegation zone. Burndean were the surprise package so far. They were converting their good cup form, of the last three years, into league points. Many pundits were shocked by the poor form of Castlemere and Deans Park, given their good finishes in 2012/13. But it did not surprise Roy, both were so one-dimensional, always playing negative football. It seems to be acceptable for so many of the Premier Leagues lesser teams to just contain, never to take any risks on or off the field, never blooding young home-grown players. Roy would never have pictured this after the amazing start to the Premier League in 1992/93, when teams of talented English players slogged out entertaining matches week after week. That was the last season he played, perhaps Roy Race had influenced English football even more than his greatest fans realised. Storky Knight NEXT WEEK Rocky Race returns to England as Melchester Rovers face Eastgate in London