by Joe O'Brien
It was agreed that Jonathon would jump for the throw in as Dempsey had stepped forward.
Danny could see both Dempsey and Savage trying to make eye contact with him to further wind him up, but Danny wasn’t having any of it. He wanted to show everyone that he was better than that – better than them, not just at football, but also in the way he carried himself and represented his team as captain.
Danny had one last look over to the line just to give Mick a thumbs-up when he noticed Trinity and Lowry walking up towards Larry who was standing near Jimmy.
Regina was trailing behind with Granny Maureen. Now, all the Wilde family was here and, most importantly to Danny, Trinity had decided to come after all.
That gave Danny a real boost.
‘All set, lads?’ asked the referee.
Jonathon and Danny nodded. Dempsey and Savage nodded.
‘Best of luck, boys. I know this is a big game, but keep it clean.’
The whistle was blown and the ball was in the air.
Dempsey out-jumped Jonathon and fisted the ball down to Savage. Danny pounced toward Savage like the tiger that Hammer Hughes had compared him to, but Savage cleverly side-stepped Danny’s approach and left the Crokes’ captain face down on the turf.
Jonathon could hear Dempsey laughing at Danny, so he stuck a sneaky elbow into Dempsey’s side as he ran past him. Dempsey tried to retaliate, but Danny quickly jumped to his feet and pulled Jonathon away.
Savage had kicked the ball out to his left half forward who beat Darren Ward, the Crokes’ right half back, then sent a low pass back across the Crokes’ defence to his centre half forward.
The Crokes number six, Alan Whelan, jumped onto the back of the Barnfield forward and sent him crashing to the ground.
The referee blew his whistle. Barnfield had a free kick.
Sean Dempsey was one of the best kickers for Barnfield, and that was one of the reasons why he had made i t onto the Dublin development squad.
Dempsey took the ball to hand, took a few steps forward, then kicked a massive high shot toward the Crokes’ goal. The ball seemed to stay in the air forever, but as it came down, it was noticeable from where Mick and Jimmy were standing that it was going to fall short.
‘Defend!’ Jimmy roared.
Liam Darcy, the Crokes’ keeper, never took his eyes off the ball, but unfortunately, neither did big Johnner Purcell, the Crokes’ full back. The two Crokes’ players clumsily collided.
The ball clattered off Big Johnner’s left shoulder and into the path of the Barnfield full forward.
The number fourteen snatched the lose ball in his hands and thumped it into the back of the Crokes’ net.
GOAL!
Mick glanced across the field. He could see Tommy Dempsey almost break-dancing with joy.
Jimmy patted Mick on the back.
‘No worries, boss!’ encouraged Jimmy. ‘Our boys will bounce back.’
Unfortunately, Jimmy was wrong. The Barnfield centre half forward caught the kick out and sent the ball back toward the Crokes’ goal, scoring a brilliant point.
Things went from bad to worse. The Crokes’ defence lacked discipline and that allowed Barnfield to add two more points, bringing their score to 1-3, and still the Crokes had hardly got the ball out of their own half.
Both Danny and Jonathon worked hopelessly to get the ball up to their forwards, but Barnfield was simply on their game and it seemed as if the Crokes could do nothing about it.
Occasionally, Danny would look over toward his line to see if Trinity was cheering him on, but not once did they make eye contact. In fact, it looked to Danny that Trinity wasn’t even interested in the match. At one point, she and Lowry even took Heffo for a walk.
Danny heard his name being called. It was coming from Jonathon, who had robbed the ball from the Barnfield right halfback.
Danny sprinted into a space, but he knew Deco Savage was trailing him.
Jonathon kicked a low pass along the ground, right into the path of Danny’s run.
Danny pulled off a spectacular pick up and was just about to send a high one into his full forward line when Savage knocked the ball from Danny’s hands.
The ball fell away from both Danny and Savage.
The Barnfield centre half back had left Doyler and come out to collect it, but Danny wasn’t going to give up that easily.
Seeing Danny sprinting towards the ball, the Barnfield number six lashed out his boot to kick the ball away. Danny bravely dived with both hands stretched and marvellously blocked down the kick, ricocheting the ball out to Jason Delaney, the Crokes’ right full forward who had moved in towards the action.
CRASH! The Barnfield centre half back’s leg followed through and caught Danny full force in the face.
Danny rolled over twice, then lay still – no movement, no sound.
Mick and Jimmy raced onto the pitch.
Trinity and Lowry had just come around the bend of hedging at the top end of the pitch when they noticed all the commotion.
‘God!’ said Lowry. ‘I hope that’s not Jonathon. Mammy will have a fit!’
Trinity laughed, but when they got closer, they noticed that Larry had his hands on his head and Regina had an arm around Granny Maureen.
‘I think it’s Danny,’ said Lowry, seeing Jonathon standing behind Jimmy.
Trinity and Lowry joined Larry and Regina. Trinity looked terrified. Please let him be all right! was written all over her face.
And Danny was all right. In fact, after a few seconds, he was sitting up and Mick was splashing water into his face.
‘Ouch!’ Danny complained.
‘You’re going to have a shiner there, Danny,’ Jimmy joked.
Mick put four fingers out in front of Danny’s face.
‘How many fingers am I holding out, son?’ asked Mick.
‘Eight,’ Danny joked. ‘I’m alright, Da. Let me up.’
Danny was a bit wobbly on his feet.
‘I think we’ll take him off, Jimmy.’
‘No!’ protested Danny with passion in his voice.
Mick looked at Jimmy.
‘We’ll keep an eye on him,’ Jimmy said.
‘Very funny.’ Danny let out a laugh.
The small gathering of players dispersed as Mick and Jimmy returned to the line. Danny’s eye was swollen but he was fine and more determined than ever to turn this game around.
There was no free kick awarded as it wasn’t seen as a foul, so the referee threw the ball in between Jonathon and Sean Dempsey. Jonathon won the ball and immediately fisted across to Danny who was being marshalled by Deco Savage.
Danny swiftly turned Savage and sent a perfect pass into Barry Sweeney who out-jumped his marker then did a Barry Sweeney special and kicked the ball high over his head for a super point.
Finally, the Crokes had scored, but it didn’t stop there.
Doyler caught the Barnfield kick out. He couldn’t find any space to shoot, as the Barnfield centre half back was glued to him, so he kicked the ball out to Splinter who flicked it up and swerved a beautiful shot over the bar.
The referee had one last look at his watch, then blew his whistle.
The Crokes players jogged over to the line. They were behind by a score of 1-3 to 0-2.
Jimmy rallied around all the players, while Mick sat Danny down near the training bag to have another look at his eye.
Heffo kept jumping up on Danny’s lap and licking his face.
‘Get off Heffo, ya mad thing ya,’ Danny said with a laugh.
Trinity popped her head around a couple of players beside Danny.
‘Would you like me to take him?’ she asked, smiling. ‘Oooh! That looks nasty.’
Danny lowered his head.
‘Lift your head, son,’ Mick complained; he was trying to hold an ice pack up to Danny’s face.
Trinity slipped away.
‘That wasn’t very nice,’ Mick said.
‘I don’t know why she bothered to come to the g
ame.’
Mick wasn’t going to take that conversation any further. He had a team to organise and a second half to get on with.
***
Danny had a little look around for Trinity as the referee blew his whistle for the second half. He felt bad for being rude to her; then he put her out of his mind. He would talk to her at the end of the game and try and sort things out.
Danny jumped for the second half throw in and beat Deco Savage to it. He fisted it over to Jonathon who immediately kicked a long pass up field before Dempsey could challenge him.
There was a battle in the Barnfield defence for the first few minutes of the second half which resulted in the Barnfield left half back fouling Jason Delaney, the Crokes number thirteen.
Danny stepped up to take the free kick and he sent it straight over the bar for a point.
That brought the score to 1-3 to 0-3 in favour of Barnfield.
The match had turned into a great contest of determination and bravery on the part of both teams. Neither wanted to admit defeat and the rivalry between the clubs was greater than ever. Barnfield had beaten the Crokes early in the season on their own pitch, but the Crokes had beaten them in the semi finals of the Féile during the summer. This was almost the seasonal decider. Victors today would be second best in the under-fourteen’s division 1, but that was becoming part of local GAA history and would be reported in the sports column in the following day’s local gazette as ‘The Battle of Littlestown!’
***
There were only five minutes on the clock and Barnfield and the Crokes had both added two more points each.
The score was 1-5 to 0-5 in favour of Barnfield. Everything was going to plan for the away team.
But Danny wasn’t going to give in too easily and he was making his own plans to change that score.
Danny had dropped back into his own half to pick up a long pass from Karl O’Toole, the Crokes’ left half back.
Danny beckoned Jonathon in towards him and little did Jonathon realise as he ran closer to his cousin that he would be involved in one of the best GAA moves his team had ever pulled off.
Danny fisted the ball over Sean Dempsey’s head and into the hands of Jonathon.
Jonathon looked up and kicked out to Brian O’Reilly, the Crokes’ left half forward. Brian dropped the ball, but with the Barnfield right half back chomping on his heels, the Crokes’ number twelve regained his composure and made a perfect pick up.
He turned and looked out to his right and spotted Jonathon, who had moved into a free space.
The Crokes’ left half forward hand passed the ball to Jonathon, who then hand passed to Danny who was running along side him.
The ball had made its way back to Danny and he was going to do something wonderful with it.
Danny powered forward. Clara’s nickname was in the front of his mind – Tiger Boots. Danny felt like a tiger and the pitch was his territory. He was about to move in for the kill!
His solo brought him right into the heart of the Barnfield defence. The Barnfield centre half back thought Danny was going to shoot for a point so he jumped in the air with both hands above his head.
BIG MISTAKE!
Danny tricked him and stepped to his right, then fisted a pass out to Jason Delaney, his right full forward.
Delaney returned the pass to Danny, slipping the ball past the Barnfield full back.
Danny Wilde caught the ball and BANG!
GOAL!
Danny had started that epic move and finished it with one of the best goals that the Little Croker had ever seen.
The Crokes’ sideline erupted. They were level. All they needed was a draw to clinch the runner up spot. Their keeper kicked the ball out for the last time in the game as the referee blew his whistle.
The game was over.
***
Sean ‘Dirty’ Dempsey and Deco Savage could only hold their heads in their hands in total humility as Danny’s teammates picked him up and carried him over to all the Crokes’ supporters.
Tommy Dempsey reluctantly followed the celebration and when he caught up with Danny, the Barnfield man reached out his hand. In it was the twenty euro he had promised Danny if the Crokes managed to finish ahead of Barnfield.
Mick stood proud beside his son. He was expecting something nasty from Tommy.
‘That was one of the best scores I’ve ever seen,’ said Tommy. He then he turned and walked away.
Mick threw his arms around Danny. ‘You’re dynamite. Do ya know that?’
Danny smiled. He knew he had done something spectacular, but he’d also done what Mick had said in the dressing room before the match:
Enjoy your football and you’ll always be a winner!
***
Eventually, the crowds dispersed, the nets came down, and all the players carried their celebrations off the pitch and into the dressing room.
Danny noticed Trinity heading back to the car with Lowry. He didn’t want her to leave without making things right so he raced down the grassy banks after her.
‘Trinity!’ Danny called.
The girls stopped and turned around.
‘Can we talk?’ Danny asked Trinity.
‘Sure.’
‘Is everything all right with us?’ asked Danny.
‘You seem off with me. I don’t know what I did wrong.’
‘We’re fine.’
‘Look, did I do something wrong? I don’t understand!’
Lowry butted in.
‘What about Clara?’
Danny switched his eyes from Trinity to Lowry.
‘Clara? What’s she got to do with this?’
‘Is she your other girlfriend?’ Trinity asked.
‘What? I don’t believe this! No, she’s not!’
‘Then why are you e-mailing her? “Tiger Boots”!’ Lowry hissed.
Trinity went bright red. She could see the confusion on Danny’s face.
‘I’m sorry. The other night, your computer was on.’
Everything became clear to Danny. He’d left Trinity with his computer before their trip to the cinema, and she’d looked at his email from Clara.
‘You read my e-mail. That was private. That was none of your business.’
‘I only read the first couple of lines. The screen switched off then. I know it was none of my business. I’m sorry, Danny.’ Trinity wished she had never begun to read Danny’s e-mail from Clara and she wished she had never said anything to Lowry.
Danny was furious.
‘Clara’s just a friend. She’s my dad’s friend’s daughter in Boston, and she’s not well. That’s why we – the whole team and my school – have been having collections and football marathons.’
Trinity looked at Lowry as if to say that now was probably a good time to leave them alone; Lowry bowed out.
‘I’m sorry, Danny,’ said Trinity, looking mortified.
Danny walked over to her. He knew how Trinity must be feeling at this moment. Trinity hung her head in shame, but Danny put his hand on her arm. She looked up at him and he smiled at her.
‘Wait here,’ he said, and ran off for the dressing room.
Chapter Twenty
Good News for the Wilde Boys
Danny brought Trinity back to his house.
‘Have a seat,’ he said as he switched his computer on. ‘I should have told you all along about Clara.’
‘It’s okay, Danny,’ Trinity said. ‘This is all my stupid fault. I should have trusted you and it was wrong of me to look at your e-mail.’
Danny started typing really fast.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m writing an e-mail to Clara, but I want you to read it before I send it.’
Danny wrote:
How ya, Clara!
It’s Danny. I hope you’re well! Sorry it’s taken me a week to get back to you, but you said in your last e-mail that you were going into hospital for some treatment so I wanted to wait until you were feeling better. I hope you’re ok
ay now. It’s great news that you were given a date for your operation. I just know it will be a success and then you can get back to playing GAA and all the other stuff you love.
We had our football marathon in school last Tuesday. It was brill! But my class didn’t win. Dirty Dempsey’s class won. That’s no problem, though, because we drew with Barnfield in the last game of the league today and that was enough to make us runners up. You should have seen it. It was savage! I scored a goal at the end to level the game. Tommy Dempsey even came over after the match and gave me the twenty euro toward your collection, and more or less said well done!
Anyway, Clara, I have someone special sitting beside me. It’s my girlfriend, Trinity. She’s the best! I think that you would get on great with her. She’s kind, funny, dead smart and she means a lot to me. I hope you get to meet her some day.
So I’ll see you next weekend. I’m really excited. I’ve never been on a plane before, but I’m sure it will be animal! Did I tell you that I dreamt a few weeks ago that I was travelling on a big plane with my da, and now it’s going to happen? Strangely, I also dreamt that I had brought something with me - something that never leaves my room – my signed Dubs’ jersey. I’m going to bring it and give it to you. I know it will mean a lot to you, being a Dubs’ fan.
That’s it for now. My da’s just come in. See ya next week.
Danny
Tiger Boots!
Trinity read the e-mail then turned to Danny and smiled, her eyes watery. As they looked at each other, Mick came into the sitting room all excited and out of breath.
‘Danny,’ Mick gasped.
‘What’s up?’
Mick had a smile on his face – a proper smile. One that Danny hadn’t seen in a while.
‘You’re not going to believe it, son. Hi, Trinity.’
‘Hi, Mr Wilde.’
‘What?’ Danny asked, anxiously.
‘That Principal of yours, Mr Dunnigan–’
‘Dunstan.’
‘Yeah! Dunstan. That’s the name. He was at the game. You’re not going to believe what he’s after just saying to me.’
