Since the team has to go to Nottingham half a day in advance, the game time is in the afternoon, they have to go to Nottingham in the morning and then do some simple adaptation training. So on the train from Wimbledon to Nottingham, there are not many fans with them. Fans generally have to go in the afternoon, and they have the opportunity to go home with their beloved players after the game.

Chu Zhongtian sat on a train from London to Nottingham. This was his first time "distance" after studying in the UK. The train ticket from London to Nottingham was fifteen pounds, which was equivalent to Chu Zhongtian's income from working in a Wimbledon bar for three hours. Fortunately, the club paid for it and "traveled publicly."

The teammates were not idle on the train. Some of them gathered together to play cards and bet on some small money, while others gathered outside to watch the fun. Chu Zhongtian was not involved. Although his intuition was very sharp, his card skills were ugly, and as long as it involved gambling, they would not work. Some teammates took a nap with headphones and listened to music, and some brought books and magazines to read on the trip, which was used to spend more than two hours of travel.

Chu Zhongtian looked curiously at the British countryside scenery outside the window, and large areas of gray fields spread along the train. It is already mid-November, and the winter in Britain is slowly coming. If it is summer to take this route, he will see endless green. Now, under the gray sky, there is the same gray earth, with only a little green dotted in it, either flashing outside the window or standing alone on the distant horizon.

The train has left Greater London and is driving rapidly in the countryside of the East Midlands region. Its targets Nottingham, the capital of Nottingham, the most important industrial city in East Midlands, England.

Chu Zhongtian didn't know much about this city. Apart from knowing that there are two professional teams here, he knew that it was the birthplace of the legend of Robin Hood. However, his roommate Yang Yang had visited here several times.

When Jung Tsung was still receiving football training at the Chinese football school, he knew a lot about football, but at that time the conditions for information dissemination were very limited. There was no Internet, and the newspaper reports on football were mostly concentrated in world competitions. Not everyone can see television broadcasts. He didn't know much about these two teams in Nottingham City. He also knew something about Nottingham Forest, after all, he had watched their game in the Premier League broadcast, and that game impressed him.

It was Nottingham Forest's 1:8 loss to Manchester United, and he remembered the name of this tragic team. Later he realized that although Nottingham Forest is so down and out, his ancestors were still rich - they won the European Champions League for two consecutive seasons. Chu Zhongtian, who knew about this, was very surprised. In his impression, the teams that could win the European Champions League must be top teams in the leagues of various countries. Unexpectedly, Nottingham Forest has fallen to this point now.

Nottingham Forest was once famous in history, and another team, Nordsshire Chu Zhongtian, knew almost nothing. All his knowledge of Nordsshire was obtained during this period, after the first round of the FA Cup was released. Because he would pay more attention to his opponents, he would pay attention to collecting relevant information. He knew that Nordsshire's home jerseys were like Juventus and Newcastle, both black and white sword shirts, and he also knew that they were the founders of this jersey. Juventus and Newcastle were later imitators. Newcastle's nickname is "Magpie", but in fact, Nordsshire used this nickname earlier than them, because

There are two black and white magpies on the team badge of the Nords. Newcastle's nickname was also moved from Nords. He also knew that this team was the world's first football club in the modern sense. Their team badge was printed with the year when the team was established - 1862. It has been 141 years since then. The Chinese people 141 years ago still had that braid behind their heads. China's national gates were just blasted by the sound of the Opium War. The history is indeed long... This is also the only place they deserve to be proud of, because in terms of record, they really have no glorious history that they can show off in 141 years.

Now this ancient club is in a financial crisis. If they cannot make up at least 3.2 million pounds on December 8, two days after their 141st anniversary, they will be forced to close and disband, and the world's oldest football club will completely disappear.

However, these have nothing to do with Chu Zhongtian. Now he only knows that he must defeat this team that is in deep difficulties, step on the body of Nords County and move forward to achieve the minimum goal. Perhaps our strength is not as strong as our opponents, but in the FA Cup, there has never been a shortage of "dragon-slaying legends" in which amateur teams defeated top professional teams. The predecessor of this team has become a "dragon-slaying hero" twice. Why can't Wimbledon slay the dragon again now, let alone Nords County is just a sick magpies, not dragons.

※※After taking the two-hour train, the team got off at the train station in Nottingham, put on their own bags and gathered, then took the public bus to the Meadow Lane, home court in Nordsshire. They will have an hour of adaptability training here, then go to the hotel they are temporarily staying, have used a simple lunch, and prepare for the afternoon game.

If it weren't for the fact that this game was a very important game, the club wouldn't spend money to let the team come to the away game half a day in advance. They would choose to spend lunch early in Wimbledon and then take the car to the away game. If the time is good, it just happened to be in the game. After the game, they took the train home directly, without delaying a minute or wasting it.

Made Lane can only accommodate 20,300 people, but it still looks much more imposing than the King's Ranch, which can only accommodate 4,000 people, and is all standing seats.

Another stadium is a river separated from this stadium. It is the home city stadium of Nottingham Forest. It is the two closest stadiums in the city.

The Meade Lane Stadium was quiet in the morning, and the fans could not see a few people. There were more than a dozen media outlets, all from local media from both parties, among which the most media came with the visiting team Wimbledon. For the Nottingham media, this is not a very important game. What they are concerned about is whether the team can raise a huge sum of 3.2 million pounds to help the club continue to survive. So they lack interest in Wimbledon coming to the stadium for adaptive training.

However, Wimbledon's local media attached great importance to this game, and followed ten reporters. They did not think that their team could create miracles, so they followed. They just thought that this was the most advanced game that Wimbledon Athletics had been able to participate since its founding, and it was necessary to pay attention.

Chu Zhongtian and the others were training to adapt to the field at Meade Lane Stadium. Qiao Xilin was just joking that this field didn't need to adapt to it at all, because it was no different from the turf of Kings Ranch.

He is not saying that the turf quality of Kings Ranch is good. On the contrary, Kings Ranch is a small stadium shared by two amateur teams. The turf quality is quite poor because neither clubs have money to maintain the system. From the air, the football field is mostly yellow, while the green one by one, one by one, one by one, and one by one in the east. This is Wimbledon's home court.

The Med Lane Stadium is not much better than Kings Ranch, although it is home to the third-tier league team. Since Nords County is in a financial crisis for eighteen months and is entrusted by the government, the work of maintaining the turf has long been systematically carried out.

Today, the Med Lane Stadium has only been simply flattened. Since it was November, green grass was sparsely scattered at all angles of the football field, and the yellowish-brown soil dominated the area, and the two goals were the worst.

This will be their match venue in the first round of the FA Cup.

"I thought I was playing in the FA Cup, and I could play a game on a court that looked very comfortable, but I didn't expect it..." Halfway through the adaptive training, Joe Xilin sighed again. "When I played football at Chelsea, people always said that the turf at Stamford Bridge was very bad. Now I think playing football on such turf is better than playing in Maid Lane, but unfortunately..."

"Then try to play to the next round, and then the next round, die Jeep!" shouted to someone, and the others laughed with laughter.

When the team was adapting to the field on the court, Eames was surrounded by more than a dozen reporters and asked him some questions about the afternoon game.

Most of the problems are not nutritious, mainly because he is "I am honored, surprised, happy and surprised to be able to participate in the FA Cup in just one season." Eames' reaction was not beyond the expectations of many media - two weeks ago, Eames claimed that they would defeat Nordsshire when facing reporters. At that time, he was considered a madman and an idiot. Now he said very humbly that the strength of the two sides is too different. Being able to participate in this game is already an amazing achievement for Wimbledon players. They do not expect to defeat Nordsshire away. Such a statement made the media think that Eames is a normal person.

Challenging the third-tier team as a ninth-tier league team and insisting that you will be able to win, it must be a problem with your brain. The protagonists of the "Dragon Slaying Legend" that have been talked about in the history of the FA Cup did not think they could win before they even played the game.

※※After getting used to the venue, the team will take the bus to the hotel where they are temporarily staying for lunch and rest for a while. They will return to the Meade Lane Stadium to prepare for the game at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

For many players, they want to start the game directly at 3:00 pm and stop preparing. Since they learned that their opponent is Nords, their training has been for Nords. It has been more than two weeks since they have prepared. Until now, they really don’t want to prepare anything, they just want to play.

Chu Zhongtian was still very serious about preparing according to the requirements of the head coach. He should not eat too much for lunch. If he eats full, his blood circulation will slow down, which will make his body feel sleepy and weak. He will no longer be in a state of listlessness in the afternoon game. He will take a quick time to rest for a while after dinner. Even if he only takes a nap for more than ten minutes, as long as he enters a sleep state, he will be able to recover some energy. This is very important for the afternoon game.

Chu Zhongtian always hopes to do the best things he has made up his mind to do. Now that he is going to play the FA Cup, he is not going to be a formality. To win, he must be prepared. So he is very particular in this regard. He is not like some of his teammates who have lunch and are gathered together to play cards and bet money. He found a quiet seat in the car to take off his clothes and cover himself, and then leaned on the chair to sleep.

There are many people who think the same as him. Many people in the car are taking an hour to rest and regain their energy for the three o'clock game. The club cannot open a room for every two teams for this hour, so their lunch break is solved on the bus. Although this may not make them sleep much more comfortable, and they may feel sore back and back pain when they sleep, but for an amateur team, they can only do this.

Eames and members of the coaching staff, including Ingrich, came to the front of the carriage and whispered to discuss the afternoon game. They prepared a lot of things before the game, but now they still need to discuss it again. Maybe after seeing the competition venue, have new ideas?

※※※ Chu Zhongtian felt that he had been sleeping for a long time. He didn't even have a dream. He opened his eyes and looked at the Casio electronic watch that his mother bought when she rewarded her for taking the exam abroad. This was the most valuable thing on him.

One forty-five.

He remembered that before he went to bed, he looked at it at 15:00, but he didn't expect that he had only slept for half an hour.

Although there is still some time before departure, Chu Zhongtian did not plan to sleep anymore. It was just right to take a nap, and then he would make his body soft. At that time, he would yawn, sleepy, and weak all over. How could he play the game like this?

He sat in his seat for a while, and there were a group of teammates who were also taking naps in the seat, and some even snore and grind their teeth. The group of card players were still fighting, but they did not shout loudly and woke up other teammates. Chu Zhongtian thought this scene was really interesting. I wonder if there was such a scene for professional clubs to watch when they went out to play away?

They are not like a group of players who are going to participate in the FA Cup, but like a group of passengers waiting in the train station waiting hall.

Such an experience is something I can’t experience as an international student. If he graduates and returns to China in the future, he will write his experience in the past three years into a novel and publish it, it will definitely be very attractive. The title of the book is "The Days of Playing Football in the UK"!

When Chu Zhongtian was still fantasizing about it, his teammates around him woke up one after another. They rubbed their sleepy eyes, yawned and stretched, and the bus became lively again for a while.

Eames also stood up, clapped his face, called the players who had not yet woken up to "get up" and asked the players who played cards to stop.

"Okay, guys! The time is almost over, we're ready to go!"

The driver climbed into the car, sat in the driver's seat, tied his seat belt, and started the car. With the roar of the engine, the bus trembled slightly, making the sleepy eyes and yawning, and the listless people were excited - this FA Cup game is getting closer and closer to them!
Chapter completed!