Picture by Lance Asper
well obviously it means everything kelly it doesn’t get any bigger than this it means everything to me and the lads well us english lads definitely maybe the foreign lads not so much i don’t know it’s about togetherness isn’t it at the end of the day i mean the win’s what counts but it’s a team effort i’m speechless to be fair i mean to have scored would have been the icing on the cake for me i thought that offside decision was ridiculous to be fair but what can you do of course it’s all down to the gaffer at the end of the day and the staff and everyone involved with the club i mean this is what you dream of as a lad isn’t it kelly when i think back playing in the local park football was everything to me i was never going to be any good at school to be fair kelly it was an escape got me out of the house but fair play to my parents supported me all the way drove me everywhere nothing was too much trouble really pushed me maybe a bit too hard actually but you’ve got to make sacrifices haven’t you kelly and a bit of luck and a word in the right ear along the way it all helps it’s got me where i am today to be fair kelly so many don’t make it guys i was at school with better players than me some of them just didn’t have the advantages i bought a house for one of my old mates actually kelly he’s working two jobs zero hours contracts using food banks it’s not right is it kelly but what can you do i don’t see much of him now it’s a different world kelly i suppose i was lucky to come into the game when i did what with the tv revenue taking off online betting foreign investments half a mill a week salary and now we’ve got this amazing new stadium sixty thousand capacity who would have thought kelly when you consider where the club has come from it’s out of this world travelling all over nightclubs hotels race horses literally anything you want some of the lads are buying yachts and private jets now it’s not just cars i’ve heard these yachts are not good for the planet though and of course all the flying we do but it’s unavoidable to be fair what with the training camps european fixtures pre-season tours and all that there’s talk of new owners here as well rumour is middle east consortium i just hope not them ones who lock people up or chop their heads off for being gay or whatever i think that’s a bit extreme to be fair kelly i mean some of my mates are gay well i think so i don’t know for sure i mean they’re not going to come out and say so are they but sometimes you just know don’t you kelly by the way it’s great they’re letting people like you i mean women like yourself kelly do the interviews now and the women’s game is kicking on just goes to show how far we’ve come doesn’t it anyone can play now who would have thought it there’s even female referees not sure about that to be fair but anyway actually the girlfriend’s decided she doesn’t want kids now because who knows where the world’s going to be in thirty or forty years kelly will we even still be here i don’t know kelly but hopefully i’ll have had a good career a few trophies in the cabinet by then and oh yeah it’s all about the fans at the end of the day of course greatest fans in the world at this club the real fans i mean not the ones causing trouble there’s no excuse for that kind of behaviour is there ban them for life i mean i’m a fan myself as well as a player at the end of the day of course so uhm to be fair yeah like i say uhm sorry what was the question again kelly?
Terry Holland grew up in England and lives in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where he works as a translator and editor. His work has been published by Almond Press, Bath Flash Fiction Anthology, Stukah! magazine, Stereo Stories, Voidspace, Ellipsis Zine, Pure Slush, Seaside Gothic, Loft Books and punk noir.