AN: So sorry, I just got back from vacation and had to finish my first week of Uni. Don't worry, I'll be more consistent from now on, as I am now living alone and can't be bothered. I'll try to upload every Wednesday and Sunday.
General pov
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24th of September, AMEX Stadium, Brighton vs Barnsley
It had been a couple of weeks since Dick filmed his ad with Lucozade, and since then his name had been everywhere, but not because of the ad itself, although it certainly helped. No, what was being discussed was the fact that he had led Brighton on an unbeaten streak of 10 games, with 7 from the Championship and 3 from the EFL Cup. However, the most important fact was that across these ten games, Dick had scored 18 goals, averaging almost 2 goals per game, which a lot of people were comparing to Messi's 50-goal season in the 2011-12 season. Of course, that was mostly people who were fans of Dick; others still doubted him and even criticised him online, saying stuff like
"He won't last, just another flash in the pan"
"Sure, he's scoring a lot now, but he's only in the championship, it's nothing special"
"I'm telling you right now, Richard Grayson won't be anything special in the future. I'm sorry, but he just isn't built for big games. We saw it against Newcastle in the EFL cup 4 days ago. Sure, he scored a goal, but it took him 70 minutes to do it. He was shut down by the defenders and relied on his team to help him out"
Dick was now sitting in the locker room, his foot bouncing up and down, while he scrolled through yet another "critic" going through his game against Newcastle. Sure, he had a bit of an off day, but it was because Newcastle were double-man marking him, always making sure that he and any passing lanes towards him were closed off. It was something he had never experienced before, so he didn't know how to counter it, but at half-time, the gaffer went through some ideas with him. So what he started doing was dropping down to the CAM position to get the ball deeper on his side. It worked, but it just made Newcastle turn to tackles as a way to limit him. It left him bruised and cut up but fine overall, and feeling like he was learning and becoming even better.
He put his phone in his locker, took a deep breath, and then stood up and got ready to enter the field. Dick Grayson was a petty bitch, and Barnsley were going to feel his wrath just so he could silence his critics and show them what's what.
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*tweeeeeet*
"And we're off, with Brighton facing Barnsley at home, and what many are talking about is whether or not young Richard Grayson can ignore all the comments the pundits have been shouting from the treetops, about his 'time in the spotlight' being already over and his skills being dried up. Martin, what do you think about this?"
"Yes, Derrick, my thoughts on it are that he is just going through a slump like many other football players like him before. He is being targeted by defenders like many of the greats before him, but how he reacts in the coming games will tell us everything we need to know."
Brighton was passing around the ball in the middle, with Barnsley keeping a tight defence and barely going past the midfield line. Dick dropped down, getting the ball from Sidwell before turning around and running down the right-hand side. Dick did a La Croquetta past Winnall, leaving the Barnsley striker in his dust before doing some rapid scissors over the ball, confusing Scowen before slotting the ball through his legs. He was now just outside the penalty box. He took a shot, but a defender managed to slide in front of the ball just as the ball was kicked, making it a corner.
"A great run from Richard. I might be getting ahead of myself, but I think this game might be his response to the critics. Now it's a corner kick for Brighton"
Dick was now standing at the edge of the penalty box yet again. He was being grabbed by the defender, who was sneakily grabbing his shirt, trying to make sure Dick couldn't run away. Sidwell kicked the ball into the crowd of people in the middle, and in the scuffle, the ball was headed out and it was headed up right by Dick. So, Dick pushed off the ground, using the defender as a springboard before tilting his body horizontally and, in a scissor-like motion, he kicked the ball and it flew above the crowd of people and right into the top left corner, smacking into the joint of the crossbar and post and then slamming into the net.
"GRAYSOOOOOOOOOOONNN, WHAT A GOAL. WHAT SKILL. A SCISSOR KICK VOLLEY FROM OUTSIDE THE PENALTY BOX. HE FLEW UP AND HIT IT WITH VENOM. CRITICS AROUND THE WORLD, RICHARD GRAYSON SAYS HELLO"
Dick landed on his side, but quickly picked himself up and ran towards the cameras and hit the Michael Jordan shrug. Before laughing, as his teammates all crowd around him, jumping on his back and jostling him around. Dick, looking back at the camera, his black hair plastered on his forehead due to the rain just pouring down in the rainy city of Brighton. Dick smiled and gave the camera a wink before heading back to his position.
A couple more minutes went by, and it continued being more of the same; the two teams kept exchanging attacks at one another. At the 32-minute mark, a Barnsley defender managed to head in a ball from a corner, making the score 1-1. And then at the 43rd minute, Winnall managed to score another goal for Barnsley, helping them extend the score from 1-1 to 1-2. Dick stood in the middle, jumping up and down, keeping his body warm and limber. He quickly passed the ball to Sidwell before running up the pitch. Dick looked around and spotted an opening right between the midfielders, so he looked up and spotted Murphy with the ball and quickly ran into the area and received the ball. Dick chested the ball down, and quickly faked left before using his right foot to sweep the ball to the right side of the defender who came.
Dick used his elbow and spun around him, sprinting towards the ball with all the might his legs could muster forth. Keane, another defender for Barnsley, also ran towards the ball, but Dick was faster, so when Keane lunged for the ball, Dick poked it through his legs.
Dick was facing the goal from a tight angle, and with no backup, he nudged the ball slightly to his right before whipping the ball with his right foot. The goalie thought Dick would have shot the ball into the far corner, so he had prepared for that, only to falter as he saw the ball flying past him and going into the bottom left corner.
Running towards the corner, pumping his fist and screaming very loudly. He then slid on his knees, the wet pitch carried him all the way to the corner flag, where he jumped up on his legs again and hit his chest to the crowd, who were all screaming his name and cheering loudly.
"ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL GOAL FROM GRAYSON, HE GOT PAST 1, THEN ANOTHER UNTIL HE FAKED OUT THE GOALKEEPER JUST TO SLOT IT INTO THE NEAR POST. WHAT A BRILLIANT SHOWING FROM GRAYSON"
"It was unreal Martin, just pure poetry in motion, he predicted that Roberts would press him so he nudged the ball in one way and quickly went the other, he outsped MacDonald and faced with no teammate to pass the ball to, he nudged the ball right, making it appear as though he'd go for the far post only to calmly slot it in near post. Beautiful. Richard Grayson makes it 2-2 for Brighton as they enter half-time"
Dick stood in front of the Brighton fans, his entire body wet and cold, his hair thrown about from all the running and rain, but a smile on his face as he heard the crowd chanting his name.
""HE SCORES WHEN HE WANTS
HE SCORES WHEN HE WAAAAAANNNTTTSSS
DICKIE GRAYSON
HE SCORES WHEN HE WANTS""
Sidewell jumped on his back, Murphy soon followed, before he was in the middle of a crowd of Brighton players with multiple thousands of fans all chanting his name. Dick looked up in the VIP box and spotted his dad and girlfriend for a month, hugging each other and jumping up and down. Dick grinned before heading back to his position and played the 2 minutes left before the ref called for halftime.
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"Defence, sloppy! Midfield, Sloppy! The only reason we are even tied is because Dick is pulling this team forward, and the rest of you are asleep!"
The coach, Chris Hughton, a normally calm man, looked around the locker room, staring down at his players. He quickly looked at Dick, his eyes softening as he said
"Richard, are you going to be able to keep playing? I know they've been knocking you about that half, but I might need you to keep playing"
Chris knew he should be resting Dick more, not just so he can maintain his form throughout their long season, but also because the lad was only 16 years old. Dick had slowly shown himself to be Brighton's main attacking force, racking up 18 (well, 20 goals now), with 15 goals being from championship games.
"Of course I can play gaffer, I'll play until I run myself ragged if needed"
"Great, that's the energy I want to see from the rest of you! Listen, here's what we are going to do: during the half, I noticed they rely heavily on attacking from the left flank, so we need to target more of the right. Surely after this half, I don't doubt that they will target Dick more, meaning they'll be even more left side focused, which should leave space for Murphy to switch with Dick to confuse the defence…"
He went through even more attack strategies. He also made some subs, but he said they would focus on attack to get the lead, and then they would strictly focus on defence.
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In a fresh new kit, the players all lined up in their positions, and quickly Barnsley started the game again. The Burnsley players were passing the ball around, trying to keep the possession, obviously just trying to stall and go home with a point. Dick ran after every ball he could, and after 5 minutes, it paid off. Because it was raining, the pitch was very slippery, and after a defender had a heavy first touch, the ball slipped away from him. Dick spotted it and started sprinting, causing the defender to panic and try to run, only to slip and fall onto the pitch. Dick grabbed the ball and started sprinting down the pitch, with no one around him.
He kept running, and he was right next to the penalty box when he pretended to run right, only to heel kick the ball to his left, the goalkeeper fell down to one knee before Murphy came in and tried to shoot at the goal, but due to a defender pushing him slightly he miss kicked the ball and hit the ball just wide before falling down.
Dick got into the defender's face and pushed him slightly as Murphy stood up and yelled. Dick separated the two before throwing out some "Nice" Italian words to the defender with a smile on his face, most prominently "vaffanculo", which means… "god loves you" if anyone would have asked him.
The referee said no free kick as the contact wasn't heavy enough and that Murphy still got the kick off. So, the game continued from a goal kick.
The game went on with some Barnsley attacks, but each was snuffed out by a more determined and tighter defensive line. The Brighton team looked more awake, each one playing well, creating more and more chances until finally it paid off. After Sidwell was sent the ball, Murphy and Dick quickly ran onto each other's sides, swapping sides, which momentarily confused the Burnsley side, which was more than enough for Sidwell, who sent a sky-high pass right into the middle of the penalty box.
Both Murphy and the Barnsley goalkeeper ran for the ball. Murphy jumped up to head it, but the goalkeeper got there first and punched the ball out, which turned out to be a mistake as Dick was right where the ball was about to land. He launched himself in the air, and much like Zlatan did against England, he bicycle kicked the ball from around 30 yards and launched it in a high arc right towards the goal.
Because the goalie jumped up and punched it, he and Murphy collided, and Murphy had caused the goalkeeper to fall down on the ground. The goalkeeper, seeing the ball flying towards the net, scrambled to get up just as the ball dipped and was about to fly into the net, and he jumped.
He got his finger on the ball, but it was too little too late; he only managed to nudge the ball up slightly before the ball rushed into the net. The crowd went wild, and so did everyone else. Dick especially felt like his every last nerve was buzzing, and so he did what felt natural: he ran towards the corner before breaking into a somersault, which he turned into a backflip before he landed and hit his celebration. His arms spread wide, his head tilted backwards as the crowd all yelled
"RICHARD GRAYSON"
*CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP*
"RICHARD GRAYSON"
*CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP*
He smiled widely as he felt both his teammates, the substitutes, and even the coach all rush in and jump on him.
"HE'S DONE IIIIIITTTTTT. GRAYSON FROM CLOSE TO 30 YARDS AWAY RECREATES THE GOAL THAT HAUNTS THE MIND OF THE BRITISH PUBLIC. AT ONLY 16 YEARS OF AGE, HE HAS MADE HIMSELF IMMORTAL. HE HAS WRITTEN HIS NAME IN THE HISTORY BOOKS, THAT GOAL WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN ANYTIME SOON. AT THE 62nd MINUTE HE COMPLETES HIS HAT-TRICK AND MAKES IT 3-2"
"AND TO THINK, MARTIN, THAT SOME PEOPLE BELIEVED HIM TO BE DONE. WELL, HE SURE HAS SILENCED THE CRITICS NOW. "Look at what I can do," he says, and the world must look."
Dick escaped the bottom of the huddle, went to the camera, grabbed the sides, panned it to his face, still wet with rain, before putting his finger to his lips and saying.
"Keep quiet"
He laughed as his teammates pulled him back, ruffling his head and laughing with him.
After that, the game seemed dead, both teams played a more passive football, so at the 68th minute, Dick was subbed off, with the crowd screaming his name, different chants all rumbling throughout the stadium, all about him.
""HE SCORES WHEN HE WANTS
HE SCORES WHEN HE WAAAAAANNNTTTSSS
DICKIE GRAYSON
HE SCORES WHEN HE WANTS""