Love and secrets (OC x Leah Williamson)

Chapter 24 - switching positions

Today was the day, the semi-final, we knew we had to work hard if we wanted to win. There was a nervous and tense atmosphere in the air at breakfast, everyone seemed to be very focused on themselves.

I was feeling considerably different though, i felt confident, if I'm being honest i don't think i was nervous at all. I had no doubt in this team, i knew we could win, i knew that we had the best chance at lifting that trophy in the final.

We went out for training, which was only going to be light as we had the game today. Hannah wasn't playing or training today as she was feeling ill with the same sort of bug Lauren had, this left us with only two goal keepers.

Sarina gathered us around at the start to have a chat. "Right girls, as you know we only have two keepers but we are going to try and make it work. Although worst case senario is there any of you girls who could possibly fill in?" she asked and i felt Lucy's eyes burning into the side of my head but i didn't look over to her. "Sarina?" I heard Lucy say and i knew what was coming. "Have you seen Ella in goal" she asked and I tried to avoid eye contact hoping she may think it was Tooney instead of me. "No I haven't, I would like to though." she said before turning to me. "Ella? would you mind?" she asked me and I wasn't exactly going to say no now. "Okay, I will give it a go." I said before i got handed some goalie gloves by one of the staff members. "Let's try it out in training and see how it goes?" she questioned and i nodded.

I walked over to the goal, a familiar feeling from playing here as a child washed over me. Some of the girls were taking shots and I was trying to save them, I didn't let a single one in and it was safe to say i had impressed Sarina.

We finished up training and i got pulled to the side by Sarina along with Mary and Ellie. "Girls could i see all three of you in my office, after you get freshened up, to discuss how we are going to play later?" She asked us and i nodded along with the other two.

I was walking back down to the boot room with Mary and Ellie and we were all silent until Mary spoke, "You are amazing in goal, how come you play outfield?" she questioned and i knew this question was coming, it wasn't one I wanted to answer though and I didn't know how to answer it anyway. So i simply replied with "It's a long story." i said just as we walked into the boot room and i went and sat in my place.

Lauren came and sat next to me, "How are you mate? How you feeling?" she asked and I knew I wasn't doing great. "You know." i simply replied quietly and Lauren knew my feelings in that moment. "I'm here for you." she said to me as she hugged me and it made me feel a little better.

Lauren is the only one that knows. The only one that knows what happened when i used to play as a keeper. It is a long story really, when i was eight I used to play as a goal keeper and I was very good at it. I had academy scouts coming to see me play and i had loads of offers. At this point i was playing for a boys team as there was no girls teams for my age group and so i wasn't the only goal keeper on the team. I was fighting for a starting position every game but i was rarely picked because i was a girl and they wanted the starting XI to be all boys so they looked like a presentable team, that's what my coach would say to me anyway. So i started playing outfield in hopes of getting game time but i still wouldn't be put on unless it was for the last five minutes. I hated it, i hated the abuse i was receiving and so I left. It didn't stop there though, the boys would see me down in the park with my brother kicking a ball and try and join in only to purposely trip me or call me names that had nothing to do with football and it was just because i was a girl. In the end it became too much that i didn't go out anywhere unless i had to. I had fallen out of love with football and I knew it would take a lot for me to go back to playing again. I hadn't been playing for about a year now and my mental and physical well being weren't doing very well I knew i had to do something about it so i spoke to my mum and she booked me in for therapy. I went and soon started to feel better, until my mum got a call that I was needed on the boys team because their goal keeper had suffered a serious injury. After a lot of thought i decided to start attending training and the matches again, I was playing amazingly and i had fallen back in love with the sport. I thought it was all going great when one game i was given man of the match and all the boys started having a go at me, they were saying i shouldn't have gotten it because I was a girl and then they started saying i was a man in disguise and that was the only reason i was good This angered me ad so i stopped playing. Thankfully contract offers came in and I went and joined the girls academy. When I got asked where I wanted to play I said left wing in fear of getting the same abuse.