Man of the Match

Littlest was proud as punch yesterday. Despite being in the school reject football team, and only being there for half the match, he managed to score the winning goal and be awarded the man of the match card.

The man of the match cards are a big thing for kids playing football. What made it so much better was that they actually won a game – and that is unheard of.  The team they played yesterday is about the same level as they are, and they have drawn against them twice before.

His team is the team that wouldn’t usually get to play in the school leagues, but with their being so many children wanting to play football in his year, there are already two teams that have been cherry picked to be the best potential winners.

Their coaches know as much about football as I do, which isn’t a lot.  The kids get little to no help with how to play the game or learn skills at training.  They more or less just kick a ball about and the kids sometimes look at the coaches for some advice, only to find them gossiping and not looking at them.

Saying that, the coaches do turn up each week and the kids do get to have a game of football.  It is frustrating it is for some parents to watch them get almost zero help at all with it, but there’s also nothing that can be done about it.

It was nice to see them actually win for a change, and for littlest to actually get something AND score the winning goal is MASSIVE for him.

His little chest has been puffed out ever since, and he’s been walking with a little bit of a swagger.  He’s one of the kids who never wins anything, never gets to the top of the list, and never gets picked first.

School has not been terribly positive for him this past few weeks, so what a difference a teensy bit of self-esteen gives a child who spends a lot of his life living under the shadow and threat of his elder brothers disabilities.

I am thankful that he has had the experience of success and he has a light in his eyes that I’ve not seen for a couple of years.

I’d love for it to stay there.