A Football Match

4.7

Last Saturday afternoon Henry Brown and his father went to a football match. The Browns and many other people of their town think that theirs is the best team in their part of England.

There were fifteen thousand people at the stadium. They came from many places because it was the most important match of the year.

At three o’clock everybody saw the two teams in the field. The home team were in blue and white shirts, and the visitors’ team were in red and white shirts.

The referee began the match. For the first twenty minutes the home team were stronger and the ball was always on the visitors’ side of the field. Then a player from the visitors’ team scored the first goal. Soon after this the referee stopped the game because it was half-time.

In the second half of the match the home team were again the better players. They attacked all the time, and after ten minutes they scored their first goal. They scored again after a quarter of an hour; then, before the game ended, they scored a third goal and so won the match. All the people at the football ground were very glad.

On their way home Mr. Brown said, “Well, that was a good game. The best we’ve seen this winter.”

“Yes, better than last week,” answered Henry.

“They have a good team, but our players won because they can run faster. Who are they playing next week with?”

“Cardiff City, I think,” said Henry’s father.

“Do you think they’ll win?”

“I don’t know, but Cardiff has a good team this year.”