Chapter 267 - 7 in 8 III

The pitch 60 people had uncovered for a cup of tea held all night, and we beat Notts County 3-1 on it. 58 points.

The coin went past 87 dollars on the Wednesday afternoon, on the screen on my desk, close to 3 times what it had been the day I deleted that sell order in February. I turned the screen off and went down to see Kieran about the grass.

Ted had been into the club shop before the coaches left on the Saturday morning and put a folded slip of paper on Priya’s counter.

"He made me promise to read it out to you," she said when I came in. She unfolded it. "12 to 1. Tell him."

"That is all?"

"It is in capitals."

We drew 1-1 away that afternoon, in a gale.

Easter Monday, and the coin went through 100 dollars for the first time in its life. Maureen had wanted the bonus money in the club’s account by Easter. I looked at the 100 on my phone in the training-ground car park, thought about the second week of April, and put the phone away.

At 8 on the Tuesday morning, match day, I was in the physio room when Marsh came in for the tape measure. He sat on the couch and pulled his trouser leg up, and Dev ran the tape round the knee.

"41 and a half," Dev said.

"Same as Saturday."

"Same as every morning since the 12th of March." Dev wrote it on the sheet. "That is 3 weeks you have not picked one, Lenny."

"I have not seen one yet." Marsh pulled the trouser leg down. "Not tonight’s either."

I said nothing to either of them, and went out to the car.

We won that night 1-0, off a deflection nobody claimed. 62 points. We won 2-1 away on the Saturday. 65. New verses kept arriving in the song from somewhere, and the away end had another by the second half.

"KAN-TÉ IN THE MIDDLE AND THE TIDE IS COMING IN!"

Leyton Orient on the Tuesday was a London night, and Priya sold 1,400 tickets in a morning.

"Half of them are going on the train," she said. "I rang c2c to warn them."

"What did c2c say?"

"Thank you for letting them know." She put the phone down. "I do not think they understood how many 1,400 is."

I went on the train with the fans, the teatime train out of town, in the vestibule by the doors with Raj and Ted.

"Chairman’s on the train!" somebody shouted down the carriage.

"Chairman’s paying for the beer, then!"

"Chairman has got a return ticket and a scarf, same as you," I said, and the carriage cheered that as well.

Ted had the Gazette rolled up in his fist like a baton. "Do they let you in the away end, dressed like that?"

"I am going in the away end, Ted."

"Good," he said. "You can stand next to me and keep the wind off."

"SAT-UR-DAY. TUES-DAY. WE’RE TIL-BROOK ALL THE WAY!" went up and down the carriage all the way to West Ham.

Brisbane Road is a tight old ground with flats in its corners. When Kane went out to warm up, a few people in the home end stood and clapped him. He lifted a hand to them.

"He scored 5 for them when he was 17," Raj said. "Bloke I drive on Fridays is Orient. Never shuts up about him."

"They remember a lad who scored for them," Ted said. "Good for them."

0-0 at half-time. Orient had their own sums going and they played like it.

Murphy won it back on halfway on 57 and gave it to Vardy. Vardy held it with a man on his back, Quinn came running past him, and Vardy laid it into his stride.

Quinn did not shoot early. He took one more touch, the keeper came out to make himself big, and Quinn lifted it over him with the inside of his right foot. pock. The ball came down, bounced once, and rolled in.

His first league goal.

He ran towards us and stopped dead at the advertising boards. The 1,400 came down the rows of seats at him. bang, bang, bang of hands on the boards.

"QUINN-Y! QUINN-Y! QUINN-Y!"

"Go on, son!" Ted was shouting beside me, both arms up. "Go on, son! That is a Tilbrook boy, that!"

Raj had hold of my sleeve with both hands. "Sam! That is little Quinn! That is little Quinn, Sam!"

Vardy got to him first and lifted him clean off the ground from behind, both arms round his middle, and Vardy was laughing. I had never seen him smile at a goal before, his own or anybody’s.

Kane came on with 20 left. On 79 he went down the left, cut back inside his man, and the man dragged him over by the shirt in the box. fweet. Mahrez put the penalty in the bottom corner and walked away from it. 2-0.

In the last 15 minutes Orient’s midfield stopped running and ours did not. At the end the 1,400 sang the tide song at the home end, and the home end emptied round them.

Outside the away dressing room a television on the wall was showing the scores from round the country, and then the table. Stan stood under it with a kit bag on each shoulder. Kane came out behind me with his hair still wet.

"Is that us, Mr Mercer? 5th?"

"That is us."

"Wow," he said. "Sorry. Wow."

"Get a hat on that wet head before you catch your death," Stan said, and found him one in the kit bag.

Sadler came out with his clipboard, read the table for as long as it took, and went back in to his players without a word.

THE LADDER · 16 March to 9 April 2013 Sat 16 March · Played 34 · Points 49 · 8th Tue 19 March · Played 35 · Points 52 · 8th Sat 30 March · Played 38 · Points 59 · 7th Tue 9 April · Played 41 · Points 68 · 5th To play: 5 Ted’s price, 30 March: 12 to 1 · 9 April: 5 to 1 The coin: 16 March, 47 · 27 March, 87 · 1 April, 100

The train out of West Ham was standing room only, and all the standing room was amber and black.

"5 to 1 in this morning’s paper," Ted said over the noise. He had his slip out of his wallet and was holding it up to the strip light. "5. I took 100. What does the bookmaker think he is doing?"

"Hoping," Raj said.

"Hoping we lose," Ted said. "He can hope in his own time."

Ted unrolled the Gazette. Danny’s back page had the clubs that wanted Mahrez and Vardy and Kanté and Maguire, with all 4 photographs across the top.

"Are we keeping them, Sam? Danny says the big clubs have been at every game this month."

"Ask me on Friday, Ted."

"Why Friday?"

"Because Friday is when I tell you."

He lowered the paper an inch, then rolled it back up.

Friday was the 12th of April. I had given that date on the Thursday before Easter, the day the loan window shut at 5 o’clock, and I had not worried about it for a minute since.

ka-chunk of the doors at Barking, and nobody got off. rattle of the wheels over the points. Somebody at the far end of the carriage started it, and then the whole train had it, the windows steamed, Ted conducting with the rolled-up Gazette and singing louder than anyone.

"QUINN-Y’S IN THE HOLE AND THE TIDE IS COMING IN! FROM THE SEAWALL TO THE BOVRIL, THE TIDE IS COMING IN!"

Raj had his arm round a man he had never met. A ticket inspector came through, gave up halfway down the carriage, and stood in the vestibule singing with the rest of us, all the way out of London and along the river towards home.