Pottersgate Paints were two-nil up against Coventry Crowns thanks to two rather flashy goals from Peter Pottersgate. Sidney was having a very quiet time in goal wearing a goalkeeping top that was three sizes too big as it belonged to Gary Greedy. Sidney’s mind wasn’t totally on the game as he had somehow managed to arrange to take Hannah Harper to see Shrek Forever After in 3D on the same night as he was playing for Pottersgate Paints in the Midland Paints 5-a-side Cup. Sidney had tried several ways to get out of playing including claiming he had sprained his left ankle. The result was Ronald Roughwood, the Safety Manager, wrapping a very tight bandage around Sidney’s ankle. The bandage was so tight that Sidney’s whole leg was now a funny shade of blue. So it was now six o’clock and Hannah was still expecting him at Star City in ninety minutes. The one good thing was that Sidney had done a test run last night and found that he could drive from the Sports Centre to Star City in just seven and a half minutes.
Sidney was quite pleased how his week had gone and with the help of Action SharePoint had made a good start on the SharePoint project. They had even managed to allow Sidney to install a full copy of SharePoint Foundation 2010 on his Windows 7 Enterprise laptop so he could try some things out at home. He had also found the spreadsheet they gave him to let each department let him know which documents they currently had stored very useful. Of course, Gwen Gardner had insisted on her spreadsheet being three times longer than anybody else’s. Sidney had been surprised to find that across the company there were eight separate copies of the Quality Manuals all containing different versions. He was starting to see how much SharePoint was going to benefit Pottersgate Paints.
It was as Sidney was thinking about what Percy Pottersgate was going to think about the email he sent him this morning, with the suggestions for members of the SharePoint Project Team on, that a loud cheer echoed around the Sports Hall. Sidney looked up to see that Peter Pottersgate was celebrating in a rather laddish way after completing his hat-trick. Sidney had suggested himself as ‘Technical Lead’ and had even tried to recommend Hannah Harper as the representative for the Accounts Department. He had also suggested that Quinton Quigley, the Quality Manager, could be the SharePoint Project Manager even though he didn’t work Mondays. The Action SharePoint chaps had suggested the different Project Roles to Sidney and arranged a day of training for the project team a week on Thursday.
It was now nearly half past six and Sidney still hadn’t had a save to make. Pottersgate Paints had won their first three matches and were looking unbeatable. Percy Pottersgate was sitting in the balcony overlooking the pitch and looking very pleased. It looked like this was finally going to be Pottersgate Paints' year. Sidney was becoming more worried about missing his date and thinking perhaps he should have told Hannah Harper he might be late. This could be his one chance of a date with the lovely Hannah and he was stuck wearing a giant goalkeeper’s shirt. At least with the big shirt he had been able to put his favourite blue polo shirt underneath ready for his date. His tracksuit bottoms not only saved him from banging his legs but also hid his black bootleg jeans. He worked out he could be changed in under a minute if needed.
Next game was the quarter-final against the Tipton Topcoats and within minutes Peter Pottersgate was celebrating another goal. Sidney was thinking about sharing a bucket of popcorn with Hannah Harper when he noticed the Tipton Topcoat striker running towards him. Sidney dived to his left and the ball went to his right. An equaliser and Sidney started to think that if Pottersgate Paints get knocked out against Tipton Topcoats that he could yet make his date. Five minutes later and another shot from the Tipton Topcoats’ striker was heading straight at Sidney. Sidney jumped out of the way of the ball. Unfortunately for Sidney the ball struck his large bandaged foot and shot off to the halfway line. Where it was collected neatly by Peter Pottersgate before he twisted past three Tipton Topcoats players and scored the winning goal.
The Semi Final saw Pottersgate Paints take on their old rivals Galloway Gloss. Sidney knew that if they won and reached the final he would miss his date with Hannah Harper completely; at least if they lost he would only be a few minutes late. Percy Pottersgate called the team together before the game and told them in no uncertain terms that this was a game they had to win or they would all be looking for new jobs come Monday. It was a grudge match as Galloway Gloss had knocked Pottersgate Paints out the last two years. The game started well for Sidney as Galloway Gloss scored almost straight from kickoff and the ball was hit so hard that nobody could blame Sidney. Just after half time Pottersgate Paints equalised and for once the scorer wasn’t Peter Pottersgate but Satnam Singh from Sales. It was now a quarter past seven and the game looked set for extra time when Galloway Gloss had a break away. It was the number four of Galloway against Sidney. All Sidney had to do was let in this goal and he could soon be on a date with Hannah Harper. Sidney opened his legs wide to give the number four more of the goal to aim at and closed his eyes. Bang! The ball struck Sidney full on the face. Sidney was dazed and didn’t see what happened next. The ball travelled up in the air and came down right by Peter Pottersgate. Peter was trying a very ambitious overhead kick but appeared to forget which way he was facing and instead struck the ball straight into his own goal. Pottersgate Paints were beaten and Sidney was going to be able to go on his date. Just unfortunate that Sidney now had blood pouring from his nose and the imprint of a football on his left cheek.
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