This practice match seemed to have served its purpose quite well for Norman.
The little doubt he had about putting Frankie in the left back position was gone now, the midfielder was known for being able to handle a couple of positions outside his natural position and after this match drill, that couldn't have sounded truer to him.
The midfielder had high Offensiveness for a player who played as a defensive midfielder most of the time and the best part was that he had the speed to put everything to good use.
Now, Norman had a third option for that position if anything should happen.
The practice match was over now with Dave's side beating Alexander's side six goals to four.
It was inevitable that things were going to end up this way given the players he had on his side but Alexander's side put up quite a fight and gave them some serious trouble.
Frankie was the left back but he instantly turned into the left winger whenever they were on the attack and he sure gave Norman a run for his money.
The players were taking a short break on the sidelines, and while they were doing that, Dave was busy on the pitch.
Alexander wasn't happy with his performance during the practice match so he asked the goalkeeper to try a couple of shots on him from twenty-five yards out and he was glad to do that.
"Are you ready, Alex?" The goalkeeper asked as he slowly took two steps backward.
"Yeah." The young goalkeeper responded with a nod before touching the crossbar with his right hand.
After getting that response, Dave quickly closed up on the ball and fired it straight toward the goalpost.
He went for a low shot toward the right and although Alexander was able to go after it, he couldn't get to it on time as the ball ended up zooming past him and straight into the goalpost.
For the next shot, the goalkeeper aimed for the top left-hand corner and Alexander didn't have any chance of stopping that one because he didn't even try to.
After that, he went on to score the third one, the fourth one, the fifth one, and the sixth one.
Six shots from twenty-five yards out and he failed in stopping any of them.
'I'm aware of that, but he was the one that told me not to hold back, and besides it's not like opponents hold anything back against goalkeepers.' He replied subconsciously. 'He has a very good instinct and his reflexes aren't that bad, he just needs to react faster to shots and more speed.'
'If that was as true as you stated, I wouldn't have conceded four goals in this practice match.'
'You're missing a point, Catherine, but I guess you're right in a sense.'
The next day came by after a couple of hours and it was match day thirty of the Bilbeth Premier League and one of the matches for the day was United FC versus Rojo Sturm United at the Wondanimo stadium.
Norman seemed to have over-prepared his team for this game because it ended up being a one-sided trashing.
Their opponents never got the chance to cause any problem for them while they ended up scoring two against them in the first half and one in the second half.
It was a three-goal victory for Norman's side, a victory that had them maintain their spot at the top of the table.
This was one of those matches where Dave had practically nothing to do because Rojo Sturm only managed to fire three shots at their goalpost and all of them ended up being off target.
He wasn't particularly happy about that but they won the match and since that was their goal coming into the game, there was nothing to complain about.
Some people believed that Unique FC should have scored more than three goals looking at how weak Rojo Sturm looked throughout the match, but there was a reasonable expectation for why things ended this way.
Their next match was against Dynamo FC in the quarterfinals of the Super Cup, and because of that, Norman decided to rest some of his key players.
He started Jonas ahead of Roland, Pirlo had to fill in for Adolf, Carlos had a starting chance ahead of Merino and the two key midfielders were replaced by Edward and Harry.
However, just to be on the safe side, he started Mateo on the left wing just in case their opponents made it hard for them to get a goal.
However, that seemed to be pointless because Mateo ended up not scoring or assisting in the match, it was another match without him scoring or assisting. But unlike the last match, he didn't seem lackluster.
He seemed to have gotten his form back and caused quite a lot of trouble down the left flank, luck just wasn't on his side with goals and assists today, he did manage to create a couple of good chances though but Fred ended up wasting most of them.
Edward was announced as the man of the match at the end of the game because he was truly the key man today.
All of their three goals came with assists and all of them came from him.
He assisted Fred for the first goal, Carlos for the second one, and Norman for the third one.
"Unique FC are really giving Supreme United a run for their money in the title race this season while Dynamo FC doesn't seem to be that interested," Jim commented. "They're still at the top of the table with seven matches left in the league, if they can get through this while retaining this form then they're winning the league for sure."
Unique FC players made sure to greet the fans at the end of the game, and after that, they all proceeded to head down the tunnel, and this time, Dave didn't have Amber or any reporter dropping him.
[ +5 skill upgrade points ]
'It just keeps getting smaller.'