53 Run Them Over

Blair Atkinson was having one of the greatest nights of his life. He's been jumping with the Sheffield ultras for most of the 75 minutes that had passed in this game, while waving his Sheffield scarf he bought for a bargain yesterday, shouting the home chants, and clapping his hands.

Another thing that made this a phenomenal day for him was his beloved son.

Blair watched with exhilaration as his son released an unbelievable outside of the boot shot from distance. He jumped even higher than the most rabid of the ultras, and reached for his son as the teenager cleared the wall and hugged him in celebration of the goal.

He was barely able to keep himself from shaking the man next to him and shouting at him to tell that the goal scorer was his beloved son.

However, several minutes later, he finally had the courage to shake the man next to him out of his wits and chug the whole mug of beer he just bought.

"That's my son, mate! That youngster is my bloody son!" He shook the helpless man with his two hands, like they were close buddies. He then chugged the entirety of the huge mug of beer without even caring about how the person beside him reacted.

Blair then joined the chanting once more like nothing happened.

At least until the home team once again had a fantastic build up play on offense. A string of more than twenty successful passes built from the back made its way to the final third with fluidity.

Alain Prosser, who's already showing some signs of fatigue, doesn't want to risk his tired legs on a run. So he made a sideward pass to the box to box midfielder Hastings, who's making a run after seizing a slight opening on the defense.

He tried a shot from long distance, something he's had quite a lot of when he's younger, only for it to cannon straight to the crossbar.

It landed back to the pitch, to be cleared badly by an almost disinterested Birmingham defender, and was well caught by Hastings again. This time, he dinked it over to George Williams who only had the goalkeeper to beat after springing the offside trap…

"Here's George Williams with a chance!"

"Oof!"

The shot was saved by an accurate, last second punch by the keeper's right hand, saving it out for a corner kick.

"That was almost four, had the Birmingham keeper twisted his body a little bit later there, don't you think?" Hawk asked.

"Yeah, it's clearly another one of those George Williams' characteristic near misses." Thompson gave his opinion on the matter.

"Well, it's a good thing that Sheffield is one of the best teams in League One when it comes to scoring in dead ball situations then."

Hastings was again on the corner kick, unlike last time though, there's a defender hovering around Blaise Atkinson outside of the box, clearly highlighting the heightened level of danger he seemed to possess against Birmingham.

It was at the moment when Hastings whipped the corner in, that Blaise Atkinson's designated marker lost him. Atkinson's movement was made at the exact split second that the defender moved his eyes away from him.

The ball was badly headed by Potts, whose initial contact with it only sent the ball to the head of the defender jumping in front of him, which in turn sent it upward for anyone to take again.

The ball was about to land freely near the unmarked far right post, when someone dived in with his head first.

"Oh, Atkinson dives into it!"

"He's there!"

The initial effort was kept out by an unbelievable piece of last ditch defending, wherein a Birmingham midfielder that didn't jump on the initial cross, rushed to the far side instead. He managed to stop the ball from crossing the goal line, but he himself entered the net.

But sometimes, even the ball was cruel.

The defender watched as the ball he kept out rebounded back to the right foot of Blaise, who remained aware of what's happening at that moment, slotting the ball to the now empty net before cartwheeling away in delight.

"Blaise Atkinson, let me tell you, this guy is gonna be a problem for League One defenders in the future." Ian lost his composure when he said it.

"He even got the composure, and poise to stick that ball back into the net, in that scramble." Eddie highlighted. "I feel sorry for the defender who laid his body on the line."

"No, I think what's most phenomenal here is the instincts." Martin Jones started. "You can't teach those things. Those are innate."

The Sheffield ultras stand was in a state of mixed shock and bliss. No one in the thousands of fans that are jumping, screaming, chanting Sheffield would've expected that a new guy would bag a hat trick against one of their local rivals some thirty minutes into his debut.

"Woo holy! That's my son over there!" The fans surrounding Blair Atkinson remembered that he was the father of their club's new monster. They imprinted his face into their minds.

"Lad, when you told me you're gonna light up Rotherham, I never would've expected that you'll actually light 'em up." That's what Blaise's mentor Damian Potts told him while on his goal celebrations.

He wanted to run them over, as part of his grand return to the professional football leagues. It will serve him in good stead in the future.

One, he'll gain ridiculous visibility. A dominating performance here would score him the attention of a lot of teams higher up the pecking order, especially with this game televised on English television.

Two, he'll make a case for himself to start games in the near future. A dominating performance here would give him a better chance of sticking around in the first team, and would most surely get him some starting appearances.

Three, Serra will see him in his full glory dominating grown men in League One. He wanted to gain the best first impression of his past life wife. That needs no further explanation.

He'll just cry if Serra didn't watch this particular game.

***

The three commentators on the desk thought that the Blades would finally let up and just cruise through the last ten minutes of the game.

But even the three of them underestimated the unsaid ferocity Sheffield had against their local rivals.

Just three minutes after the Atkinson goal, George Williams bagged his brace. He tucked in a beautiful Blaise Atkinson delivery to the bottom right corner.

In the first minute of stoppage time, Damian Potts made it six. He rose the highest on another corner from Trent Hastings.

When the final whistle blew, the Rotherham players slumped to the ground awash with relief that this nightmarish derby had finally come to an end.