Sam rolled it across. Faisal took a single step and hit it into the air. The Riverside keeper saw the danger and started to back-pedal. The ball was spinning towards him. It was as if time had stopped. The ball was dropping. Still, the keeper was running back. He flung his hands in the air, but the ball went through them … and landed in the back of the net.

Then Faisal roared a single word. “Goal!” 60

The Celtic players all piled on top of Faisal, congratulating him.

“Let him up,” Sam said at last. “We’re going to crush him.”

Faisal didn’t care about being crushed. He was laughing. 61

After a bit, Riverside restarted the game, but the ref blew the whistle before they could make any progress. The Celtic players raised their arms. It was all over. They were going to stay up.

“Where’s Jordan?” Sam asked.

“Gone,” Kai told him. “He looked sick when Faisal’s goal went in. He thought we were finished.”

“Well, we showed him, didn’t we?” Sam said.

He turned to Faisal. “So you’re talking now?” he said.

Faisal just looked at him. Five words were all Sam was getting. There had been enough miracles for one day. 62

35

Our books are tested for children and young people by children and young people.

Thanks to everyone who consulted on a manuscript for their time and effort in helping us to make our books better for our readers.

36

iv

Copyright

First published in 2019 in Great Britain by
Barrington Stoke Ltd
18 Walker Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7LP

This ebook edition first published in 2020

Text © 2019 Alan Gibbons
Illustrations © 2019 Chris Chalik

The moral right of Alan Gibbons and Chris Chalik to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library upon request

eISBN: 978–1–78112–984–5