Date: Saturday, 27 December 2025Location: Carrow Road
Carrow Road simmered under a slate-grey sky, the kind that promised rain but never quite delivered. The winter air gnawed at exposed skin. Around the ground, the crowd murmured with a different kind of hunger—the easy kind, the kind that comes when you smell blood before kickoff.
Jake Wilson stood near the dugout, coat zipped high, hands buried deep in the pockets, feeling the restless pulse of the day press against him.
After Christmas. After the party. After the laughter and the soft, golden glow of family moments.
Now? The real world returned, cold and exacting.
Before they'd boarded the bus out of Valley Parade, Jake had said it plainly to the players: "Joy doesn't win matches. Discipline does."
He'd meant every word.
But today, the cracks showed.
