In the last day before the FA Cup match against Nottingham Forest, first team coach Martin O'Neill finally came to the reserve team training ground. After all, he would still be the one directing the team tomorrow, not assistant coach Clarke.

He wanted to observe the training status of the reserve team players. He couldn't lead this team in a match without knowing their condition, right?

That would be too irresponsible...

However, while he came, Chen Hero didn't.

This disappointed the reserve team players who had been waiting on the training ground, eagerly anticipating their idol...

The disappointment lasted only a short time, because everyone realized that although Chen Hero hadn't come, team coach Martin O'Neill had! If they could perform well in training and tomorrow's game, wouldn't they be able to enter the coach's line of sight? As long as they could win the coach's trust, they could enter the first team. Wouldn't that allow them to fight alongside Chen Hero?

Once many people understood this point, they knew what they should do.

They performed even more actively and diligently in training.

Martin O'Neill was very satisfied with the spirit shown by the reserve team. He didn't know it was because of Chen Hero; he simply praised Clarke, believing that Clarke managed the reserve team well.

O'Neill had two assistant coaches: Sami Lee, who was responsible for first team training sessions, and Clarke, who was specifically responsible for the youth team.

Clarke was also very happy with the coach's praise.

In fact, he was also curious, because the players' training hadn't been like this before. The reserve team was somewhat like exile, especially for those players who had been transferred from the first team to the reserve team. It was as if they had been exiled. Most of them were in the reserve team because their own strength didn't meet the requirements of the first team. Then, they couldn't be sold and no one wanted them, so they had to stay in the team. Rather than rot in the first team, it was better to send them to the reserve team, where they could still play matches. There was a reserve team league every round of the Premier League, but the level was far inferior to the first team, and few people paid attention.

Those players who had just been promoted from the youth team were still full of illusions about entering the first team. The older players would tell them not to dream. Liverpool was no longer the Liverpool of Shankly and Paisley. The current Liverpool needed results, so it had to buy stars from outside, rather than promote rookies from the youth team. How many years had it been since talents from Liverpool's youth team had achieved success in the first team?

So the atmosphere in the reserve team was relatively poor. Everyone lacked fighting spirit and worked like they were dragging a millstone in training.

Clarke criticized them at first, but later he also realized that there was a lack of prospects in the reserve team, so he understood the players. Many youth team players who had been transferred up from the youth team were already thinking of transferring to other teams. Since Liverpool's first team couldn't give them opportunities, they would go to other teams to look for opportunities. If they made a name for themselves in the future, maybe they could transfer back to Liverpool again and realize the idea of saving the country by a roundabout route.

Clarke couldn't figure out why these players suddenly perked up. If it was because of the FA Cup... he knew very well what Martin O'Neill's attitude was towards the FA Cup. Historically, the FA Cup was very important, but now Liverpool didn't need it...

No one could have imagined that Chen Hero had actually become the idol of these players who couldn't see hope...

The power of idols is enormous.

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Martin O'Neill was very satisfied with the reserve team's performance, but this didn't mean that he placed any hope on this team. The FA Cup match was originally meant to be given up.

He didn't expect Liverpool's reserve team players to lead the team into the final.

After training, the reserve team players finally saw Chen Hero—Chen Hero was going to the away game with the team.

Everyone was very happy to see Chen Hero. When Chen Hero got on the bus, the players on the bus cheered for him.

"Hero!"

"Hero!"

Having gone through a match, everyone also knew Chen Hero's temper. He was different from the big-name stars they thought he would be. He had no airs, at least not in front of them.

These reserve team players didn't know that Chen Hero actually had a very big ego. But that was for outsiders. Maybe Martin O'Neill treated the reserve team differently, but Chen Hero still regarded them all as his own people, because they were all Liverpool players anyway.

Chen Hero's idea was very simple: as long as they were Liverpool players, whether they were in the first team, the reserve team, or the youth team, they were all one family.

Naturally, he couldn't put on airs in front of the reserve team and youth team players. If he was going to put on airs, he would do it for the reporters, for other players, and for the opponents.

Hearing everyone's cheers, Chen Hero raised his hand to greet everyone, without the slightest bit of pretense.

Chen Hero got on the bus, and everyone felt much more at ease. In this way, there would be no problem playing Nottingham Forest away.

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Nottingham Forest is one of the oldest teams in England and was once a force to be reckoned with. In the early 1980s, when Liverpool dominated Europe and England, only one team broke their monopoly, and that team was Nottingham Forest.

At that time, under the leadership of Brian Clough, Nottingham Forest achieved a myth. In the first year, they were still in the English Second Division, and in the second year, they became an English First Division team and won the league championship. In the third year, they participated in the European Champions Cup for the first time and won the Champions League title. The Kaiserslautern myth was nothing compared to it.

What was even greater was yet to come. Before Arsenal, promoted team Nottingham Forest had already created the longest unbeaten record in English league history. This record was not broken by Arsenal until the new century.

After creating the longest unbeaten record, Nottingham Forest surprisingly defended the Champions League title in the European Champions Cup!

Since then, Nottingham Forest became a strong team in English football. Until the establishment of the Premier League, they declined rapidly due to a lack of money.

In fact, Liverpool also declined after the Premier League. Ultimately, it was because they didn't have enough money. In the newly established Premier League, Liverpool's finances did not keep up with the league's requirements and were left behind by teams such as Blackburn and Manchester United. In addition, they always had some inexplicable problems in their team-building strategies, which led Liverpool further and further away from the league title.

But at least they were a wealthy family, with a solid foundation, and were still better off than Nottingham Forest. Nottingham Forest went straight back to League One (later the Championship, the second tier of English football), while Liverpool, although not relegated, couldn't win a single league title and could only win cup matches that no one valued, earning them the reputation of "King of Cups."

But Liverpool fans didn't need cup titles; what Liverpool fans wanted most was the league title. Once the team with the most league titles in English football, the overlord of the English First Division, but in the Premier League era, they couldn't win a single title, which was embarrassing to say.

After more than twenty years, the opponents on the winning field had also undergone earth-shaking changes. After many years of hardship, Liverpool finally ushered in a revival, while Nottingham Forest worked hard to return to the Championship, but could never take another step forward. In recent years, they had been in the Championship, and once they were very close to promotion, but they were either one step away from the play-offs, or they lost in the final play-offs.

Nottingham Forest had changed several owners, and even more coaches, but it was always ineffective. Now they seemed to have accepted their fate, content with the status quo, and gradually fell silent. They were a mid-table team in the Championship, with no hope of promotion and no worries about relegation.

Meeting such a team in the FA Cup was indeed the most worrying thing. Because such a team couldn't give up the FA Cup for promotion, and they didn't need to consider relegation. They just needed to go all out to make a breakthrough in the FA Cup, and maybe they could go to the European arena next year and earn a lot of money.

The FA Cup's appeal has declined sharply for Premier League teams, but it is still a popular treasure for lower-league teams.

If it weren't for Chen Hero's all-reserve Liverpool, they might really have stumbled at the City Ground.

But now…

Chen Hero became the master of the City Ground.

In this historic stadium, Chen Hero used a free kick to leave his name forever in the history of the City Ground.

Chen Hero's goal opened the tide of Liverpool's mad attack.

And Nottingham Forest? They were powerless in the face of the powerful Chen Hero.

This red forest, which once broke Liverpool's monopoly under the leadership of Brian Clough, can now only hold its head in its hands and shrink back to be ravaged by the old opponent's bombardment.

This scene made the old fans who were familiar with the grievances between the two teams sigh with emotion.

The red Liverpool has risen, while the red forest is still sleeping, waiting for the destined person who belongs to them...

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In the end, Chen Hero scored twice again in the game, helping Liverpool beat Nottingham Forest 3:1 and advance to the fifth round of the FA Cup.

After the game, the Liverpool reserve team players surrounded Chen Hero, and everyone scrambled to hug him.

Chen Hero only played for sixty-five minutes in this game, and was substituted before he scored two goals.

He was the biggest contributor to the team's advancement to the fifth round.

The reserve team players were very happy, and now they could continue to fight alongside Chen Hero.

This was good news for them.

Moreover, everyone felt that they had performed well in the game, and maybe they had caught the coach's eye?

The FA Cup was dispensable for the first team, but it was a rare opportunity for the reserve team players.

They cherished this opportunity very much.

Naturally, they liked and admired Chen Hero even more for giving them the opportunity to continue moving forward...