The glorious, muddy, and utterly improbable 2-1 victory against Macclesfield Town had cemented Apex FC as the undisputed darlings of the Northern Premier League.
They were top of the league, playing a brand of beautiful, chaotic, and ridiculously watchable football.
And Leon, their eighteen-year-old owner-manager-tactical-genius, was the architect of it all.
The influx of cash from the Ben Carter transfer to Chelsea had secured the club's future, allowing Leon to make a few shrewd, "diamond-in-the-rough" signings, like the towering Dutch defender, Samuel Adebayo, a.k.a. 'The Mountain'. But most importantly, the money had bought them a new, state-of-the-art (gently used, but still very shiny) coffee machine for the canteen, a move that Brenda, the club secretary, declared was "the greatest signing in the history of the club."
Life was good. It was simple. It was pure.
And then, inevitably, they hit a slump.
