Have been going down a Djed Spence rabbit hole & am obsessed with this story about how his mum got him into a better grassroots team by hiding in a bush: “When I was at Peckham Town, we travelled all the way down to Croydon to play a team called Junior Elite. I think it was snowing and sleet and everything was bad. My mum always knew I had potential. We ended up going to Junior Elite and losing 11-0 or 12-0 and my mum liked the team. She said, ‘this team is good who we just played, you know’. They had good structure and they played good football. Everyone was going home and she said, ‘just wait there on the side’. Some people are still around from Peckham Town like the coach – so my mum took me and we hid in the bushes. It’s so funny because I remember it like yesterday. We hid in the bushes, waiting for everyone to go and everyone’s leaving and when it was all clear, my mum said, ‘come on, let’s go’. She spoke to one of the coaches and she said, ‘I want my son to play for you lot’. They had a conversation, and they said, ‘bring him down and he’ll go on trial’. I ended up doing a trial and I signed for Junior Elite, so that was the story.” englandfootball.com/england/…