HILARIOUS video shows a football team trick their manager into believing they had lost a penalty shootout he couldn’t bear to watch.
Mike Cartwright can be seen in the changing room generously consoling his “devastated” players in the belief they had narrowly missed out on a semi-final place.
But the Salford team’s dejection was an act and after keeping up the pretense for several minutes they erupted into raucous cheering and dancing around their baffled boss.
The trick was played on Mike following Irlam Tiger’s quarter final on Saturday away at the home of FC Unsworth in Greater Manchester.
The score at full time was 1-1 and Mike, unable to face the nerve-shredding prospect of penalties, retired to the dressing room.
His team trooped in shortly afterwards, all with long faces, and even started a fake argument about who was responsible for the defeat.
Overcoming his own disappointment at going out of the Manchester Amateur County Cup after winning three rounds, Mike can be seen adopting a fatherly role.
He tells the players: “Boys it is what is at the end of the day, we made a mistake at the end.
Some players can be heard apologising as Mike continues: “Hey boys, just keep the f****** heads up, yeah!”
Moments later the entire squad leap to their feet and started cheering and jumping up and down on the spot.
Gathering around a very bemused Mike, they tell him that they actually won the shootout four goals to two, giving them a 5-3 victory overall.
A shocked Mike, 48, can be seen standing with his hands on his head, grinning at the camera as the team sings: “Championes! Championes!”
The video was then shared onto the Irlam Tiger twitter page, the video was captioned: “When the manager refuses to watch a quarter final penalty shootout and the players come back saying we lost.”
@Waterlooafc_ responded: “Scenes, well in Lads.”
@RichWXM jokingly posted: “They’d all be on the transfer list the next day if they did that
to me.”
@Denishenry16 commented: “Quality lads.”
Speaking today, Mike said: “I can’t believe they did it. If they played footy like they acted we would have won in 90 mins. It was amazing.”
