Harbinger Of Glory

A second later, he came out the other side with the ball still at his feet and the away end reacted in kind.

Still, he wasn’t out of the woods yet because now, March and Dahoud were on him, only this time, Leo had some options.

He looked up and towards the right where Ezra had shown his first real touch of the game coming if the pass was right, and Leo sent it long, bending it to the outside of the Brighton fullback’s run and weighted for Ezra to chase rather than collect.

Ezra got there and controlled it before he immediately fed it to Seriki on the overlap and kept running.

Seriki, under the press of Mitoma, ignored the rush and lifted the ball back over the top for Ezra to chase again, the two of them working the channel with the telepathy of players that had played together for years despite it being their first game together.

While the ball descended, Estupinan set himself to get to the ball at the same moment Ezra did, but instead of catching the ball, his leg went through and caught Ezra’s leg instead.

Ezra went to the ground and stayed there for a moment as the referee’s whistle came through a moment later.

While the referee moved toward Estupinan with his hand raised and a stern expression, Ezra got off the ground and began heading towards the box where the Wigan players had begun swarming in hopes of doing something against the run of play.

”A foul on Ezra,” the commentator said as his voice settled over the broadcast.

”And that’s a breather for both sides in what has been a cagey and physical opening. Wigan have struggled to find their rhythm, but that last passage showed something.

Leo Calderon getting hold of it and driving play forward, finding Ezra on the right. That’s the version of this team Dawson needs to see more of.”

At the patch of grass where Ezra had been fouled, Reyes was standing over the ball and looked across at Leo in the centre circle.

He mouthed the question, nodding toward the free kick.

Leo looked at him, then he looked at the ball like he wanted to deny the chance to take it, but after a while, he started walking toward it, not being able to help himself.

Leo got to the ball and crouched beside it before looking up at Reyes.

”Roll it,” Leo said quietly, positioning his standing foot.

”Just a little. I need the angle for the spin.”

Reyes looked at him for a second and nodded.

He moved to the side of it as the referee turned away from the ball and blew his whistle.

The Brighton players broke immediately, reading the roll as a cluster of them moved to get bodies in front of whatever was coming after Reyes touched it.

But Leo was already through the motion.

His foot came through the bottom of the ball, putting a wild spin on the already pacey ball as the ball rose into the skies.

”Calderon! Is he going for it directly?” the commentator said.

The ball cleared the wall and curled toward the penalty area, the spin dragging it away from the goalkeeper before it began to dip, arriving in that awkward space where defenders never quite know whether to attack it or hold their line.

Heads went up in the box while bodies jockeyed and arms went across shoulders.

At the last second, Jason Steele made his decision and came.

He punched it hard and clean, sending the ball almost back where it came from.

Towards the area ahead of the centre of the pitch.

There Welbeck stood waiting to get the ball, but suddenly, Leo appeared behind him, and Leo went up with him, which nobody watching had seen coming from a midfielder of his profile.

His shoulder went into Welbeck’s as he rose, and that got enough of his body across to direct the header sideways rather than let Brighton launch the counter.

”Calderon’s won it in the air,” the commentator said, surprise creeping into his voice.

”Welbeck won’t be happy with that one. Wigan needed someone to keep the attack alive, and Calderon has done exactly that.”

As the commentary rolled on, the loose ball dropped kindly for Reyes, who brought it under control and drove forward immediately.

Brighton reacted at once.

Dahoud stepped across from one side while Milner closed from the other, the pair looking to trap him in the same vice that had swallowed up so many Wigan attacks already, but Reyes didn’t shy away.

With small touches and small strides, he pushed forward.

Dahoud edged closer, convinced he had him boxed in, but that was when Reyes struck.

A sharp touch carried the ball beyond the midfielder’s reach, and he burst through the gap before Dahoud could recover.

The opening, though, lasted all of a second before Milner arrived in a way that showed he came not for the ball but for Reyes.

The contact crashed into his shin just as he accelerated away, knocking his balance from under him.

Reyes stumbled, but before gravity could finish the job, he stabbed one last touch with the outside of his boot, nudging the ball away from danger and into space down the left where Carlo was positioned.

Then the ground came up to meet him while the referee waved play on.

”Advantage says the referee,” the commentator said sharply. ”And rightly so. The ball is with Carlo now on the left, and Wigan have numbers forward.”

Carlo came inside, which had already been read by almost every eye in the stadium.

The expectation built with each stride, the natural assumption of a player cutting in from the left with space in front of him being that the shot was coming.

With every stride, Brighton became more convinced the shot was coming.

Defenders shifted across instinctively, bodies narrowing the angle and closing the lane before Carlo could pull the trigger, but the shot never came, even with Carlo in prime position.

He cut back instead, sending the ball going back toward the left flank he had just come from.

It was the last direction anyone in the box was looking, and for a second the Brighton players were caught in the gap between the decision they had made and the reality that had replaced it.

Bennet was already there.

He had started the overlap the moment Carlo received the ball and kept going when everyone else stopped looking at him.

Brighton’s defenders had narrowed toward the winger, exactly as Carlo had hoped, and by the time the pass arrived Bennet had an entire channel to run into.

”Great ball from Carlo,” the commentator said immediately. ”And Bennet’s got space here.”

The full-back reached it in stride and lifted his head.

A couple of Brighton players threw their arms up straight away, appealing for an offside that hadn’t come.

But before they could get an answer, Bennet drove the cross into the box.

It was low and fast, forcing the Brighton players into making decisions they didn’t want to make.

”It’s a dangerous ball in here!”

Inside the area, Ezra looked poised to get onto the end of the ball.

He’d held his run when Carlo received possession and had even waited when Bennet overlapped.

And with his timing having paid off, he bolted forward.

He reached the six-yard box at full speed, but so did the defender behind him.

The difference was that one of them got to the ball and the other got to the player.

Who did what wasn’t clear, but Ezra’s legs disappeared from underneath him as contact crashed into his back and side, sending him tumbling across the turf before he could make clean contact.

”HE’S GONE DOWN!”

The commentator was already half out of his seat.

”EZRA’S DOWN INSIDE THE PENALTY AREA!”

Every Wigan player nearby turned instantly toward the referee, and so did the Brighton players, with their arms spread and protesting before the decision had even been made.

For a split second the entire stadium seemed suspended between two possibilities.

Then...