Harbinger Of Glory

As the celebrations receded, the Brighton players walked back to their respective positions without much complaint.

Wigan returned to theirs a moment later, and after everything was set, Brighton kicked off with intent.

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Wigan, meanwhile, looked a yard quicker.

One goal hadn’t changed the score by much, but it had changed the game.

Brighton began being barraged by an unending press with the Wigan players attacking in twos and even threes because the way Brighton played made them unable to use the spaces left behind.

When they got the ball back, Wigan began taking risks.

They began playing passes they hadn’t attempted twenty minutes earlier, and Brighton, being aware, was an understatement.

They felt all that was going on.

The ease they’d started the match with was gone, replaced by the realisation that Wigan weren’t just here to make up the numbers.

What followed was the best spell of the half, which saw both sides pushing the game forward and neither willing to give the other control of it.

Wigan began to move with something they hadn’t had in the opening exchanges, which was conviction.

And in their midfield, Leo began working his magic.

He was in places he wasn’t supposed to be, and when he was there, he was playing like he had his lifetime’s savings on the game.

”Oh, Leo’s free here,” the commentary had said when Leo received in midfield, and instead of taking the safe option immediately, he held it, bought a second, and played it into Reyes, who spun away from his marker and found Carlo in the channel.

Carlo’s first touch was good, but his second was heavy and the chance dissolved, but Wigan moved on, brushing off the failed attempt and quickly revamping their press.

They weren’t the only ones reinvigorated by the goal, though, as Brighton responded by coming forward and playing in an all-out attack way like Wigan, though theirs were a bit clumsy as that just wasn’t the way they played.

Joao Pedro dropped deeper to receive, finding pockets between the lines, and when the ball found him there, he was genuinely dangerous.

His movements were sharp and his touches clean.

There were two or three moments where Wigan’s defensive shape allowed him space that were uncomfortable in ways that the scoreline didn’t reflect.

”Brighton are not going away,” the commentator said.

”And you wouldn’t expect them to. They have too much quality in this side to simply accept what has happened.”

The clearest moment, at least for Brighton, came in the thirty-eighth minute when Steele launched the ball long, and Welbeck won the header cleanly, flicking it into the space behind Whatmough.

The Wigan veteran, seeing the ball go past him, spun immediately to try and get to it but Solly March was already running onto it before the header had finished travelling.

He collected it in his stride and came at O’Shea directly, driving forward with pace, precision and intent.

On the other hand, O’Shea held his ground.

Instead of retreating like most would, he went in for the challenge.

In reaction to that, March shifted left and then went right.

O’Shea went with the first movement but not the second, and suddenly there was space and a clear sight of goal, and the Amex rose in anticipation of something that looked inevitable.

March, getting a touch to keep the bobbling ball calm, did enough to evade Joe Bennet, who had recovered and before the defender could pose any more threat, March smashed the ball low and hard.

It was aimed at the corner Amos had least coverage on, but the Wigan veteran keeper did just enough to get his hand to it, but only the outside of his palm, enough to push it onto the post but not enough to push it wide.

The ball came back into play, and as it did, Welbeck arrived at the rebound before anyone and hit it first time from nine yards.

But then, out of nowhere, Leo appeared from nowhere, sliding across the goal line with both legs outstretched to deflect the ball that caught his shin over the bar.

The Amex, which was in the process of shouting, ”goal”, had to turn that into a groan as many of the fans that had stood to their feet slumped back into their chair.

”How,” the commentator said, and left the word sitting there for a moment.

”How has Wigan survived that? From March to Amos to the post, to the rebound to Welbeck, and then Leo Calderon of all people clearing it off the line. This is extraordinary defending from a midfielder, and Wigan will not believe their luck.”

Leo got to his feet and looked at the goal behind him and then looked away and went back to position himself outside the box as the corner kick came in.

Wigan saw the half out from there, defending when they needed to and building when they could, and Leo’s influence on the latter was visible in the small ways that one would only see if they were in the game or were watching keenly.

His passes and the ideas he was trying to convey to his mates were right, but the execution around them was inconsistent, which was the honest reality of a newly promoted side playing their first Premier League game.

But that didn’t stop Leo.

He understood the need to push, and so he did, spraying diagonal balls and dangerous passes whenever he could until the referee’s whistle came to end the half just as Wigan had lost the ball in Brighton’s half attempting to build something through the press.

The players that had been tussling for the ball slowed and then came to a halt before a few converged with their teammates and began making their way down the pitch.

And all around the stadium, a great exhalation came with both fans having stayed tense for the majority of the dying moments of the half, but now they understood the need for their team to regroup with the half-time break.