Harbinger Of Glory

[DW Stadium!]

The restart came, and with it, Brentford immediately looked to use their advantage.

Nørgaard took the throw quickly, finding Bryan Mbeumo near the right touchline, but thankfully for Wigan, Carlo was already tracking back.

He trudged into the space Mbeumo was occupying, but as he got there, the Cameroonian took the ball in stride and drove forward, immediately putting his body between Carlo and possession as he pushed toward the Wigan half.

Through it all, Carlo stayed with him, step for step.

He tried to get close enough to make a challenge, reaching once with his shoulder, but Mbeumo barely moved.

The Brentford forward held his ground brilliantly, shielding the ball as Carlo continued pressing from behind.

”And Bryan Mbeumo is holding on strongly here...”

The commentator barely got the words out when Leo appeared without warning.

One second, Mbeumo had Carlo behind him and open grass ahead and then in the next, Leo came flying in from the side.

He went low, one leg extended, and got his foot cleanly onto the ball, but Mbeumo also went down as the ball broke loose.

Carlo, seeing this, immediately turned and sprinted after it while Mbeumo remained on the turf for a second, looking up expectantly.

Surely there had been something.

A whistle, a foul, anything but nothing came.

The referee waved play on, and Leo was already back on his feet by then.

For a brief moment, Mbeumo watched him.

Then, as Carlo collected the loose ball and Brentford’s players rushed toward him, Leo disappeared from the picture entirely.

Carlo had barely taken his first touch when Mbeumo and two others began closing him down.

There was no time to turn and no time to look up.

So Carlo simply knocked the ball forward down the left flank and took off after it.

”Wigan might have something building for them here!”

The ball rolled ahead, going further than expected, and so Ghoddos moved across quickly, reading Carlo’s intentions and stepping toward the path of the pass.

Then, just before he could reach it, Leo arrived.

He had somehow appeared beside the ball.

Ghoddos, seeing this, stretched toward the ball, looking to possess it, but Leo eventually got there first, and then, with his first touch, he pulled the ball away from the frame of the right back and then knocked it straight past him with his second.

Ghoddos continued his form into a lunge, but his effort missed the ball, and before he could even climb back up, Carlo burst past him with a gush of air trailing behind him.

The Wigan crowd rose sharply as the winger flew past Leo, taking several rapid steps before bringing the ball under control.

He accelerated down the flank and kept going as more and more space in front of him opened, and still, Carlo kept going.

He crossed halfway into Brentford territory.

Then further, and by the time he reached the left side of the penalty area, though, the problem became obvious.

There was nobody there, or almost nobody.

Wigan had been defending with ten men for so long that their shape had been dragged apart, and that caused Carlo to slow as he took in the state of Wigan’s numbers once more in the box.

After seeing that there was no use, he turned his body slightly, preparing to recycle possession, but that was when he saw him.

Leo, running from deep and without even hesitating, Carlo immediately rolled the ball back toward him.

The pass travelled straight into the thick of Brentford’s midfield as players closed in, two from the front and another from behind.

For a second, Leo appeared surrounded, looking like he would be dispossessed the moment he touched the ball, and so he did not.

The ball reached him, but as it did, Leo slanted and let it run, and every Brentford player around him reacted to the obvious expectation about Leo controlling the ball.

Instead, the ball travelled right past him as Leo spun, not toward the ball’s original path but towards the outside.

He took the back route, and by the time the Brentford midfielders turned, he had already come around them.

”Oh, that is a lovely turn by Calderon...”

The ball was his, and with it, his head came up immediately.

The entire right side of Brentford’s defence was exposed after they had leaned so much towards the left flank, and it didn’t take a genius with vision to see Ezra running.

A second longer, and it would be offside, and Leo knew it, so he lifted his foot beneath the ball and the pass left him almost instantly.

It travelled high and diagonally across the pitch, dropping into the space ahead of Ezra’s run and by then, the Wigan supporters were already on their feet.

”How has he seen that? Brilliant ball from Calderon and Wigan might be in!”

Ezra sprinted after the ball eagerly.

His legs pumped as he chased the dropping ball, holding off the Brentford defender beside him before reaching it.

He took one touch, then another and then drove towards the penalty box, showing a strong arm to fend off the defender.

Up ahead, Will Keane was arriving centrally but, seeing the sheer bodies of Brentford players in the box, he inverted, taking the diagonal route towards the byline right as Ezra looked up and in the next second, the pass came across.

Keane entered the box and let it run across his body, but the move did not end, and Ezra had not stopped.

He continued his run and reached the edge of the area, and just as he did, Keane, deep into the Brentford box, cut the ball back.

”EZRA!” the commentary roared as the ball rolled towards him, and he knew there was time to settle it.

Ezra struck it first time, bending one and sending it low and hard towards the bottom left corner.

Flekken saw it late, the frame of his mates blocking his view, but he shuffled sharply to his right and then threw himself.

When the ball appeared, it hit his fingertips, and that was enough.

The shot changed direction and flashed behind the post, smacking against the barricade before bouncing back onto the pitch as a gasp escaped the crowd in the DW!

”OH, DANGEROUS!”

The commentator almost shouted over the roar.

”THAT WAS SO DANGEROUS FROM WIGAN!”