Chapter 372: Hammers’ Equalizer?
Standing just some metres away from the pitch, David Moyes pressed his lips into a thin line as he watched the scenes unfolding.
Behind him, one of his assistants leaned in and said something.
To that, Moyes gave a short nod but barely took his eyes off the game.
A second later, he stepped to the edge of his technical area and started barking instructions, pointing sharply toward the far side as West Ham hurried to adjust.
Across the touchline, Dawson broke away from a brief conversation with Nolan and two of his coaches.
He looked out over the pitch for a moment, hands in his pockets.
Nothing about his expression gave much away, but he wasn’t in a hurry to change anything.
"And it seems we might be seeing some changes from the West Ham side. At least tactically," the commentator said on the broadcast.
"Moyes clearly unhappy with what he’s seeing from his side and you can understand why. Wigan have been the side behind the ball most times in this tie, and it seems the West Ham man is eager to see a change."
After that short hiatus, the game restarted.
And with it came two sides with different energy levels than what had been shown some time ago.
West Ham rummaged through their arsenal, using whatever they could find to try and break down the Wigan side.
Bowen was everywhere on the right, receiving the ball and making use of possession in a way that he hadn’t been able to do earlier because of Wigan’s possession.
Facing the brunt of it was Joe Bennet, who looked like he’d lost his playing boots against Bowen.
The West Ham legend became blistering, sometimes making Bennet even forget his left and right, until things eventually started to look up for the West Ham winger in the 19th minute.
After a failed pass by Reyes, the ball came from Aguerd out of the back, long and diagonal, and Bowen met it on the half turn, controlling it with his chest and letting it drop before driving inside.
Bennet held his shape, but Bowen’s first touch had already put him in a position where the angle was wrong.
And before Bennet knew about it, Bowen cut across his right shoulder with enough pace to open the lane to the edge of the box.
Seeing Bennet done with, Leo stepped forward as the Wigan setup collapsed further.
Through all this, Bowen got the time to glance up, and when he did, the first thing he saw was Michail Antonio, who was making a diagonal run from the left side of the attack, pulling Whatmough with him.
The space it created on the near post side was real and available, and without a second invitation, Bowen knocked the ball further forward and then hit it first time, low and hard and with venom in it, a player who had been seeking an opportunity and had gotten it.
Standing on his goal line, Ben Amos tensed, as the bodies in front of him shuffled away to reveal the incoming effort.
At the last, he reacted quickly, getting down and getting his left hand to the ball uncomfortably, but the ball didn’t stay.
It skipped off his palm and went upward rather than wide, and for a moment the follow-up looked dangerous with Antonio arriving, but Amos recovered, threw himself at the second ball and smothered it against his chest before the West Ham striker could arrive.
In reaction to that, the DW exhaled.
"AMOS," the commentator said.
"Ben Amos with a crucial stop to keep his side’s lead intact.
Bowen’s shot was excellent, low and powerful, and Amos has gotten down to it and then recovered for the second ball.
That is proper Premier League goalkeeping, and Wigan needed every bit of it."
"The first save was the difficult one," the co-commentator followed up.
"The angle it came off his palm, you don’t always recover from that.
But he’s stayed big and stayed in the moment and kept it out.
A very important stop that will be favourably looked upon should Wigan go on and win this."
In the stands, the Wigan supporters who had been on their feet for Bowen’s run sat back down with relief drawn all over their faces.
They had been prepared for some bad news, especially after the spill, but it seemed like they lived to fight another day.
As both sides of the crowd began to rally, the commentary used the goal kick to take stock of the game.
"Twenty-two minutes played here at the DW, Wigan one West Ham nil, and this has been a proper Premier League game.
End to end in stretches, physical in others, and both managers earning their wages on the touchline."
"What I’d say about Wigan," the co-commentator offered, "is that they look comfortable at this level now.
Not comfortable in a complacent sense but comfortable in the sense that they understand what’s required of them and they’re meeting it.
I haven’t seen a side that hasn’t been in the league for over a decade adjust this quickly right after coming in."
"And that," the main commentator said, "is not something we can take for granted!"
From there, the game became a cagey affair with neither side being able to fully take control of the game.
One minute was the most a side could manage the ball before they ultimately lost it to the other, and then vice versa.
The thirty-first minute nearly changed everything.
A Wigan clearance dropped awkwardly thirty yards from goal and landed at the feet of Ward-Prowse.
For most players, it was a ball to settle, but for a player with his reputation, it was an invitation.
Without waiting for the ball to fall fully, the former Southampton man poised himself and then sent his left foot through the ball.
The strike left his foot cleanly and immediately looked dangerous, climbing before dipping viciously toward the far corner.
Amos reacted late as he couldn’t get himself to commit.
The movement on the ball was that savage and unpredictable.
Eventually, he stopped being indecisive and threw himself across goal, managing to get a hand to it, but it was only just.
Still, the touch changed enough as the ball clipped his wrist, crashed against the inside of the post and rolled across the face of goal.
Ben Amos quickly rose to his feet and lunged, but he was forced to falter mid-air as Michail Antonio appeared and nudged the ball past the goal line.
