Chapter 374: A Tremor!
The quarter-hour break came and went by as the fans began heading back into the stands and into their seats.
Slowly, the cheers began to return, morphing into something louder than it had been before the game had even begun.
Soon enough, the players were making their way back onto the pitch, greeted by a fresh roar from the stands.
No changes were visible from the stands, at least not to the personnel that had been playing before the break.
The crowd watched on as the players settled into their respective positions before the referee glanced at his watch, brought the whistle to his lips, and got things underway again.
Since Wigan had kicked off the first half, West Ham did the honours, coming out quickly with intent and wanting something to show for right through the first pass.
Antonio released it quickly to Paqueta, who had been quiet through the first forty-five and looked like a player aware of it.
The ball set off a chase that Seriki lost his footing in, his standing leg sliding from under him as he tried to bring it under control and from that, the door to Wigan’s setup opened.
Seriki picked his head up enough to see Benrahma collect it in stride and in the next moment, Wigan’s shape leaned toward him as a unit almost subconsciously.
The defensive line shuffled across, and Benrahma saw it immediately.
Rather than take it on and risk losing the ball, he squared it right across the goal, fizzing the ball toward the far post and forcing someone in blue to deal with it.
And for the Wigan defence that had been caught off guard, there was only one man that could deal with it.
The goalkeeper came off his line decisively, rose above the crowd, and claimed it cleanly.
The catch was excellent, but the landing was less comfortable.
Antonio arrived at almost the exact same moment, unable to pull out once Amos had committed himself to the ball, and the collision sent both men crashing together.
Before the two bodies could start rolling on the ground, the referee’s whistle came through.
"Foul against Antonio," the commentator said. "And Amos won’t thank him for that one."
Back on the pitch, Amos, who had been fouled, rolled a shoulder once as he got back to his feet.
It looked like he hadn’t even gone through the collision, but on the other hand, Antonio wasn’t quite as quick.
He stayed down, one hand over his face, while the referee beckoned the medical staff onto the pitch.
Around them, players from both teams hovered nearby, close enough to check on him but not crowding the situation.
After a minute or so, Antonio finally sat up and then stood.
Then, with the aid of the medical staff, he began making his way toward the touchline.
"That’s encouraging for West Ham," the co-commentator said.
"He doesn’t look comfortable, but he looks capable of carrying on."
A few moments after Wigan restarted, the official allowed him back on.
Through it all, Leo found numbers pushing towards him as the ball lay at his feet and his first instinct was to move things forward.
He scanned the pitch, saw a gap, and tried to thread one through midfield, which almost worked, at least until Ederson Alvarez stretched out a leg and diverted the pass just enough.
The ball ricocheted loose, but a blue shirt reached it and then lost it, only for another blue shirt to get it and lose it again.
And for a couple of minutes the match turned into exactly that.
Nobody settled, and nobody controlled anything.
The ball simply bounced from challenge to challenge as both sides tried to force the next attack.
After a Wigan possession, Leo stepped in to regain control of the game, but uncharacteristically, he lost the ball, and in deep territory too.
For a split second, the mistake threatened to become something much worse as West Ham reacted.
Bodies converged trying to come on top with the ball, but eventually, Wigan were able to get the ball away as the danger passed.
With a sigh of relief, Leo turned around to face the game, and through it all, Dawson’s voice somehow found him.
"Leo!"
Leo turned, and then all he heard was his manager mouthing, "Relax."
Following that, Dawson tapped the side of his head as if to signal to him to use his head more, and Leo nodded once, signalling he’d received the message.
A goal kick followed, and the brief pause gave everyone a chance to breathe.
"We’ve lost a bit of control here," the commentator said as the broadcast camera began finding faces in the stands and on the pitch.
"The game’s become very stretched over the last few minutes. Everything feels so loose and chaotic. I have absolutely no idea what happens next?"
"Exactly what West Ham wanted," his partner replied.
"Wigan were dictating things before, but not that it’s become a scrap game; it means that Wigan can’t really harm them too much.
They are already a goal up, so this helps very much."
Eventually, Wigan finally managed to settle things down.
After several frantic minutes of loose touches and rushed decisions, they began moving the ball with a bit more patience, working their way through midfield until it found Carlo on the left flank.
There, Coufal stepped out to meet him, trying to show him inside while he waited for support, but Carlo slowed instead of accelerating.
The slight hesitation caught the fullback between decisions for just long enough to create a passing lane.
And with just a single glance, Carlo made his mind up and slipped the ball towards Jake, who was already on the move.
The striker drifted away from Zouma and collected the pass in stride, his first touch taking him across the defender and his second setting up the shot.
The angle was tight, but he shot it anyway, forcing Areola to react quickly.
The West Ham goalkeeper spread himself well, getting enough behind the effort to block it away for a corner and to that, the crowd responded with a warm round of applause.
It wasn’t a goal, but it was enough to reignite the flame of rivalry in the stadium as the fans of both sides began to up the ante, with some drums suddenly invading the noisy atmosphere in the stadium.
"That’s excellent centre-forward play," the commentator said.
"Jake almost makes it a second for his team, and that is a brilliant effort from a kid who has less than 10 senior games under his belt!"
