Chapter 415: Hate To See You Win!
[Wigan locker room.]
The players filtered into the dressing room one after another, each leaving behind another small reminder of the half.
The players slowly trekked to their respective lockers with none really talking too much about the half, a stark contrast to what usually went on at half-time.
Leo dropped onto the bench in front of his locker and pulled the tape from one wrist without really looking at it.
Across the room, Darikwa sat with both elbows resting on his knees, staring at the floor after the collision that had led to Wolves’ second.
The room was simmering, and it only needed someone to say the first sentence.
A second later, the door opened again.
This time, it was Dawson who had Nolan to his side.
The eyes of the players found him and then returned to wherever they’d been looking for before he entered.
Seeing this, Dawson smiled a bit before shaking his head.
"Cheer up," he said with a smirk as a few heads lifted.
"Right. This isn’t the best feeling."
"You are frustrated. I am frustrated. The fans are frustrated. Everyone is frustrated," he said, gesturing a bit wildly as he walked around.
"The first goal," he said, holding up a finger.
"I’ve watched enough football to know there was enough contact in that box for plenty of referees to blow."
"As for the second goal..."
"...I’m not convinced I know what a foul is anymore."
A few players chuckled despite themselves as his words instantly broke the dead mood.
"But listen to me," Dawson said with a firmer voice.
"Being angry isn’t putting the ball in their net. We can shout at the referee, and we can throw up our arms or replay every decision in our head until tomorrow morning."
He shrugged.
"It won’t change a thing."
"The only man who knows whether the referee is being completely neutral..."
"...is the referee himself."
"We can only judge what we see and what we’ve seen isn’t helping us," he said as he spread both hands.
"So stop wasting your energy trying to win a battle that’s already over."
He picked up the tactics board.
"The next forty-five minutes..."
"...that’s the only battle we’ve got left."
After what Dawson thought to be an uplifting speech, his magnets began moving across the board.
For several minutes, Dawson talked them through the adjustments.
The room gradually shifted from frustration to concentration as players leaned forward, questions replaced complaints, and the focus moved away from what had already happened towards what still could.
Eventually Dawson stepped back from the board.
"Right."
He looked across the room and finally settled on Jake.
The striker straightened slightly as Dawson went on.
"I need you for the second half."
Hearing that, Jake nodded as Dawson turned.
"Will."
Will Keane looked up at his manager, who tossed a jacket at him.
"Take a breather."
Will gave a short nod without argument as Dawson moved on, motioning towards Joe Bennet and then telling him too to take a breather, as Max Power would be replacing him.
After that, Dawson picked up another magnet and shifted the shape one final time.
"We’re moving to a back three."
Several players exchanged brief glances as Dawson looked directly at Leo.
"And you..."
He pointed at him.
"I don’t want you worrying about protecting the back line anymore."
Leo frowned slightly.
"I’ve got three centre-backs behind you now as well as Tiehi and Max Power."
"They’ll deal with that," he tapped the board where Leo’s magnet now sat beside what seemed to be Reyes’s.
"I need you dragging us back into this match."
Leo nodded once as Dawson rested both hands on the table.
"They’ll come out after the break thinking they’ve got us."
"For ten... maybe fifteen minutes..., they’ll still try to play."
"We should do our best in that time to take advantage and hit them. We only need one goal to get them rethinking their strategy.
"The moment that goes in...they’ll stop thinking about scoring another and start thinking about protecting what they’ve got."
"And that’s exactly what we want because once they retreat we’ll pin them to their half and barrage them with our efforts until eventually," he snapped his fingers.
"...something gives."
Silence settled over the room once more as Dawson looked from face to face.
"And finally...." the faintest smile appeared on his face, "...we’re probably going to need a little bit of luck."
He pushed himself away from the table before addressing them wholly again.
"So..."
"...let’s go and earn enough of it."
.....
While the Wigan players gathered themselves, outside it was a whole different scenario.
And by outside, the current internet.
The great reset has begun.
That phrase appeared first from one account and within minutes, dozens more had borrowed it.
This is more like it. Reality catches everyone eventually.
Fair play to Wigan, but you can’t keep outrunning expected results forever.
Only took one organised side to expose them.
These were some of the comments with the most interactions, but not everyone agreed.
Expose them? Wolves have had two goals that could easily have been chalked off. A debatable set-piece and a foul that wasn’t given in the build-up to the goal. That is hardly a tactical masterclass.
Fans, who had watched the opening weeks with detached curiosity, joined the discussion.
The officiating has been shocking, but if you’re serious about finishing high, you have to find a way back from this.
Chelsea fans, still carrying the scars of opening day, were less willing to dismiss Wigan.
People are acting as if they’ve suddenly become a bad side because they’re losing one match.
The replies kept multiplying as half-time wore on.
Some had already declared Wigan’s run finished.
Others were waiting to see whether the team that had surprised the league for a month still had one more answer left.
And somewhere beneath all of it, one post quietly gathered more likes than the rest.
If they’ve really changed football’s opinion of them in four weeks...
...we’ll know by how everyone reacts if they lose just once.
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