Chapter 419: Scare!
Reyes met it without breaking stride and, with his second touch, flicked it neatly back into Leo’s path, the return pass splitting the narrow gap between the wall and the edge of the area.
Leo arrived onto it first time, and when he did, he struck through the ball cleanly.
"BLOCKED!!!"
A Wolves defender threw himself across the shot, and the ball cannoned away into the left side of the box.
Aït-Nouri collected it in stride, and at that moment, he looked dangerous.
His first touch carried him into space, and when he lifted his head, the pitch suddenly opened in front of him.
Ahead of him were two Wigan defenders and preceding that was forty yards of grass.
So without a second thought, he drove forward or at least, he tried to.
The ball vanished from his feet as his vision tunnelled into the grass.
The next, Leo had hooked a foot around him, stolen possession cleanly and spun away before Aït-Nouri had even realised someone was close enough to challenge.
By the time the Wolves full-back turned, Leo was already driving back toward the other end.
"Where has he come from?" the commentator exclaimed.
"Leo Calderon has nicked it off Aït-Nouri! That is an outrageous recovery tackle. Absolutely brilliant defending."
The DW responded with a roar just as loud as it would have for a goal, recognising the intervention for exactly how vital it was probably going to be in the grand scheme of things.
With that ball at his feet, Leo bore down at goal before raising his head and stealing a glance at the situation in the box.
Then looked away from it completely and found Ezra instead, playing it to him simply.
Ezra took the pass cleanly just inside the touchline, and as he did, Lemina closed him down immediately, arriving with enough speed to force a rushed decision.
Ezra welcomed the pressure.
With one touch, he slipped the ball into the back of the defensive line, using Lemina’s momentum against him as Leo collected it on the opposite side before the midfielder could even stop.
His first touch took him almost over the byline, but Leo did enough to keep it under control as Gomes began shifting over.
It looked like he would whip an early cross into the area and Gomes bought it.
He planted his foot to block the delivery.
But a second later, Leo dragged the ball back inside with the sole of his boot and burst into the penalty area.
"Calderon skips inside!" the commentator shouted.
"He’s still got it..."
Kilman met him almost immediately.
The Wolves captain stayed on his feet and threw his body across the angle, forcing Leo wider with every step as another yellow shirt arrived and then another.
The space he’d so hardly created vanished in an instant, and for the briefest moment it looked as though he’d held onto the ball one touch too many.
Until his left foot came through it.
The ball lifted delicately over the crowd of legs filling the middle of the box as all eyes trailed behind the ball.
"Dinked in..." the commentary came in as José Sá in goal backpedalled because it looked like the ball was trying to reach behind him.
So did Kilman but neither was prepared for what came next.
Above them all, a familiar figure rose.
Jake.
Every inch of his six-foot-four frame seemed to hang in the air before his forehead met the ball with a thump that echoed around the stadium.
The header crashed down through the middle and Sá reacted instinctively.
Still it was too late.
The ball skipped beneath him before bulging the back of the net and a second later, the DW exploded.
"OHHHH, GOALLLLLLLLL! WIGAN!"
"IT’S TWO-TWO!"
"WIGAN HAVE DRAGGED THEMSELVES RIGHT BACK INTO IT, AND LISTEN TO THIS PLACE!"
Jake was already sprinting toward the corner, arms spread wide as teammates chased after him, while forty thousand voices crashed together into one enormous wall of noise.
Then, almost all at once, the celebrations slowed.
Leo was still sitting inside the penalty area where he’d delivered the cross, one hand resting against the turf behind him as his mates looked over and found him.
One after another they turned back toward him and the commentator turned with them.
"Wigan have their equaliser..."
"...but Leo Calderon hasn’t moved."
The broadcast cameras closed in as the Wigan players
"After everything he’s taken this half..."
"...they’ll be hoping this is nothing more than exhaustion."
On the sidelines, Dawson, with a concerned look on his face, stepped to the edge of his technical area.
He looked at the scenes on the pitch for a while and then turned and beckoned the medical staff forward, not even waiting for the official signal.
By the time the referee registered the situation and waved them on, they’d already gotten within a few metres of the situation.
The Wigan players had formed a loose circle around Leo, the celebration completely abandoned.
A few of them were crouching toward him trying to assess him without getting in the way of those better equipped to assess it.
Then Leo stomped his leg on the grass once and got to his feet.
The DW responded to that single act with a sound that held relief.
"He’s up," the commentator said.
"Leo Calderon is on his feet and the Wigan players around him are reacting as you’d expect."
The referee still gestured to the medics who took Leo to the side of the pitch.
There, they went through their checks, hands moving around his form and asking questions Leo looked like he was answering just because he wanted to get back to the pitch quickly.
A moment later, the all-clear came in.
"The medical staff are satisfied," the commentator said.
"And I think the Wigan supporters and the players will be greatly relieved by that. It was a scare.
A significant one given what caused it, but it seems it was just that."
Leo walked back onto the pitch as the DW gave him what it had, warm and continuous applause as he found his position in the Wigan half.
The referee gathered the remaining formalities and restarted the game a second later.
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