Harbinger Of Glory

Chapter 244: It’s On[GT - !]

Leo pulled the bib over his head and folded it onto the seat beside him, then reached for his jersey.

Jake was watching him with the kind of expression that had nothing to do with Leo and everything to do with the substitution board still in the fourth official’s hands.

Leo recognised it immediately.

It was the first sub of the game, and Jake couldn’t help but do the math on his possible introduction into the game.

Leo smiled at that, knowing he had done the same thing when Dawson called him up the first time.

He moved up to the space beside Dawson, who was already turning toward the touchline.

"It’s all game management now," Dawson said, eyes on the pitch as he looped an arm around Leo’s neck before they began walking towards the space beside the fourth official.

"A draw at home isn’t a disaster, but it isn’t what we want either. Don’t let them think they can sit in and take it back to Kenilworth Road level." He paused. "But don’t force it. If the pass is on, play it."

Leo nodded, watching the game for a break in play that didn’t come.

He stood on the touchline for nearly two minutes with his jersey on, waiting, while the game continued its conversation around him.

The fourth official finally raised the board when Luton won a throw deep in their own half, and play stopped briefly.

Tiehi’s number glowed red, and the moment he spotted that, he began walking towards the sidelines.

The commentator picked it up immediately.

"Interesting decision from Dawson. It’s Tiehi making way, which means Leo Calderon comes into a midfield partnership with Max Power rather than the Tiehi pairing we’ve seen most of the time this season. A different dynamic, and it’ll be interesting to see how Luton adjust to it."

Tiehi came toward the touchline and clapped hands with Leo as they passed each other.

Leo sidestepped him and crossed the white line.

Bennet was the first to reach him as the latter stuck his hand out for Leo to slap his palm.

Max Power dropped alongside him as they took their positions and looked across at Leo, wondering what the play possibly was, but Leo shook his head.

"Dawson said, keep doing what you’re doing."

Max nodded and faced forward, and for the next five minutes, Wigan played the ball around the edges of the Luton shape without finding a way through the middle, where Luton had quietly decided to make their stand.

The press was organised and patient, and every time Wigan tried to thread something centrally, there was a Luton shirt in the way before it could develop.

Not wanting to feel snuffed out of the game, Darikwa tried an inverted pass to Max Power, who won it cleanly but then lost it almost immediately to a sharp double press, and the commentary jumped on it.

"Power loses it, and Luton are away, this could be—"

Before anyone had processed what was happening, Leo was already sliding, getting his foot to the loose ball a fraction before the Luton player could control it and take off.

The deflected ball moved sideways and then back towards Darikwa on the right as applause began to rain down for the challenge Leo had put in.

"Tremendous read from Calderon. That was a goal-scoring opportunity snuffed out before it even became one."

In the next second, the Wigan captain collected it and knocked it back to Amos, then turned and raised a hand in Leo’s direction.

Leo was already back on his feet and moving into position.

After that, what followed was exactly what Dawson had asked for.

Decent and controlled football that had Leo making himself available, taking the pressure off teammates when they needed it and keeping the ball moving.

It wasn’t anything spectacular, but Luton had seen enough of him across the season to know not to bite at anything that looked too inviting, and so they didn’t, and Leo’s introduction had the feeling of something waiting to happen without happening.

He knew it.

He could feel the tension in the players around him, his own teammates carrying the weight of a home draw that was beginning to look more and more like the result unless something changed.

Luton felt it too from the other direction.

An away draw or a possible last-minute winner meant the second leg was theirs to control, and that was worth protecting or fighting for, but so far, they couldn’t find the trigger for the latter option.

Leo, who had his back to the Luton half, stayed away from the ball for a while, hoping that would diminish his presence in the game, and after it seemed to work, he stepped up and took the ball from Tilt, between the two Luton forwards, and held it.

Neither of them committed to the press immediately, each waiting for the other, and in that half second of hesitation, Leo shifted his weight left then right, just enough to make Clark step forward from his central position to close the space.

The moment Clark moved, the space he’d left opened behind him.

Leo spotted that and released the ball first time, into the gap where Callum Lang had already dropped centrally to meet it.

Without controlling it, Lang whipped it immediately out left, into the channel ahead of Ezra, and the DW noise began its climb before the ball had even reached him.

"Lang with the clever ball, and Ezra is in behind—"

Ezra chased the ball towards the byline with the ball increasing pace by the second, and just kept it in at the last second.

Luton’s right back hadn’t followed up with Ezra, instead opting to settle into the box while leaving the centreback to do the job.

With time on his hands, Ezra looked up once before sending a dipping ball across the face of the goal.

The ball loomed over all the heads until it suddenly began dipping halfway, and in that moment, Fletcher left the ground.

"It’s ONN!" the commentary bellowed as the striker met it with the very end of his head, the contact slight but enough.

The Luton Town defenders had swarmed around him, hoping to keep the ball away, but their efforts failed them as the ball slipped through the gaps and went into the bottom corner.

The net snapped back, and the crowd behind the goal went first before the wave of noise hit the rest of the stadium a half second later as Fletcher turned and began running towards the left corner.