Harbinger Of Glory

Like how things usually were in the early days of EA’s game release, it was the same occasion once more.

Fans hopped on the game, and after some time, the consensus was that EA, who had been bad recently, had made some changes- good ones and some bad ones, though negligible to the game but that wasn’t going to erase the years of trauma people had gotten from the game.

For fans who enjoyed Ultimate Team, it was the same yearly as they began to experiment, trying to find what player was going to be the new meta for the new game, but for the Wigan fans, it seemed they had already found theirs.

Leo’s FC 24 card found its way onto the Twitter section within a day of the game going live, and Wigan’s corner of football Twitter reacted exactly as expected.

For most of the evening, nobody seemed interested in talking about anything else.

Leo Calderon is 80 rated in FC 24. I think he deserves it, but I think EA is being a bit generous. He’s good, but it’s the first time I think EA has rightly rated a player.

I have been using him in my player career mode since yesterday, and he’s already up 4 overalls. I really hope that happens in real life!

The 85 passing isn’t even the best part. Try dribbling with him. EA actually cooked this time.

I know, right. For the first time in years, they’ve made a defensive midfielder genuinely fun to use. He’s not slow like the others, and he plays exactly like he does in real life.

53 physical? Whoever made that rating has clearly never watched him send people flying off the ball.

He’s eighty overall and somehow still feels underrated.

Wigan are three-and-a-half stars with an 80-rated midfielder. That sentence shouldn’t make sense... but somehow it does at the moment. I used to pray for times like this, but it seems my prayers have been answered overly.

...

On the real-life Wigan football aspect of things, the club was locked in preparations towards their next fixture.

St Christopher’s Park was a bit quieter than usual despite the numbers on the pitch that were running around.

They had just gotten over a hurdle a few days ago and were now looking past the win they got the weekend before.

Exeter City stood between Wigan and the next round of the EFL Cup, and while few expected the League One side to cause an upset, Dawson refused to let anyone treat the session like a formality.

Even though he’d rested a lot of his starters, he felt serious about the game.

And that was because he knew all too well how easy it was for top sides to falter against smaller teams in cup ties, not to mention his team, who had only won back their new Premier League team status most recently.

At one point he stopped play altogether, his eyes fixed on the back line after a ball got through easily.

"Again," he said as the defenders looked at one another.

"That shape doesn’t beat anybody. Be in sync with your mates because again, that shape isn’t going to keep even a youth side away.

Hearing that, the defenders reset immediately.

The second attempt satisfied him enough for the session to continue.

Eventually, the day dawned as Tuesday the twenty-sixth arrived, and Wigan travelled south to face Exeter City at St James Park, in the third round of the EFL Cup.

When the whistle sounded, the evening settled quickly into Wigan’s rhythm with the away side dragging the home side around like ragdolls.

Inside ten minutes, James McClean drifted into space on the left and delivered a cross that begged to be attacked, and it was.

Will Keane, appearing out of nowhere, answered the invitation perfectly, meeting it with a firm header that gave the goalkeeper no chance.

The few hundred travelling away fans celebrated the goal, but it felt like the crowd of the home side were even happier about the goal than them.

The idea of toppling a Premier League side, no matter how recent it was, felt like the most attractive thing in the world to them, so when the whistle sounded, Exeter refused to disappear after that.

Their supporters stayed behind them, urging every challenge and every tackle, and gradually the home side began finding moments of their own.

For ten minutes either side of the half-hour mark, Wigan were forced onto the back foot with Jamie Jones being forced to produce an excellent save low to his right that preserved the lead after a strike destined for the bottom corner.

The two sides went at it, with Exeter, during the dying moments of the half, tipping just ahead, but they couldn’t make use of it, and with that, Wigan reached half-time ahead.

The fans sang on top of their lungs, as if they were trying to warm up the atmosphere for what was to come and when Exeter emerged after the break, they did so with even greater urgency, pressing higher and committing more bodies forward, determined not to let the tie drift away.

For a while, it worked, at least until Max Power swung in a corner.

Curtis Tilt climbed above everyone, powered his header into the net, and suddenly the task looked considerably steeper.

On the touchline, Dawson applauded his team, but he was forced to think the worst when Exeter’s response came almost immediately.

A clumsy challenge inside the area gave them a penalty, which they converted confidently, breathing life straight back into the contest with over twenty minutes still to play.

Sensing the momentum shifting, Dawson turned to his bench and decided, "Why not!"

Ezra and Reyes came on together in the seventy-ninth minute, with Seriki joining them moments later, and the fresh legs settled Wigan almost immediately.

The quality showed, and not long after, the third goal arrived.

Ezra launched a long throw into the area, which Reyes collected inside the box.

The Portuguese attacking midfielder spun away from his marker and calmly rolled the ball into Keane’s path, and once again, the striker didn’t stutter with his finish.

He dragged his left leg back as his finish found the bottom corner for his second goal of the night, killing the tie.

NB: This St. James Park isn’t the same as the Newcastle one. TK

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