CHAPTER 68: RUN OR SIT.

Inside the dressing room, it wasn’t silence—but it wasn’t noise either.

Just breathing. Deep, hard, frustrated breathing.

Some of the players were already out of their shirts, towelling off sweat and regret.

Others sat forward, elbows on knees, trying to relive that first half in their heads—figure out where it all slipped.

Dawson didn’t shout.

He just waited.

He walked slowly, steadily, across the floor until every boot stopped tapping and every player had their eyes on him.

"We were the better team. For fifteen minutes. And then we let them walk back in."

His voice was low, direct.

"I’m not here to sugar-coat it. That was soft. Not the goal—that happens. I’m talking about what we did after. No bite. No response. We gave them space, we gave them confidence, and we gave the fans nothing."

He turned slightly and looked down the bench.

"Leo."

The boy who was in the process of grabbing an ice pack for Naylor stopped and then turned towards Dawson.

The latter nodded toward him, then turned back to the team.

"He’s going on. Ten minutes into the second half, maybe less. So if you’re not first to the ball, if you’re not tracking, if you think this is still the first half—he’ll take your spot."

It wasn’t a threat.

It was just a fact.

"You want to win this? Play like it. Get back out there and show this stadium what we did in Watford wasn’t a fluke."

He looked around once more, then let it hang in the air.

Ten words.

"Next man who jogs instead of runs is coming off."

...........

The tunnel opened, and the players filtered out one by one into the crisp second-half air.

Floodlights washed the pitch in pale silver, and a faint gust moved through the DW like a whispered reminder of what was still at stake.

The 3 points

But as Wigan’s players emerged — stretching, adjusting shin pads, rubbing hands together — the atmosphere shifted again.

No changes.

Same eleven.

The same energy that had fizzled in the final fifteen minutes of the first half.

You didn’t need an announcer or a graphic to confirm it.

The fans could see it with their own eyes, and they didn’t like what they saw.

A ripple of discontent worked its way through the home crowd.

Not booing — not yet.

But something in the noise had changed.

The low, constant buzz of hopeful expectation began to decay into a chorus of tight-lipped frustration.

Arms crossed.

Eyebrows knit.

Disappointed sighs bleeding into the air like slow leaks from a punctured tyre.

It was a strange kind of unrest.

Not the kind aimed at a referee or a dodgy decision.

This was different.

The fans wanted something — and they thought they’d earned it after what they saw at Vicarage Road.

But instead of seeing Number 22 walk out with the rest of the squad, he was still sat on the bench.

And the problem was, no one knew who to direct it at.

Not Dawson — not exactly.

He’d brought belief back into the team with two straight wins, after all.

Not the players — they were working, even if it wasn’t clicking.

Still, the energy was tilting.

It was the kind of tension you couldn’t put your finger on, but you felt it behind your ribs.

In the press box, the commentary resumed, smooth as ever.

"Both sides returning to the pitch with no changes made at the break," the lead commentator noted, a faint edge of surprise in his voice.

"Wigan fans might’ve expected Calderón to come on after a quiet end to the first half — but Dawson’s holding his cards for now."

"Still time," the co-commentator added. " I’m sure it could just be a matter of when."

The camera followed the players as they settled.

Everything was being put in place again.

The referee gave one last glance at his watch, raised his arm, and blew the whistle to start the second half.

But before the ball could even be touched, the crowd burst into sudden noise — louder, sharper, electric again.

Because something else had changed.

Down by the dugouts, a cluster of Wigan substitutes had begun their warm-ups.

And in the centre of it all, unmistakable in his training bib and light jog, was Leo Calderón.

He broke into short sprints down the sideline, heels kicking up behind him, arms loose.

And then,

"Twenty-two! Twenty-two!"

The number rolled through the DW in waves, a rising beat that cut through the cold.

It wasn’t deafening, but it didn’t have to be.

Leo kept jogging down the sideline, cheeks flushed with the bite of the night air, shoulders relaxed, pace measured.

He heard the chants.

So did Fletcher, jogging beside him, pulling his gloves tight against his wrists.

Leo kept on jogging, unfazed, but only he knew that his knees would have buckled to the chants if not for the earplugs Nolan had suggested when he took on the bib.

"You hearing this?" Fletcher muttered, half-laughing.

"I’ve been here two years. Scored in the cup, got a brace last December... and I still didn’t get that kind of noise until after full-time."

Leo just kept running.

Fletcher chuckled. "You haven’t even come on yet. What, you drop a mixtape or something?"

Still no reply — just the sound of boots thudding lightly on turf, breath visible in the floodlights.

But that chant didn’t die.

"Twenty-two!"

Fletcher shook his head with a grin.

"You’d better play as good as they think you are."

On the pitch, the match had barely found rhythm again.

Wigan passed sideways — slowly, like they were waiting for permission to play forward.

A few players drifted too loosely in their shape.

A jog here. A delayed press there.

Then Dawson’s voice cracked through the noise.

"RUN OR SIT!"

Heads turned toward the technical area.

He was up, arms wide, lips pulled tight with fury.

"YOU JOG, YOU’RE OFF!"

That was all it took.

Whatmough, already drifting forward in the press, snapped back into position.

Cousins barked something urgent toward the wingers.

And back at the sideline, the players jogging along the touchline knew — this wasn’t warmup for later.

This was real.

Leo, Fletcher, and a few others. They weren’t just keeping loose.

They were being lined up.

And everyone on the pitch could feel it now — Dawson meant every word he said at halftime.

No more warnings.

The next few minutes were going to decide who stayed on... and who handed over their shirt.

Up in the stands, Noah Sarin finally sat up.

His spine straightened from the slump it’d been sunk into for most of the half, elbows off his knees, with his eyes glancing back and forth between the pitch and the kid who was now at the touchline.

There he was.

Leo.

The kid he’d come to see.

The chants confirmed it.

"Twenty-two!" they called, like they already knew what he was about to bring.

Noah didn’t know why, but he felt the urge to cheer.

A fire he used to have, something in him that had been dulled by months of dead ends and second-rate tapes—stirred.

He watched the boy move.

And for the first time that evening, the noise, the wind, the small-talk from the rows behind him—it all faded.

This wasn’t the Champions League nights he had been to a few years ago.

It wasn’t the Stade Vélodrome or Bernabéu.

It was Wigan. It was cold.

And it had to matter.

Because if Leo Calderón wasn’t the answer... then Noah had just burned what was left of his fuel for nothing.

Back on the pitch, Joe Bennett took it on the bounce, toeing the ball just ahead of his stride as he tore down Wigan’s left — Stoke’s right — chewing up the touchline like he was late for something.

One defender lunged, but Bennett saw it coming, slipping past with a sharp shoulder feint that had the home crowd leaning forward.

"Still got legs in him, Joe Bennett," the commentator noted, tone rising just a notch.

But as he reached the final third, his head turned.

Nobody.

The support hadn’t caught up.

He slowed, the wind of his run catching up with his chest, dragging a boot over the ball to stall for time.

You could almost hear the thoughts clashing behind his eyes — recycle or wait?

Then — a gap.

Stoke’s backline had pushed forward, thinking the move had stalled, and in doing so, left a pocket just between the lines.

Bennett saw it and he didn’t hesitate.

With a sudden drag back, to force the opponents into thinking that the move had truly stalled, he burst inside.

And before anyone could close him down, he let fly from just outside the box — a low, rifled shot that skipped like a stone across damp grass, demanding attention.

"Bennett!" the commentator barked. "Oh, now that’s more like it!"

The ball swerved late — not enough to beat the keeper, who got down quick — but enough to draw a full-length save and a rising wave of applause from the DW faithful.

It was the first real strike of the half.

"What a nice effort from the left-back turned Winger under Dawson’s plans." the commentary came through as Bennet turned towards the corner flag.

A/N: OKya, it has been a while. It wouldn’t have come but a reader who I don’t want to mention (Masatoshi_K) put a knife to my neck saying he wouldn’t let go until I released this. Anyways, I did so can you please let my family go. Have fun reading and I’ll see you in a bit.(3 days. jk)