Chapter 616: Impose

The FA Cup arrived quickly, giving Wigan their first competitive fixture since the turn of the new year.

With a week having passed since their victory over Chelsea, the Latics were back on the road, this time for a relatively short journey to the home of League One Bolton Wanderers.

For Bolton, the visit of a Premier League side sitting near the top of the table was an occasion worth making noise about.

Their supporters filled the stands well before kick-off, waving scarves and singing as the teams emerged from the tunnel.

Wigan’s travelling support had been allocated a corner of the ground, where the fans gathered behind their goal, making themselves heard whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Dawson had made several changes to his starting eleven, giving a number of players who had spent recent weeks on the bench an opportunity to impress.

Tom Watson, one of the club’s academy goalkeepers, started between the posts, while Ashley Fletcher led the attack.

Leo Calderon, Reyes and Carlo Regutti, as well as a few other starters, watched from the bench, with the manager keeping some of his regulars in reserve.

The match got underway, and Wigan were immediately reminded that the difference in league positions would count for little if they failed to match their opponents’ intensity.

Bolton pressed aggressively from the opening minutes, forcing the visitors to move the ball quickly whenever they tried to build from the back.

They might have been top of the entire English footballing hierarchy, but for a knockout cup game, it could mean little, and it didn’t take long for Wigan to understand that.

They were still settling into the game when Dion Charles picked up possession in the attacking half and decided to take matters into his own hands.

The Bolton striker drove towards the penalty area, carrying the ball past the first challenge before attempting to squeeze his way through another.

Curtis Tilt stepped across to block his route, but Charles managed to get his effort away.

The ball caught Tilt’s leg and changed direction, wrong-footing Watson as the young goalkeeper committed himself to the original trajectory.

By the time Watson tried to recover, the ball was already rolling beyond him and into the net.

Bolton had taken the lead in the seventh minute.

The crowd erupted as the Bolton supporters leapt from their seats, arms raised, while Charles was quickly surrounded by teammates rushing over to celebrate.

The noise swelled around the ground, carrying the sort of excitement that came with the possibility of an upset.

For a moment, the idea of knocking out one of the Premier League’s most surprising sides seemed entirely within reach.

In their corner, the Wigan supporters remained behind their team, applauding as the players returned towards the halfway line.

There was little time to dwell on the setback, and the Latics made that clear almost immediately.

Callum Lang received the ball out wide and looked up before delivering a cross into the penalty area.

Fletcher had already begun moving between the Bolton defenders, adjusting his stride as the ball came across.

When it finally got to him, he rose above his marker and met it cleanly with his forehead, directing the header beyond the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Bolton had had little time to enjoy their advantage.

Fletcher turned away with a brief punch of the air as his teammates ran over to congratulate him.

The latter pointed towards the winger’s delivery, while the travelling supporters finally had something to shout about.

At 1–1, the match had been levelled almost as quickly as Bolton had taken control of it.

The goal also changed the rhythm of the game.

Bolton continued to compete, but Wigan began finding more space between the lines, moving the ball with greater confidence and making better use of their technical advantage.

Lang and the other wide players stretched the defence, while the midfielders worked to move the visitors closer to the penalty area.

The chances began to come.

Wigan forced Bolton deeper, worked the ball into dangerous areas and tested the home side’s defensive shape on several occasions.

Yet the second goal proved harder to find.

A pass would arrive a fraction too late, a defender would get a foot in, or the final effort would fail to trouble the goalkeeper enough.

Dawson watched from the touchline, occasionally calling instructions towards his players.

He wanted more urgency around the box, but he also knew that the match was beginning to tilt in Wigan’s favour.

They needed to turn their control into something more substantial, and the breakthrough eventually came through Baba Adeeko.

Oblivious, or perhaps not, to the interest surrounding him, the young midfielder collected possession in the middle of the pitch, looked up and lifted a measured ball over the Bolton midfield into the path of Miguel Azeez, the player brought in from Wigan’s under-21 side for the cup tie.

Azeez brought it down neatly, trying to turn towards goal, but a Bolton player came through him as he attempted to move away with the ball.

Azeez went to ground just around the edge of the box and the penalty area.

When he fell, the nearby players slowed, several looking towards the referee as they waited for the whistle.

For a brief moment, it seemed the challenge might go unpunished.

But then the referee pointed directly to the spot and the Bolton’s defenders immediately surrounded him.

One protested that Azeez had already lost control of the ball, while another gestured towards the place where the challenge had been made.

Their captain joined the discussion, trying to persuade the referee to reconsider.

The official listened, but his decision did not change.

He backed away from the players and pointed towards the penalty spot again, making it clear that the discussion was over.

Fletcher collected the ball and placed it carefully on the spot.

The Bolton goalkeeper remained on his line, moving from side to side as the striker took a few steps backwards.

The referee, after making sure that there was no other player intruding into the penalty box, blew his whistle, starting Fletcher’s run.

He struck the ball firmly, sending it beyond the goalkeeper and into the net and in just the space of 10 minutes, Wigan had turned the match around.

Fletcher was mobbed by his teammates, while the Bolton supporters’ earlier excitement gave way to a restless murmur.

Their side had started brightly, but now they were trailing a team that had begun to impose itself on the contest.

The Latics had the advantage at half-time, and the scoreline reflected the shift in momentum.