Harbinger Of Glory

In the away locker room at Villa Park, it was a complete takeover by the Wigan players.

While most players celebrated normally, Jake climbed onto the edge of one of the benches and raised both hands.

"Alright, shut up!" he said, but nobody did.

He waited and then drew in as much breath as he could before letting it go all out once.

"SHUT UP! GODDAMN!"

That finally got them as Jake pointed across the room.

"Villa thought they had us when Leo went off."

At that, a few players immediately turned toward Leo, who raised both hands.

"Leave me out of it," he said, but Jake ignored him.

"They thought, oh, they’ve lost Calderon so the win is ours!"

The room erupted as Jake started clapping a simple beat against his hands.

"Then Reyes said no!"

At that, the rest of the players picked it up.

"NO NO NO NO! Reyes said no!"

Jake pointed at Reyes.

"One goal!" and the room answered, "One goal!"

"One assist!"

"One assist!"

"And Villa?" Jake said as he spread his arms.

"Nothing!"

The room exploded again as Reyes shook his head, laughing as Jake continued the chant.

"Reyes came clutch!"

"REYES CAME CLUTCH!"

"Reyes came clutch!"

"REYES CAME CLUTCH!"

Carlo was nodding along, laughing as the players sang his name too.

Leo, though he’d moved away from the main group, couldn’t help but laugh.

He joined in, clapping along to the beat, keeping time with the others as Jake’s voice rose over the room.

"You enjoying this?" Reyes said when he caught Leo smiling.

"I am just enjoying the fact that we won!"

"That’s better."

"But that Panenka was stupid," Leo said, suddenly causing Reyes to halt and then turn back towards him, but Leo didn’t look interested in whatever he had to say.

As the noise reached a crescendo, the door opened, revealing the form of Nolan, who stepped inside and stopped for a moment.

He looked around at the singing, the discarded shirts and the players bouncing around the room before looking at the main instigator of that chaos.

"Right, it’s always him," he muttered when he found Jake standing now on a barrel, his head so close it could touch the ceiling if he leaned any higher.

Still, a single clap and a deeper-pitched voice from Nolan was all it took to bring the noise down.

"I know you’re happy," he said, but before he could get anything out, Jake pointed at him.

"Nolan!"

"Yes, Nolan," Nolan repeated his own name as the singing faded slightly.

"But unless you lot want to spend the night in Birmingham, start getting changed."

A few groans answered him as Nolan shook his head.

"And I’d hurry. There’s a rather large group of supporters outside who look like they intend to tear the bus apart when you come out."

Almost as if on cue, a loud roar escaped into the locker room, sounding like the Villa fans, despite the loss still hadn’t left.

"See?" Nolan said. "Exactly what I’m talking about."

He turned toward the door, but then Jake jumped onto the ground and grabbed his arm.

"You’re celebrating with us first."

"No."

"Come on."

"No," Nolan declined, but two more players caught him from behind.

Nolan laughed as they dragged him back into the room.

"You absolute idiots!" he said as the celebration started again.

A few minutes later, the singing had given way to showers, shouting and the usual scramble to find missing shirts and boots.

The journey back to Wigan was mostly sound, but after they got to Wigan, it was anything but that.

Even after the long trip from Aston, the streets around the club were still alive when the team bus returned.

Supporters stood waiting, singing to keep the cold away while others or most, had phones raised as the bus approached.

Even kids who looked like it was past their bedtime stood in the crowd waving at the bus and shouting the names of the players.

The driver slowed as they passed under the petition of Dawson, who felt that it was the least they could do after meeting a crowd this late.

On the bus, Leo moved towards an empty window seat due to the ongoing ruckus and watched them.

He watched as a man in an old Wigan shirt lifted both arms when he recognised him.

Leo smiled and raised a hand as the bus continued through the street, but the noise followed them for another few seconds.

Leo couldn’t help his thoughts drifting when he felt that he almost denied the fans something like this due to wanting to play despite his condition.

It was selfish of him, and looking outside at people who had stayed up just to see the team come home, he couldn’t help but think about what he’d do if they’d lost because of his insistence on playing.

This wasn’t only about the players anymore.

It never was.

They had become part of something that existed beyond the dressing room, beyond the training ground and beyond the ninety minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

Leo watched another group of supporters disappear behind the bus and thought, This is bigger than us.

.........

By the following Sunday morning, it was the usual after-matchday but better.

All ot the previous day’s games had helped in shaping the table that the day’s games would follow up with, but one thing remained consistent, and that was Wigan at the top.

Manchester City had thrashed Manchester United 3 goals to nil, but that did little since Wigan also won their game, meaning it was 30 points from 10 matches.

And that meant that even if things went that awry for Wigan from that point on till the end of the season, they could still escape relegation.

Behind Wigan, Arsenal and Manchester City followed on with 24 points each, six behind the leaders and level with one another.

The television discussions were slowly turning away from Wigan’s impressive start to when someone would catch up to them because it wasn’t fun anymore.

At first, a lot of fans even cheered them on at their incredible start, but after realising that it wasn’t just starter’s luck, it was getting annoying to see Wigan at the top of the table for the fans whose clubs actually competed for trophies.