Stanley Amon wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Stanley Amon found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Barau went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Gabriel Biriduba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It finished 4‑3, and it was Stanley Amon’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bayelsa United.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenneth Sheddy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.54 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Jawad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Jawad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bayelsa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Bayelsa United scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The offer from Nasarawa United for Chinedu Onyinjekwu was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Mustapha Jawad was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bayelsa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Jawad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Gabriel Biriduba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenneth Sheddy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Jawad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Akpos Godbless and Bayelsa United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It needed Chinedu Onyinjekwu to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Niger Tornadoes, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Peter Ebimobowei provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Mustapha Jawad was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The name of Chinedu Onyinjekwu has come up in conversations Bayelsa United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Peter Ebimobowei has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nupe Godstime and Bayelsa United agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ikenna Benjamin will call it something else in private.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Jawad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It needed Chinedu Onyinjekwu to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Ikorodu City, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bayelsa United told Dehinde Ibrahim something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bayelsa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenneth Sheddy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Precious Abidoe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bayelsa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Eyong Ofem has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bayelsa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match20 Feb 2027
Kehinde Lawal wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Kehinde Lawal found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Shooting Stars went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Gabriel Biriduba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bayelsa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Don-Pedro Samuel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bayelsa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
James Emo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Biriduba and Bayelsa United agree another 3 years.
James Emo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadMustapha Jawad falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bayelsa United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Eyong Ofem falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
James Emo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Ebimobowei is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
James Emo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Peter Ebimobowei and Bayelsa United agree another 2 years.
James Emo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bayelsa United has been clear about where Ikenna Benjamin stands, which is more than many ever get.