The Abia Warriors Post
Squad8 Feb 2027
Nmecha Johnson decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Azubuike Casmir damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Match3 Feb 2027
Cup progress for Abia Warriors
A 0‑0 win over Warri Wolves, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market8 Feb 2027
Taiye Murtala hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Abia Warriors can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Nothing got past Osahon Osoboh
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Maxwell Kangeshima in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Abia Warriors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Feb 2027
So close: Amadi James’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Katsina United moved on, Amadi James reports back to Abia Warriors, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Francis Obumneme runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Abia Warriors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zilkifilu Rabiu 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.
In brief
- Player ratings A defender's afternoon for Innocent Godwin
- Player ratings Paul Samson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
- Match Honours even between Abia Warriors and Rivers United