Marked for Peter Onuachu
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Mar 2035
Beaten 0‑3 by Remo Stars, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Wisdom Udom 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom19 Mar 2035
Nobody left the Bendel Insurance dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad19 Mar 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bendel Insurance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Dec 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bendel Insurance may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words at Bendel Insurance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wisdom Udom 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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Peter Onuachu 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Nov 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bendel Insurance may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Wisdom Udom 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Promise Anyanwu 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Oct 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bendel Insurance have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Wisdom Udom 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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bendel Insurance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Jul 2034
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Bendel Insurance are no longer polite ones.
Match15 Jul 2034
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market17 Jul 2034
“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 Bendel Insurance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Wisdom Udom 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.
Match15 Jul 2034
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Jul 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bendel Insurance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Jul 2034
Ney runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Wisdom Udom has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bendel Insurance will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad17 Jul 2034
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 May 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings29 May 2034
No sign of nerves from Ney at 21 — 7.69
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ney did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad29 May 2034
14 goals and a season average of 7.47. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad29 May 2034
Words at Bendel Insurance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wisdom Udom 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.
Match27 May 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wisdom Udom. 1‑0 against Katsina United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 May 2034
Marked 8.36 — 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.