Marked for William Collins
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Feb 2031
Out, 2‑3 to Kun Khalifat, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
No sign of nerves from William Collins at 20 — 8.01
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. William Collins did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market10 Feb 2031
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Usman Abba reports back to Nasarawa United with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad10 Feb 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nazif Abdullahi commits to Nasarawa United for another 3 years.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Words at Nasarawa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Segun Adekunle 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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Idris Ajiya 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Oct 2030
Ameh Godwin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Segun Adekunle 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.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
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.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
Samuel Nnoli knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nasarawa United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market28 Oct 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Izuchuckwu Chimezie signs something — a contract at Nasarawa United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nasarawa United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
The Nasarawa United production line keeps running
31 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
Umar Ada keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Umar Ada plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Anthony Ihenacho is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Mar 2030
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and El-Kanemi Warriors were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Ameh Godwin 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 Nasarawa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
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.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad1 Apr 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Segun Adekunle was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match30 Mar 2030
It finished 2‑1, and it was Abubakar Garba’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nasarawa United.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
Ninety minutes of Abubakar Garba at his very best
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nasarawa United.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” William Collins and Nasarawa United agree another 3 years.