The Bayelsa United Courier
Squad10 Apr 2028
The knee: Peter Ebimobowei out for 27 days
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bayelsa United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Ikenna Benjamin keeps Bayelsa United in it on his own
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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Emmanuel Solomon, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Kenneth Sheddy frozen out at Bayelsa United
This is not rotation. Kenneth Sheddy has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Bayelsa United is pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Bayelsa United
Kenneth Sheddy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chinedu Onyinjekwu 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
Stanley Amon sends Bayelsa United past Barau
It finished 2‑1, and it was Stanley Amon’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bayelsa United.
The terraces10 Apr 2028
The crowd has taken to Emmanuel Solomon
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.
Market10 Apr 2028
One of our own: Ndidi Osimhen joins the Bayelsa United first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ndidi Osimhen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Market Bayelsa United promote William Ajayi from within
- Market Anthony Obi steps up from the Bayelsa United academy
- Market One of our own: Peter Simon joins the Bayelsa United first team