Marked for Michael Collins
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Apr 2035
Barau will want this one forgotten quickly: 8‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kwara United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad30 Apr 2035
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
William Ekong, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01
A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
7.33, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match28 Apr 2035
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kwara United and Barau in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Marked 9.84 — 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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pius Igwe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Apr 2035
Ikorodu City are out and Kwara United go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
Adebayo Simon, 20, steals the show — 8.14
Marked 8.14 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
The game went through Pius Igwe — 6.88
Marked 6.88 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Oluwaseyi Ogunniyi 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 terraces23 Apr 2035
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad23 Apr 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 Kwara United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
When it matters, Pius Igwe plays
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 dugout23 Apr 2035
the manager on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” the manager after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Apr 2035
A fracture rules Michael Collins out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kwara United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match14 Apr 2035
No end in sight to Kwara United's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kwara United has to find a result from somewhere.
Market16 Apr 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kwara United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Pius Igwe 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.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Oluwaseyi Ogunniyi 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.
Match14 Apr 2035
0‑1 to Warri Wolves, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Apr 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Onuachu and Kwara United agree another 3 years.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Market16 Apr 2035
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Daniel Duvnjak has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kwara United.