Marked for Ebiabowei Baker
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Bayelsa United's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bayelsa United has to find a result from somewhere.
Market25 Jan 2027
US Moursal come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Bayelsa United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The paperwork begins on Mark Gibson
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bayelsa United have done the hard part with Remo Stars, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Ifeanyi Awoniyi left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ebiabowei Baker, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Bayelsa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanley Amon 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Saro Loveday 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 Bayelsa United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Ebimobowei
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bayelsa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match9 Jan 2027
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Bayelsa United are no longer polite ones.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wikki Tourists waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bayelsa United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 Bayelsa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Marked 7.86 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Fee done, terms next for John Amah
Bayelsa United and Plateau United have settled on $300.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bayelsa United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bayelsa United have done the hard part with Rivers United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Michael Okoh is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Bayelsa United are no longer polite ones.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 21 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ebiabowei Baker 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Bayelsa United had all but put away. Abia Warriors will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Abia Warriors leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Rangers International, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
What a way to start for Ebiede Jeffery — 7.21
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.21 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Promise Daniel at 20 — 7.79
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Promise Daniel did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bayelsa United can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Bayelsa United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Rangers International, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Okardi Inikurogha ran the middle of the pitch — 6.81
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.81, and not one of them will make a highlights package.