"Possession dem no get, na to dey hold woman" - A first-time fan's verdict on Ozoro Wolves beating

There are football matches, and then there are football evenings. Sunday at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena was the latter, the kind of night that reminds you why the Nigerian Premier Football League, at its best, can be genuinely spectacular.

Ikorodu City 4, Warri Wolves 3. Write it down. It does not quite capture what happened, but it is a start.

Eight minutes, that is all it took for Abayomi Ayodeji to announce himself.

The winger picked up a defensive mistake by Warri Wolves, looked up, and proceeded to do something the Mobolaji Johnson Arena had not yet seen from him this season; score. 

The solo effort was the kind of goal that makes the crowd lean forward in their seats and then immediately turn to the person next to them. First goal of the season, and what a moment to choose.

Among those watching was Ms E, attending her first-ever professional football match in Nigeria. Her verdict on Wolves in those opening exchanges was blunt and delivered in the language of Lagos: 

The words drew knowing laughter around her. They also landed differently given that the stadium announcer had just confirmed Warri Wolves had made the trip from Ozoro - the Delta State town that has spent the past week at the centre of a national scandal. 

The Alue-Do Festival, traditionally described as a fertility celebration, was reportedly hijacked by criminal elements on March 19th, descending into scenes of sexual violence against women that spread rapidly across Nigerian social media and triggered outrage from civil society, legal bodies, and government at the highest levels. 

The wounds are fresh, and Ms E's words, however (un)intentional, cut close to the bone. On the pitch, Wolves were not helping their own cause.

16 minutes later, Joseph Arumala made it two. The forward, who now has 11 goals for the season, met Tosin Oyedokun's corner at the near post and headed home with the conviction of a man who has been doing this all campaign. 

The Oga Boys were cruising, comfortable, completely in control of their home. Then came the moment that every Ikorodu fan in the ground will recognise, the moment the celebration started slightly too early.

Two minutes after Arumala's goal, Wolves pulled one back from a throw-in routine. Not just any throw-in, a Kayode-esque long throw of the kind that Brentford have made famous in the Premier League. 

Wolves had tried it earlier in the match from the right wing and Ikorodu had survived by the narrowest of margins. This time they did not. 2-1. Suddenly the game had a heartbeat again.

Whatever nerves crept into the Ikorodu ranks lasted only until Ayodeji got the ball again. Just before the interval, he danced around the Wolves goalkeeper and played the ball goalwards. 

A defender touched it over the line. The debate over whether it was an own goal lasted approximately as long as it took for the stadium to celebrate.

Ayodeji claimed it and he was right to. 3-1 at half time.

Ms E, watching her first professional game with the clarity that only fresh eyes can provide, delivered the most accurate half-time summary in the ground: 

She was not wrong on either count.

Ikorodu who shocked Enyimba away picked up where they left off after the break, but the goals dried up in a second half that should have buried the game entirely. 

Joseph Arumala, so clinical for his header, missed three significant chances that on another evening he would have taken in his stride.

In the 53rd minute, an unnecessary foul gave Wolves a penalty. They converted. 3-2, and suddenly the Mobolaji Johnson Arena was a different place. It lasted sixty seconds.

Captain Tosin Oyedokun whose corner had set up the second goal in the first half stepped forward and produced the moment of leadership that captains are supposed to produce. A fantastic left-footed strike in the 54th minute restored the two-goal cushion. 4-2. Game, surely, over.

Wolves had other ideas. Their coach made substitutions that changed the energy of the match, changes that, had they come earlier, might have rewritten the story entirely.

Late in the game, the visitors pulled another back to make it 4-3, and for a few anxious minutes the Mobolaji Johnson Arena held its breath.

City held on. But it was closer than it needed to be.

For Ikorodu City, this was a match of milestones, not all of them comfortable. Without goalkeeper Michael Atata, who has kept a remarkable 15 clean sheets this season, they conceded three goals at home for the first time in this campaign. 

But they also scored four at home for the first time, which tells its own story about the attacking quality in this squad.

Arumala now has 11 for the season. Ayodeji has broken his duck in memorable fashion. Oyedokun led from the front when the game needed him most. The Oga Boys remain a genuine force.

Third place, three points behind Rivers United, who returned to the top of the table with a similar result in Port Harcourt. The title race is alive, and Ikorodu City are very much in it.

As for Warri Wolves, they arrived from Ozoro carrying more baggage than any football club should have to carry, and left Lagos with a scoreline that flatters them considerably. 

Their best players arrived too late. Their keeper, as Miss E correctly diagnosed, had a difficult evening.

But this was not their night. This was Sunday at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena and it belonged to Ikorodu City.