Barnsley FC chief Darrell Clarke praises 'brilliant' midfielder and reveals why striker came off early at Cambridge United
The former Nigerian international midfielder entered the fray after just eight minutes when Max Watters made way due to an injury issue.
Nwakali, who joined the club in mid-August, excelled in his first meaningful league outing of the campaign and showed some delightful poise and vision with his range of passing and also went close to scoring in the second half.
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Hide AdThe Reds had to settle for a point, despite dominating on the resumption.


Earlier, on 17 minutes, Stephen Humphrys went solo to cancel out Dan Nlundulu’s deflected fourth-minute opener for the U’s.
A host of chances came and went in the second period, but the visitors couldn’t find a winner to record their fourth consecutive victory at the Abbey Stadium.
Alongside extending their unbeaten sequence to six league matches, the big plus was the excellent contribution from Nwakali.
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Hide AdOn the change, Clarke, who switched from a 3-4-3 to a 3-5-2, said: "It was enforced. Max had an injury and I thought Kelechi did brilliantly when he came on. We needed to change things with that and the boys adapted well.
"Sometimes, earlier in the season, we would have been a little bit over the shop. But the boys are working their patterns and opportunities and on another day, we win the game.
"He is going a lot better and in training, his fitness levels are up. We said all along it was going to take a bit of time and maybe in December and January, so he’s come into the team a little bit earlier than expected. But that’s because of his work rate and attitude.
"He picked a lot of good passes out there and that will give him a lot of confidence and certainly gives me confidence.
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Hide Ad"It was a great drive, to hit that ball so powerfully after running 50 or 60 yards was a great finish. I was pleased with a lot of performance, but frustrated and disappointed we didn’t take the three points.”
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