Marked for Ushant Lal
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Ravikash Krishna damages knee ligaments — 136 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 136 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad10 May 2027
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.
Squad10 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abhishek Deo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 May 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 Tailevu Naitasiri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Mosese Nabose was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match10 May 2027
Half the programme played, position 8, 10 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Match8 May 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Lautoka leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ushant Lal, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ilaisa Goundar chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2027
Abhishek Deo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tailevu Naitasiri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Gaery Kubu 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ilaisa Goundar after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A mark of 4.71 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Mosese Nabose has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tailevu Naitasiri will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
5.78 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Nasinu, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Ruel Grayven: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tailevu Naitasiri have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Altamish Khan at 20 — 7.91
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Altamish Khan did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Abhishek Deo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Apr 2027
1‑2 to Nadi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Everybody at Tailevu Naitasiri saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.