Marked for Will Harris
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Sep 2028
Anger at Posta Rangers spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.20, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market25 Sep 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Posta Rangers, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A chastening introduction for Junior Gonzalez — 5.73
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.73 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Market25 Sep 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco González will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Posta Rangers the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Sep 2028
14 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Harrison Mwendwa 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Bernard Ondiek 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Posta Rangers's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Posta Rangers has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Posta Rangers is running low.
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Posta Rangers, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Sep 2028
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 ratings18 Sep 2028
A first appearance Marius Eliosius will want to forget — 5.40
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.40, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Match16 Sep 2028
Kenya Police left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Posta Rangers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Harrison Mwendwa 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Posta Rangers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Jackson Dwang
12 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces31 Jul 2028
The mood at Posta Rangers has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market31 Jul 2028
“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 Posta Rangers, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A chastening introduction for Will Harris — 5.38
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.38 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Match29 Jul 2028
4 matches without a win for Posta Rangers
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Posta Rangers are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Harrison Mwendwa 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
Gor Mahia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elvis Noor, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Siyabonga Mkhize 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Aug 2027
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market16 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Josh McLaren
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Josh McLaren will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oliver Waine and Waitakere United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Fabby Clark 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 Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Owen Rufer is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Cameron Lockyer has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Loan watch16 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Newcastle Jets to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waitakere United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Market16 Aug 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Will Harris leaves Waitakere United the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.