Marked for Dane Reid
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Southern United's wait for a win
35 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Southern United has to find a result from somewhere.
Match20 Jan 2029
0‑6 against WaiBOP United, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match20 Jan 2029
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Southern United can tell you which week it ends in.
Match20 Jan 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Southern United and WaiBOP United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Beaten 6 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Looking ahead22 Jan 2029
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Anthony Price and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of James De Vries
“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.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Southern United's wait for a win
32 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Southern United has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces1 Jan 2029
Anger at Southern United 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.
Match1 Jan 2029
0 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market1 Jan 2029
Anthony Price has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Southern United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match30 Dec 2028
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match30 Dec 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Anthony Price 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
Jimson Abana gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ben Boxall to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Nov 2027
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Southern United are no longer polite ones.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
Supporters organise against the Southern United board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match6 Nov 2027
0‑5 to Team Wellington, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dane Reid and Southern United agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Southern United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver De Vries 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Bill Lockyer 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 Southern United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Oliver De Vries knocks on the manager's door
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Player ratings
Jake Harper beats them one at a time
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jul 2027
Bill Lockyer breaks a bone — 87 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Southern United have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market26 Jul 2027
Bill Fenton hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Southern United can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$49.0K settles it between the clubs for Marcus Flynn
Canterbury United have accepted the money. What Southern United do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
An offer of $530.0K for Nathan Lobo
Southern United have gone to Auckland City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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Squad26 Jul 2027
Bill Lockyer 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Anthony Price has improved at 28, 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Oliver De Vries 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
Crisis
Squad28 Jun 2027
Bill Lockyer breaks a bone — 115 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The knee: Callum Wood out for 23 days
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Southern United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Jun 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 Southern United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alex Tuiloma is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Southern United have done the hard part with Auckland City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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Squad28 Jun 2027
A late step up for Dane Reid
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Southern United have made the call to Team Wellington. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
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The dugout
Flynn O'Neill has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
Tim Wood asks for a word with the manager
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Marco Reid
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 May 2027
Jake Harper hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Southern United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 May 2027
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The dugout31 May 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad31 May 2027
Late improvement for Dane Reid
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad31 May 2027
Oliver De Vries and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Reid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.