Sam Payne

Striker - Team Wellington
7 Feb 2027
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Marked for Sam Payne

18 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings30 Nov 2026

Adamu Hussaini runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market30 Nov 2026

Sam Payne puts it in writing

“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 The request is on a desk at Team Wellington, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad30 Nov 2026

Tempers go at Team Wellington

Zolani Nkombelo 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.

Squad30 Nov 2026

James Barbarouses 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.

Match28 Nov 2026

Noah Barbarouses sends Team Wellington past WaiBOP United

It finished 1‑0, and it was Noah Barbarouses’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Team Wellington.

Player ratings30 Nov 2026

The afternoon belonged to Noah Barbarouses

7.58, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Team Wellington had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

In brief

Back issues
17 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match18 Nov 2026

Team Wellington bow out of the cup

WaiBOP United go through and Team Wellington go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Player ratings23 Nov 2026

Francis Rufer could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.52

Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.52, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.

Player ratings23 Nov 2026

No sign of nerves from Adamu Hussaini at 20 — 8.15

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adamu Hussaini did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad23 Nov 2026

Zolani Nkombelo 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 Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad23 Nov 2026

Words at Team Wellington training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Barbarouses 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.

Match21 Nov 2026

Adamu Hussaini sends Team Wellington past Hawke's Bay United

It finished 2‑1, and it was Adamu Hussaini’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Team Wellington.

Loan watch23 Nov 2026

Owen De Vries has seen enough of Waitakere United

“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Team Wellington, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.

Player ratings23 Nov 2026

Nobody could get near Kosta Fenton

Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad23 Nov 2026

Cameron Boxall 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.

In brief