Sam Boxall

Striker - WaiBOP United
10 Jul 2027
Saturday
Process

Marked for Sam Boxall

33 Edition

The WaiBOP United Gazette

15 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Francis Cacace 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 The request is on a desk at WaiBOP United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Bill Sutton 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 WaiBOP United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Michael Sutton knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michael Sutton trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

Back issues
17 Edition

The WaiBOP United Gazette

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

WaiBOP United out of the cup

Team Wellington ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

The terraces

The boos come down from three sides

“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 35 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.

Match

The wait goes on for WaiBOP United

6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Bill Sutton keeps WaiBOP United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Player ratings

A first appearance Sam Boxall will want to forget — 5.60

Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.60, 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.

Squad

Tempers go at WaiBOP United

Bailey Roberts 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Marco Payne

“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.

Player ratings

Hayden Harris runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Francis Smith stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the WaiBOP United support went home talking about one name.

In brief