Marked for Kermit Ngcobo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Nov 2027
The run now stands at 23, and the questions being asked around Free State Stars are no longer polite ones.
Match13 Nov 2027
3‑6 against Bloemfontein Celtic, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.20, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match13 Nov 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Free State Stars and Bloemfontein Celtic, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Kegan Johannes 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 dugout15 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kermit Ngcobo commits to Free State Stars for another 5 years.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Lwandiso Radebe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
Mandla Dolly breaks a bone — 25 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Free State Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Free State Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Kegan Johannes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Sparta Prague: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kermit Ngcobo, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Basil Mphahlele has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Free State Stars that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Supporters organise against the Free State Stars 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Siyanda Khumalo
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Free State Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Bongani Mokotjo 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 terraces19 Jul 2027
Free State Stars spend $180.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $180.0K for Simphiwe Mlondo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Kegan Johannes 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris Thessaloniki have kept their man, and Free State Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market19 Jul 2027
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad19 Jul 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Themba Mokotjo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Siyanda Khumalo
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Free State Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Free State Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 May 2027
Bongani Mokotjo 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
Words at Free State Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Siyabonga Phiri 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.
The dugout31 May 2027
Pheko Phago 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 dugout31 May 2027
Kermit Ngcobo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Free State Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
Siyanda Khumalo damages knee ligaments — 118 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Free State Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Bongani Mokotjo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Free State Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Siyabonga Phiri 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes Morgan Zungu a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Free State Stars. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
19 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Siyabonga Vilakazi and Free State Stars agree another 2 years.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Bongani Mokotjo
“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 dugout7 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Siyabonga Ngcobo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Siyabonga Phiri 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Free State Stars's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Free State Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Basil Mphahlele out for 110 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Free State Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market26 Oct 2026
Hlompho Phiri 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 Free State Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andile Vilakazi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kermit Ngcobo and Free State Stars agree another 4 years.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑3 to Golden Arrows, 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Free State Stars's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Free State Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Match19 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bongani Mokotjo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Free State Stars dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Siyabonga Ngcobo after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Free State Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Siyabonga Phiri 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
Ajax Cape Town go through and Free State Stars go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Free State Stars's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Free State Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Free State Stars ran out of time with University of Pretoria. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Siyabonga Ngcobo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad14 Sep 2026
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hlompho Phiri 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.