Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Lewis 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ryan Tuiloma is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Monty Waine could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Lockyer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joe Just will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Joe Kirwan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Lewis 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.
“I watch every Waitakere United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Team Wellington runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Bell trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Waitakere United have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 The request is on a desk at Waitakere United, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sam Just had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The bid was some way short and Waitakere United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Noah Reid 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 name of Sam Just has come up in conversations Waitakere United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Waitakere United asked and Grimsby Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alex Lewis 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.
Michael Wood 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.