Marked for James Smith
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Apr 2027
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.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Southern United is running low.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Bill McCowatt 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Southern United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Southern United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Felipe 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.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I watch every Southern United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Wellington Phoenix runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Mar 2027
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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mauricio Felipe 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Southern United's wait for a win
8 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Kosta Waine 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mauricio Felipe 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Auckland City left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” James Smith commits to Southern United for another 2 years.