Marked for Sam Singh
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 May 2027
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market24 May 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at WaiBOP United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 May 2027
Sam Singh is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 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 WaiBOP United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver De Vries 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Callum Reid 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 Callum Reid trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Mar 2027
Position 5, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market29 Mar 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at WaiBOP United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market29 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at WaiBOP United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
Chris Fenton has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around WaiBOP United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Owen Wood commits to WaiBOP United for another 4 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Marco Payne 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Dec 2026
Position 5, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market7 Dec 2026
Callum Cacace 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 WaiBOP United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Sam Bell pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 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 WaiBOP United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver De Vries 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Owen Wood at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at WaiBOP United.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Sam Singh named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sam Singh is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Singh is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tommy Lockyer 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.