Marked for Noah Smith
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
Callum Garbett 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.
Loan watch28 Feb 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Canterbury United, and 0 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Monty Kirwan 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
64 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Justus Ohanu 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
Jake Garbett 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 Southern United can pretend not to have heard.
Match8 Feb 2027
Southern United refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Justus Ohanu 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Jake Garbett
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Southern United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market8 Feb 2027
The market said no: Alex Wood stays put
Southern United opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Alex Wood stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 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.
Match16 Nov 2026
Position 3 and 8 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Justus Ohanu 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Chris Fenton 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.