Marked for Cameron Fenton
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jorge Lambea and Southern United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jai Boxall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Southern United asked and Team Wellington said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Lambea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 40 days on the sidelines for Cameron Fenton, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market8 Feb 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Southern United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match25 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for Southern United
Position 6 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market25 Jan 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 Southern United can pretend not to have heard.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Owen Colvey 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Canterbury United have kept their man, and Southern United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match23 Jan 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Owen Cacace chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Joe Payne beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for James Lockyer
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Southern United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Oct 2026
Sam Just puts it in writing
“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 Southern United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jake Just is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 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 Southern United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
4 academy graduates step up at Southern United
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Market19 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cameron Fenton has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market19 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jake Rufer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market19 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dane De Vries has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Auckland City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.