The Southern United Herald
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A debut Marco Bell will not forget — 7.19
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.19 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Owen Van Hattum 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Francis Sutton has improved at 34, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Graduation day at Southern United
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Clayton Singh 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Southern United against Auckland City
1‑2 to Auckland City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Southern United
Dane Just 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
Southern United promote Ryan Sutton from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ryan Sutton 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
Matt Reid steps up from the Southern United academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Matt Reid 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.
In brief
- Market One of our own: Jai Singh joins the Southern United first team
- Market One of our own: Liberato Kirwan joins the Southern United first team
- Boardroom Southern United turn down the training-ground plan