The Southern United Herald
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jai Singh
64 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A day Kosta Van Hattum will not forget
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Real improvement from Dean Wilson at Southern United
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dean Wilson is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
Auckland City take the points off Southern United
Beaten 5‑7, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Deklan Kirwan has improved at 26, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
12 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Southern United and Auckland City in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Both jobs done by Jai Tuiloma — 7.58
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.58, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Kosta Van Hattum was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.38. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
- The terraces Southern United supporters have found a favourite in Kosta Van Hattum
- Player ratings Declan Simpson runs at them all day
- Market Southern United promote Michael Cacace from within