Noah Smith

Left Forward - Team Wellington
1 Aug 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Noah Smith

47 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A falling-out at Team Wellington

Ruon Tongyik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Willem Ebbinge 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.

Squad

Words at Team Wellington training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steven Lustica 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.

In brief

Back issues
31 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

116 days out for Hassan El Hattab after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Team Wellington will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Tempers go at Team Wellington

Steven Lustica 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.

The dugout

Matthew Acton 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.

Squad

Words at Team Wellington training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilisoni Lolaivalu 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.

Squad

Noah Smith still has not settled

A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Team Wellington would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.

The dugout

The manager makes Ilisoni Lolaivalu a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Team Wellington. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

30 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

123 days out for Hassan El Hattab after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Team Wellington will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

The dugout

Matthew Acton says Team Wellington went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Match

Team Wellington are in among the leaders

Position 3 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Team Wellington

Walter Scott 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.

Squad

Words at Team Wellington training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steven Lustica 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.

The dugout

When it matters, Walter Scott plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

9 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Real improvement from Marco Boxall at Team Wellington

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marco Boxall is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

A falling-out at Team Wellington

Walter Scott and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

James Donachie has improved at 33, 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.

In brief

8 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The step up is real for Corey Hollman

At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

Steven Lustica 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 Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Willem Ebbinge has improved at 25, 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.

In brief

7 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Team Wellington

Steven Lustica 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.

Squad

Late improvement for Ruon Tongyik

At 29 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Squad

A row about effort at Team Wellington

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Boxall was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Noah Kirwan steps up from the Team Wellington academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Noah Kirwan 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.

Market

Team Wellington promote Noah Smith from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Noah Smith 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.

In brief