The Team Wellington Gazette
Squad24 Nov 2031
Callum Payne damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match19 Nov 2031
Team Wellington march on in the cup
WaiBOP United are out and Team Wellington go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match22 Nov 2031
Team Wellington taken apart
1‑4 to Hawke's Bay United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Bryce Cooper could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.28
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.28, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Nobody could get near Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
A brace, and Cameron Fenton takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cameron Fenton provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match24 Nov 2031
Every point is an argument now for Team Wellington
Position 5 and 3 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.
Market24 Nov 2031
Christian Bracco 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 Team Wellington can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
No sign of nerves from Oliver Sutton at 19 — 7.65
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Oliver Sutton did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
In brief
- Market Simphiwe Dumisa has one foot out of the door
- Squad Jimson Abana: that is not what I was promised
- Squad Tempers go at Team Wellington