WELCOME FROM GM DAVID DOME Nau mai, haere mai and welcome back to Leichhardt Oval for the men’s first Isuzu UTE A-League match in 15 days. The men have gone from feast to famine in the A-League. After playing five games in two weeks and stretching their unbeaten run to six matches, the postponement of last Sunday’s game against Western Sydney Wanderers created a major gap in their schedule. It’s just another setback in a season of setbacks for our team, but the players and management staff never complain and get on with the job. We couldn’t ask for better people to represent our club. Our coaching staff have kept the players match fit during the enforced break. Those who didn’t feature regularly during the ‘February Football Frenzy’ played against National Premier Leagues club Dulwich Hill last week and on
Monday they had an intersquad game.
a half hour bus journey from their base on the lower north shore.
This afternoon’s opponents Melbourne City have been busy in our absence. They’ve played three times since our last match, winning two and drawing the other to keep pace with Western United at the top of the ladder.
They have made themselves at home in Chatswood and are looked after well by Football NSW at Valentine Sports Park, where they have top quality training facilities.
City are reigning champions for a reason, but we showed in our FFA Cup quarter-final at the start of the year that we can match them. We’ve also improved greatly in the past two months, with Gael Sandoval and Scott Wootton fitting in seamlessly. This is the men’s third straight match at Leichhardt Oval and hopefully it’s starting to feel like a home away from home for the players and our Sydney-based fans. It’s also handy for Ufuk and the boys as the famous rugby league ground in Sydney’s inner-west is less than
This wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the support of our commercial partners on both sides of the Tasman. Spark, Oppo, Chemist Warehouse, ELMO and Gazley-Skoda are the men’s biggest supporters and the team also gets great local assistance from Fraternity Club, BaiMed and Southern Classic Cars. Nothing happens on the pitch without the support of these great businesses. I’m looking forward to another entertaining match at Leichhardt and for us to stretch our unbeaten run to seven matches. COYN!
PHOTOGRAPHY: Speed Media, Getty Images PRINTING: TBD Design www.tbd.co.nz COPYRIGHT: Reproduction in whole or in part by any means is prohibited. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher. Although all material is checked for accuracy, no liability is assumed by the publisher for any loss due to material in this magazine. All details are correct as at time of print.
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YOUR 2021/22 WELLINGTON PHOENIX SQUAD #3
DEF
#4
MID
#8
GAEL SANDOVAL
# 11
JAUSHUA SOTIRIO
MID
# 18
FWD
BEN WAINE
#6
#9
FWD
# 14
# 10
# 16
ALEX RUFER (CAPTAIN)
DEF
SAM SUTTON
MID
RENO PISCOPO
MID
# 19
DEF
TIM PAYNE
DAVID BALL
NICHOLAS PENNINGTON
DEF
CALLAN ELLIOT
MID
# 13
DEF
JAMES McGARRY
BEN OLD
FWD
# 17
#5
SCOTT WOOTTON
MATTHEW BOZINOVSKI
#7
DEF
DEF
LOUIS FENTON
# 20
GK
OLI SAIL
YOUR 2021/22 WELLINGTON PHOENIX SQUAD # 21
DEF
# 23
MID
JOSH LAWS
# 33
CLAYTON LEWIS
DEF
# 34
FINN SURMAN
# 88
# 31
DEF
# 32
KURTIS MOGG
MID
# 40
JACKSON MANUEL
FWD
GEORGE OTT
GK
# 43
ALEX PAULSEN
FWD
OSKAR VAN HATTUM
FWD
GARY HOOPER
FWD
15 Andrew Nabbout
FWD
16 Taras Gomulka
MID
17 Stefan Colakovski
FWD
18 Connor Metcalfe
MID
20 Manuel Pucciarelli
FWD
22 Curtis Good
DEF FWD
1
Tom Glover
GK
23 Marco Tilio
2
Scott Galloway
DEF
33 Matthew Sutton
GK
3
Scott Jamieson
DEF
34 Jordon Hall
DEF
4
Nuno Reis
DEF
35 Raphael Borges Rodrigues
MID DEF
5
Rostyn Griffiths
MID
36 Kerrin Stokes
6
Carl Jenkinson
DEF
37 Max Caputo
MID
7
Matthew Leckie
FWD
38 Jordan Bos
DEF
8
Aiden O’Neill
MID
39 Anthony Lesiotis
MID
9
Jamie Maclaren (captain)
FWD
42 Ahmad Taleb
GK
MID
Coach: Patrick Kisnorbo
10 Florin Berenguer
COACH UFUK TALAY
14 Tsubasa Endo
FEATURE:
HARD WORK THE KEY TO PAYNE’S RISE WITH THE PHOENIX Wellington Phoenix defender Tim Payne is making the most of his third chance as a professional footballer. Payne recently signed a new threeyear contract with the Phoenix, which will ensure he remains at the club until the end of the 2024/25 Isuzu UTE A-League season. The 28-year-old has established himself as an integral member of the squad since arriving in Wellington in 2019, playing more than 50 matches for the Nix in two and a half seasons. Payne looked destined for a successful professional career abroad in 2012 when he joined then Premier League club Blackburn Rovers as a 17-year-old. He went on to make his All Whites debut later that year and started all three of New Zealand’s matches at the London Olympics. Payne played 29 times for Blackburn’s under-23 side but wasn’t able to crack Rovers’ first team and returned home in 2014. After a season with Auckland City he headed overseas again, this time to the United States where he joined the Portland Timbers in the second-tier United Soccer League.
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He made 23 appearances for Portland’s second team in the 2015 USL season, but, after a Major League Soccer contract
didn’t materialise, he returned to New Zealand and joined Eastern Suburbs for the 2016/17 national league season. Payne had three successful yearsat Eastern Suburbs, culminating in leading the Lily Whites to the national league title in 2019. During this time in the part-time ranks Tim Payne never gave up on being a professional footballer. “I was still working incredibly hard and working harder than anyone else was to make sure that if I did get the opportunity that I was ready to take it when it did come,” Payne said. “I’m grateful to Ufie (Ufuk Talay) and the coaching staff in that regard that he brought be down and I haven’t looked back since. “There’s a level of trust there with Ufie. He knows what he’s going to get out of me every single week [which is] being consistently at a good level in the A-League at a professional standard.” Talay signed Payne as a central midfielder, but he went on to start 15 matches at right back in his first season as the Nix finished third on the ladder. He played primarily at centre back last season and started this campaign in the heart of defence before moving back out to the right side of the back four as the Phoenix
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have gone six games unbeaten in the league. “Wherever the coaches want to put me I’ll do my job for the team. “I think right back and centre back are the two main positions I’d see myself playing for the next three years. I’m in at right back at the moment and I’m enjoying that. “Maybe as I get a little bit older it will be good on the body to transition back into centre back, but I think I still have the legs and the ability to play that role at right back.” It was a challenge for Payne to adapt back to the role after three quarters of the Phoenix squad were struck down by COVID-19 at the turn of year.
Now he has established himself as a regular member of the Phoenix starting XI, Payne wants to bring some silverware back to Wellington. “We were very close this year (in the FFA Cup) and hopefully I can contribute that in the next three years. “Obviously as players we want to win something and hopefully we can be in the top six every year that I’m here and then hopefully push for the minor championship and obviously then the major one at the end which would be fantastic to bring home for the club.” As well as endeavouring to bring the A-League trophy to Wellington, Payne believes he has “a massive
role” to mentor the next generation of players coming through the club. “Obviously at the age I’m at now it’s a chance for myself, going into my later years of my career I suppose, to help all these young kids that we’ve got at the Phoenix. “Trying to help out the younger generation of Kiwis coming in, the likes of Finn Surman, who has just signed his first contract with the club. “As any senior player in any environment it’s definitely part of your role and obviously being the only New Zealand professional football club to have an older Kiwi in that team to help out younger Kiwis is only a good thing.”
“I’ve been around the traps for a while so it’s about being smart with how I play the position. “I’m not going to be getting forward at every possible chance. I’ve got to be smarter and pick my moments which I think I’ve done quite well. “As the body becomes used to it I’m sure I’ll be able to go forward more and more as I’d like to and support the team in that way.” GETTY IMAGES
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THE PHOENIX WISHES TO THANK THE FOLLOWING BUSINESSES & ORGANISATIONS FOR THEIR SUPPORT THIS 2021/22 SEASON: P R I N C I P A L
P R E M I U M
C O R P O R A T E