Mathew Nash

Guest writer

Mathew Nash is a writer and journalist with over a decade’s experience covering the frantic, frenetic and fascinating world of football. He is the author of the football newsletter Two Halves (twohalves.substack.com).

Classic Olympic sports and amazing moves (Photos: Getty Images)

Every sport at the Paris Olympics, ranked from least to most fun to watch

Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.

By Mathew Nash | 27th July, 2024

Oskar Zawada and the Wellington Phoenix are semi-finals bound, against all pre-season predictions (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

How the Phoenix went from wooden spoon favourites to title contenders

The club's surprisingly good season is built on the desire to prove a random A-League YouTuber wrong... and a few other factors.

By Mathew Nash | 10th May, 2024

Tauranga City AFC striker Jonty Bidois (Photo: Nav’s Photography; Other photos: Mathew Nash)

Tauranga City are top of the table. What’s stopping them from staying there?

They're on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. But some believe they're on an uneven playing field in NZ's amateur club competition.

By Mathew Nash | 29th March, 2024

Image: Tina Tiller

The Black what? How the New Zealand badminton team got sport’s worst nickname

'These days, yeah, you couldn’t call them anything like that...'

By Mathew Nash | 25th February, 2024

Roy Krishna, Jamie Vardy, Brian Kaltak and Cameron Howieson – future Auckland A-League team players? (Photos: Getty Images / Design: Archi Banal)

A wish list of signings for the new Auckland A-League franchise

From the likely to the hopeful, here's some names we'd like to see on the squad list for Auckland's as-yet-unnamed A-League Men team.

By Mathew Nash | 1st December, 2023

Justin Fashanu playing for Notts County in 1983 (Photo: Getty Images / Design: Tina Tiller)

Justin Fashanu’s final season in the sun

How the first openly gay professional men's footballer – one of England’s most headline-grabbing stars of the 80s and 90s – finished his career playing for a Wellington club side.

By Mathew Nash | 13th May, 2023